South Bay history: Montrose Chemical’s DDT production has long-lasting impact
Recent revelations in the Southern California News Group about the way DDT was dumped directly into the San Pedro Bay have caused some to wonder at how such a thing could be allowed to happen, knowing what we now know about the long-banned toxic pesticide. Looking at its history might help to explain. A German chemistry student, Othmar Zeidler, first discovered DDT — or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane — in 1873. But it only began entering into wider use when chemist Paul Hermann Muller resynthesized it in 1936 while investigating two other pesticides.