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!!! The DDT dumpsite in the ocean turned out to be MUCH BIGGER than expected. After surveying a swath of seafloor larger than *all of San Francisco,* scientists told me they still could not find an end to the dumping ground. It just kept going... https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-04-26/ddt-waste-barrels-off-la-coast-shock-california-scientists
Hearing the researchers at @Scripps_Ocean talk about how much data they had to process was
Trying to count each individual barrel/data point on the map, they told me, was like counting stars in the Milky Way https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-04-26/ddt-waste-barrels-off-la-coast-shock-california-scientists
Trying to count each individual barrel/data point on the map, they told me, was like counting stars in the Milky Way https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-04-26/ddt-waste-barrels-off-la-coast-shock-california-scientists
This DDT-barrel mapping expedition set sail last month aboard the Sally Ride, with super fancy underwater robots that combed the seafloor using high-res sonar. Here's an earlier story I wrote on how this research mission came together in record time: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-03-10/ddt-seafloor-mapping-catalina-noaa-scripps
The ocean science community has mobilized with remarkable speed since our first report in October, which looked at old records and shipping logs that documented this history of dumping so much DDT waste into the sea https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-coast-ddt-dumping-ground/
DDT, even though it was banned in 1972, continues to haunt us in so many ways. A recent study found that the consequences of DDT can be passed down multiple generations. Young women today face greater health risks because their grandmothers were exposed https://twitter.com/RosannaXia/status/1382366455497314306?s=20
Scientists continue to find significant amounts of DDT-related chemicals in Southern California dolphins, and a recent study also linked the presence of these forever chemicals to an aggressive cancer in sea lions https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-01-31/california-sea-lions-cancer-ddt
Thank you for reading my latest update on this toxic legacy bubbling 3,000 feet under the sea https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-04-26/ddt-waste-barrels-off-la-coast-shock-california-scientists
