Philip Morris
Is the Concept of A Linear Relationship Between Dose and Effect Still A Valid Model for Assessing Risks Related to Low Doses of Carcinogens - the D.D.T. Example.
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Document Images
For Presentation to a Seminar Sponsored by the International Center for
Scientific Ecology, May 10, 1993, at Paris, France
TITLE:Is the Concept of a Linear Relationship Between Dose and Effect
Sti11 a Valid Model for Assessing Risks Related to Low Doses of
Carcinogens--the D.D.T. Example.
William Hazeltine, Ph.D., B.C.E., Oroville, California, USA
' It is gratifying to think that a Scientific Organization would want to
look at the old and new data on carcinogenicity of DDT, 20 years after the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator announced
that DDT was a carcinogen. The Administrator made this decision and
overturned his hearing Officer's findings concerning the risks of allowing
DDT's continued use in the United States.
Background
You have to understand that I am an Entomologist-Ecologist by
training, who used DDT for crop protection, and for control of public
health pests. I tried to understand the details of risk from such use,
because I was the applicator on many occasions, and I was often exposed to
higher doses that most others in the area being treated. In addition, I
have continually practiced-an approach to pest control which begins with a
threshold determination, to decide when and if control is necessary. In
many areas, this is called Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
I began to look at DDT in far greater detail in the early 1960s, when
Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" appeared, particularly because her
narratives were not consistent with my oun experience. If I had been
mistaken, I wanted to be the first to know. At the time, I was working on
control methods for an aquatic midge in Clear Lake, California, and Ms.
Carson had told about the earlier control efforts for this midge in Clear
Lake, in infinite (and less than accurate) detail. A few years later, I
was listening to a founder of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) who told
our State Legislature that "anyone who used or recommended the use of DDT
did not know his business". As part of the EDF presentation, which
included an unequivocal statement that DDT causes cancer, I obtained the
book of photocopied papers which the EDF witness had said were the "very
best of the Literature on DDT". Thirty years later, I am still looking for
convincing evidence to show that I was wrong in allowing the use of this
pesticide for food production and health protection.
In the scientific field dealing with pesticides, there is a need for
more people to read the literature in detail, because often times, there
exists a temptation, even among scientists, to use "adversary science" in
place of objective science. There is also a tendency to rely on the
abstract or summary, in place of reading the whole article.
Adversary science is the art of telling only the facts which are
favorable to one's own belief, and hoping that the opposition (or the
media) will not be able to cite the data which was omitted. Right now, the
U.S.Supreme Court is trying to decide what is acceptable scientific
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evidence. This problem has come into focus, because we are allowing lawyers
and judges to replace the older and more appropriate method of scientific
debate. A real scientist will be the first to try to refute his own
hypothesis.
Part of my committment to look for the "facts" about DDT, and having
seen apparent abuses of scientific integrity, led me to volunteer to help
the lawyers for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the manufacturer of
DDT in the U. S., when they examined the witnesses from the
Environmentalist's side, in the 6 month long public hearing on Cancellation
of_the uses of DDT. As some EDF members had bragged, they would be happy
to submit to "the crucible of cross-examination ." This was an excellent
learning experience, and it provided me with the exhibits and sworn
transcripts of the interesting parts of the proceedings. The issue of
carcinogenicity of DDT was one of the topics covered, and it is still under
debate.
Separating the Issues The specific topic of this seminar, "is there a linear relationship
between dose (and time of exposure) and the development of cancers in
animals," requires some ground rules, before the question can be answered
for the chemical DDT. These separate topics need consideration.
1. Is each isomer and metabolite considered separately or are all of
them considered as one chemical? The literature on testing seems to be
based both on purified and "Technical" DDT, neither of which are expected
to contain much if any of the metabolite DDE. Good protocol should specify
the use of a purified single chemical of known molecular structure.
2. Are the doses limited to those which do not damage the homeostasis
of the test animals? DDT is considered to be a relatively cumulative
chemical in vertebrate animals, and lipid residue data for all test animals
at sacrifice, correlated with presence and type of cancers could be a
better measure of dose response than constant feeding at given doses in
food or gavage of neonatal animals.
3. With DDT, it is imperative to decide whether the dose- response
data should be consistent for all test animal species or hybrid classes, or
only for one or more kind or species of test animal, or for larger .
taxonomic groups of test animals.
4. The time of exposure and the latent period before autopsy is
important, as well as the value of multi-generational studies.
5. Is the interest in the cancers only in the test animals, or is
the interest to provide predictions of risk for humans, or both?
6. Should tumors be counted as malignancies?
As I read the Background Statement for this Symposium, it seems clear
that the discussion should try to compare, or at least be aware of the
conditions imposed in the U.S. by the Delaney Clause (no cancers in any
test 'animals under good test conditions) as well as to the "no-effect dose
level coupled with a good safety factor" system for setting allowable
residue tolerances in raw agricultural commodities. A corollary requires
2502146188

3
a consideration of whether or not there is a true "no-effect" level for a
carcinogen; this could involve use of epidemiological considerations
dealing with large areas and human or other animal populations exposed to
higher or lower doses of DDT'for prolonged periods of time.
Extrapolation From Laboratory Animals to Humans
During the DDT hearing testimony of Dr Marvin Schneiderman, a
statictician with the National Cancer Institute, it suddenly occurred to me
that DDT, as a 25 or 50% "Tracking Powder" was very effective in
controlling mice and bats, but it did not control rats. I understood
the difference to be that rat livers were like human livers in their
response to DDi, but mouse livers could essentially not be induced with
DDT. Dr. Schneiderman testified, as I recall, that the protocol for
laboratory cancer research required that two species of test animals be
used, and that both of these animals must not have a known physiological
system difference, if the data was to be used to extrapolate the dose
response information to humans. '
The following exchange took place between Dr. Schneiderman and a
lawyer at the Public Hearing (Jan. 12, 1972, page 7142):
Q. If the purposes of these-studies, Doctor, is to some day draw some
extrapolation to man, would you consider it a drawback that the
metabolism is different in mice and man?
A. If, as you say, it has been demonstrated, then clearly one should
not use an animal that clearly has a different metabolism than man as
an experimental animal.---
Later in his testimony, Dr Schneiderman was asked if transplantation
had any relevance to carcinogenitic studies, because there was concern
about how to accurately determine what was a cancer. His answer was:
One of the criteria for malignancy is the transplantability of a
tumor. If a piece of tissue does not transplant and grow up into,
another tumor, it's assumed that it may not be malignant.
Dr Schneiderman admitted that transplanting was not done in the
Bionetics study which he called a"minor defect" in that study.
Between mid February and November of 1972, I exchanged letters with
Dr. Schneiderman. The first references to species differences in Liver
inducibility were (1) J.W.Gillett, 1970. in Biological Impact of Pesticides
in the Environment. Oregon State Oniv., Corvallis Oregon, which deals with
Japanese Quail and (2) Hart and Fouts, 1965. Arch. f. Exp. Path. and
Pharmak. 249:486-500, which considers sleep time chances with barbiturates
when test animals are dosed with DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbon
pesticides. My last letter, which was not answered, included a copy of a
paper by J. B. Fouts, 1972. in Environmental Health Perspectives, October
1972, 55-66, that contains the following:
Thus, at doses and schedules of doses and at times after last
dose of the inducer that clearly established hepatic microsomal enzyme
induction by DDT or benzpyrene in rats and other species including
monkeys, the mouse did not show such induction or showed it only

k
marginally. (references omitted, emphasis in text)
This article gives some evidence for variation in inducibility for
rats and mice, but the differences in tolerated DDT doses between mice and
rats in the major papers usually relied upon for determining
carcinogenisis, clearly points to physiological differences, with the mouse
being aberrant, compared to rats and humans in its response to DDT
treatment. This article also has a long list of references concerning
inducibility.
A later paper by L. Tomatis et al., 1973 (Int. J. Cancer 12: 1-20)
reports that tumors were found in Rat livers following doses of DDT. The
only reference to rats was a paper by Fitzhugh and Nelson, 1947 (
J.Pharm.6 Exp. Therap. 89:19-30). No other organs besides the liver were
involved, and only tumors were found, according to Tomatis.
In 1986, EPA published "Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment.
(1986 Vol 51, of the U.S. Federal Register, pages 33,992-34003 and reprinted
in EPA/ 625/3-90/017, Sept. 1989). Some of the pertinent statements are:
-- The strength of the evidence supporting a potential human
carcinogenicity judgment is developed in a weight-of-evidence
stratification scheme.(p33994)
The weight of evidence that an agent is potentially carcinogenic for
humans increases---:(3) with the occurrence of clear-cut dose response
relationships as well as a high level statistical significance of the
increased tumor incidence in treated compared to control groups; (4)
when there is a dose-related shortening of the time-to-tumor
occurrence or time to death with tumor; and (5) when there is a
dose-related increase in the proportion of tumors that are
malignant.(p33995)
A statistically significant excess of tumors of all types in the
aggregate, in the absence of a statistically significant increase of
any individual tumortype, should be regarded as minimal evidence of
carcinogenic action, unless there are persuasive reasons to the
contrary (p33995)
In the absence of appropriate human studies, data from species that
respond most like humans should be used, if information to this effect
exists.--(p33997)
Maior Studies
The "8ionetics" Study (Innes et al. 1969. J Nat. Cancer Inst
42:1101-14) was an ambitious project which was intended to screen a 120
chemicals on mice at doses which were close to that which would cause toxic
symptoms. For DDT, the dose was 46.4 mg/Kg. by stomach tube from day 7
through day 28 of age, and the dose in the food was then 140 ppm for the
remainder of an 18 month test period. The mice used were two essentially
new crosses, using two different male stocks and the same mother stock for
both crosses. The test began with 18 mice of each gender and of each cross
(72.mice per chemical). All mice tested for each chemical were given the
same dose of chemical, apparently for the purpose of answering only the
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single question of could the administered chemical induce tumors or
cancers. -
Dr Hans Falk, one of the Co-authors of the Innes et al. paper
presented a speech which was later printed as an article (Nat'l. Pest
Control Operators News, October 1971 p4-6 and 29-31).. In this
presentation, Dr Falk provided comments about the test methods and the
implications of the test results. He also commented about the way the test
mice were bred and the fact that the suitability of these crosses for
cancer testing was unknown. There apparently was no history of cancer
susceptibility of these crosses.
Dr Falk told about various parts of the test, then he said:
We came up with positive results, for instance, a significant number
of Hepatomas in mice on 140 ppm DDT in the diet.---. But as we
decrease the DDI level to that which we [humans] are exposed to now,
most likely we would have to conclude that the hepatoma incidence
would be 0 X.(emphasis added)
One paragraph of the Falk article is long but important to our
understanding. It says, refering to the Bionetics Study:
The Lack of malignancy of the liver and lung tumors produced a
controversy which while quite artificial was, nevertheless, quite
heated. The Delaney amendment compels the Food and Drug
Administration to ban any chemical for use on or in food if it can
produce cancer at any dose level and by any mode of administration.
It specifically states that the tumor has to be a cancer. So the
question arose, did these tumors have a tendency to become cancers?
Three types of tumors were observed in these studies. They were
either hepatomas, and by definition a hepatoma is a benign tumor, i.e.
it does not invade surrounding tissue or metastasize to other organs,
in other words it grows confined to the organ of origin. With time
the tumor may become invasive, in which case its cells attack the
surrounding tissues, but it may as yet not spread to distant tissue
like lung or lymph nodes. At that stage, it would be malignant.
This behavior is quite characteristic for mouse tumors. Thev do not
quite behave like human cancers. Whereas a hepatoma is a benign
tumor, it is generally conceded that given another six months, it
would most Likely have become malignant and killed its host. But you
can appreciate that the FDA has a difficult decision to make because
at the moment of sacrifice at 18 months, most of the tumors were
benign. Lung tumors, the second type of tumors, similarly were benign
tumors which probably would have turned malignant with time. The only
neoplasm that was recognized as a malignant tumor was the reticulum
cell sarcoma (a type of lymphoid tumor.) (Emphasis added)
The data published for the Bionetics Study (Innes et al.,cited above)
shows "lymphomas" as occurring at a 0.05 confidence level for all mice
tested, with females of each hybrid type having "lymphomas" at the 0.01
confidence level. These levels of confidence do not suggest clear and
convincing evidence of carcinogenicity, unless one wants to enter into the
speculation or "educated guess" type of logic which Dr Falk referred to.
Dr Falk tlien goes on to explain that if the tests were allowed to go to 2

years, there would have been natural mortality, with cannibalism or decay
"when no one was looking." .
In early 1974, following the cancellation in the U.S. of most uses of
DDT about 2 years earlier, an Appropriations Subcommittee of the U.S.
Congress asked EPA "To Initiate a Complete and Thorough Review Based on
Scientific Evidence of the Decision Banning The Use of DDT." Testimony by
Leonard Axelrod, Ph.D., the EPA person who was doing the review is recorded
in the transcript of hearing for April 4, 1974. It reads in part:
1. There is at the present time, no evidence that DDT is carcinogenic
(or tumorogenic) in any animal species when administered at Levela
less than two orders of magnitude higher than the maximum dose
attainable by plant manufacturers and workers over a lifetime of
exposure.---
6. There is at present no evidence from experimentation that DDT is
either teratogenic or mutagenic.
7. There is no evidence from human monitoring studies over a 5-year
period that DDT as occurring in the environment has caused an increase
of any known physiological dyscrasia
A copy of a later draft of this Report, dated June 5, 1974 was
obtained from a student who was allowed to work at EPA in Washington, D.C.
during the time this study was in process. In the part dealing with
"Carcinogenesis and Tumoragenesis"(p.21-22), Or Axelrod lists the published
reports available since January 1972 which he had thoroughly reviewed. The
list and conclusions with Dr. Axelrod's hand written corrections, suggest a
reasonable review of the pertinent literature available at that time.
Discussion and evaluation of the papers used by the environmental "experts"
in the record of the public hearing are included by reference by Dr.
Axelrod, in this draft.
One of the conclusions in the 6/5/74 draft appears to be based on the
studies referred to as the Lyon and the Milan Studies (Turusov at al.1973
(J. Nat'1. Cancer Inst. 11:983-97) and Terracini et a1.1973 (Int'l. J.
Cancer 11:747-64) respectively. It is important enough to be quoted here:
--. If all tumors were considered carcinomas then an extrapolation on
a linear-dose-response basis would correspond to one or two additional
cases of liver cancer in 200 million hwnans-.
If mice have a predictive value for human risk of cancers, which
appears to be in serious disagreement with the EPA Guidelines (Protocols7),
this data would suggest a of 1 to 100 to 1 to 200 million added risk value,
or 100 to 200 times what our EPA has proposed as a de minimus cancer
risk level for residues of pesticides in food.
The conclusion of Dr Axelrod in June of 1974 was changed in December
2, 1974 Working Paper. In it he says:
' . One can conclude that available evidence indicates that the
likelihood that DDT is a human carcinogen is very low.

:T
Note: Dr Axelrod died suddenly, shortly after the preparation of the
12/2/74 draft. The final Report by EPA is dated July 1975, and it does not
read anything like the Axelrod writings. The final Report appears to have
been sanitized, possibly to sustain the EPA Administrator's earlier
conclusion that DDT was carcinogenic.
Dr. Samuel Epstein, a witness called by the EPA and the EDF at the
Public Hearings on January 14, 1972 has a different perspective of human
riskthan Dr. Axelrod. Epstein testified, on page 7370:
- Q. Based on your experience and upon your survey and analysis of the
literature, would you give us your professional opinion, if you have
one, whether the presence of DDT in the human environment represents a
significant carcinogenic hazard to man?
A. I can only answer that qualitatively, and the answer is yes,--.
Q. In your professional opinion, can a man be safely exposed to any
leve 1 of DDT?
A. the answer is no.
During his testimony, Dr. Epstein who said he was on several advisory
committees to the group which produced the document known as "the Mrak
Report", introduced 4 pages of a paper referred to as "the unpublished
Fitzhugh Report," which Dr. Epstein characterized as one of only 4 studies
up to that time, "-- which provide definitive evidence of
carcinogenicity." This manuscript (O.G.Fitzhugh et al.,undated, titled "A
Summary of a Carcinogenic Study of DDT in Mice-- Unpublished data from the
Bureau of Science, Food and Drug Administration), along with 2 attached
memoranda (dated 1/30/69 and 9/15/69) were only made available after this
witness was excused, and no longer available for testimony . The total
document shows some possible reasons why this study was not published, and
does not invoke a feeling of confidence in the predictive value of this
study. Page 33 of Attachment number 2 contains information to show:
Unusually high mortality in some male mice during the second year of
the 2 year study resulting in relatively few animals at risk when they
were most likely to exhibit tumors.
Report of a tumor of the testis in a female mouse.
Report of an ovarian tumor in an animal reported lost from the animal
quarters earlier.
A problem with the DDC dose occurred in the 67th week, where the 100
PPM dose was increased to 300 PPM, resulting in increased
mortality.(page 4 of Attachment 2, dated September 15, 1969)
Note: The Report shows 38 of 100 male, and 22 of 1700 female mice died
between weeks 62 and 66.)
The unpublished Fitzhugh Study used only one dose of DDT, so no N
dose-ieaponse information can be drawn from it. UI
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Dr. Epstein characterizes the results of the research reported by
Hayes et al. 1971(Arch, Env. Health 22:119), Laws et al.1967(Arch. Env.
Health 15:766), and Laws 1971 (Manuscript submitted to EPA May 13, 1970) as
"inappropriate", yet the first two of these papers report on work done in
humans, and the third showed apparent inhibition of the "take" of
transplanted cancer ce11s in mice, when the mice had been treated with
DDT.(see discussion under Benefits)
There are tests reported where DDT was administered to dogs (Lehman,
1952. Q. Bull Assoc. F&D Officials of US.16:47, and later Ottoboni 1977
(Arch. Environm. Cont. & Tox. 6:83-101), Mansters (Agthe et al. 1970, Proc.
Soc. Exp. Biol. & Med. 134:113) and Rhesus Monkeys (Durham et al. 1963,
(Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. 141:111). A11 of these tests, except for
Ottoboni's work are questionable because of the conditions of the tests.
Ottoboni tested purebred Beagle dogs continuously dosed for 3 generations
at 10 ppmDDT in their feed, with sacrifice at age 2 1/3 years. No adverse
effects due to the treatment were found. She reported (personal
communication) that there was observable beneficial effects in the treated
dogs in this multigenerational study; she also said that the technicians
began to refer to the untreated control dogs as "the DDT deficient
animals."
Appended to this paper is a copy of some tables presented by Carrol
Weil who was with the Mellon Institute in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. These
tables were part of a presentation to the Entomological Society of America
annual meeting in 1975, to show some of the problems associated with trying
to interpret the kind of data that can come from animal assays for
carcinogenicity in mice. In the Table marked 'A', if by chance the male
group number 5 had been the control group, all the other untreated groups
would have been called positive. "B" shows the potential effect of diet
type and "C" shows the difference in tumors when mice are allowed to eat
all they want, compared to some limitation on the amount of food they
receive. The study reported by R. Kimbrough et al., 1964 (J Nat'l. Cancer
Inst.,33:215-25) confirms that Rats also can show adverse effects
(leukemia) due to use of a purified diet, and not due to the DDT used in
their tests.
Conclusions About Cancer Studies
The most reasonable conclusion I can draw, based on the review of the
references I have looked at and the other materials available to me
concerning DDT and cancers in test animals, is that there is not enough
data to get any kind of clear picture about dose/response for cancers with
DDT in mice, if such a relationship exists. Furthermore, there will
probably be few if any new studies because DDT is essentially gone from the
market-place in the U.S., which is the source of most of the funding for
massive cancer research programs. .
If one accepts the idea that mouse livers are essentially
non-inducible with DDT, then there seems to be two alternative and perhaps
connected hypotheses to work with. One is that the mouse studies are
really looking at animals whose physiological systems are overwhelmed by a
foreign chemical and that adverse results occur because of this disruption
of haneostasis in the test animals, and not due to a
specific carcinogen. The second hypothesis is that
dose/response correlation for cancers or hepatomas,
site or system
there is no N
when DDT is tn
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administered. Both of these hypotheses neglect the question of whether or
not DDT is carcinogenic in the animals tested so far, and the most
reasonable answer to this question is that the evidence available to date
does not support the idea that DDT is a carcinogen.
Two studies with humans have been reported, and both are negative for
definitive adverse effects. These were the studies which Dr. Epstein
dismissed as inappropriate. Hayes eC al.1971 (cited earlier) fed DDT
volunteers doses of DDT at rates of up to 35 mg. per day for 21.5 Months,
and some of the people were observed for 5 years from the initial feeding
period. The dose was calculated at 535 times the average daily intake in
the U.S., and no adverse effects were observed. Laws et al. 1967, (cited
earlier) followed 35 men with 11 to 19 years of high exposure at a facility
where DDT was manufactured, and these men showed no adverse effects
attributed to exposure to DDT. Based on storage and excretion levels, the
average daily intake was estimated at 3 to 18 mg. per man per day. This
compared to .04 mg per day for the general population. Fat residues for
these workers was 39 to 128 times the level in the general population.
Even though the evidence is negative, it seems to be of more value in
assessing the risks of DDT exposure to humans than all of the mouse data
accumulated over the years. Even with the use of DDT beginning with World
War II, and extending up to 1972, any evidence of increased human liver
cancer rates appears to be absent.
This may be analogous to a hypothetical cancer researcher saying "We
must study reality to see if it works out in theory."
Beneficial Effects of DDT in Animal Tests
It is interesting to look at the tests which do not cause some "hann",
but rather show some measurable results which seem to be beneficial to the
test animals. Once in a while, there may be a surprise and the expected
results may not occur. We all need to be open to "letting the data tell us
what it has to say.
M. A. Ottoboni, 1984 (The dose makes the poison, Vincente Books,
Berkeley, California, 222 pp.) provides an understandable discussion of the
types of chemical carcinogens. The list of types include: -
Primary Carcinogens-They directly start the cancer process.
(example-Radiomimetic drugs)
Procarcinogens-Not carcinogenic, but may be converted to a carcinogen
(example-Benzpyrene)
Cocarcinogens (=promoters)-Enhance the carcinogenic action of another
chemical. They may change the rate of metabolism of carcinogens,
alter biochemical pathways or interfere with the repair mechanisms
that would otherwise reduce the effect of the carcinogen.
Secondary Carcinogens-Not carcinogens, but they indirectly cause
tissue damage. (example-Oxalic acid may produce bladder stones which
over time can irritate the bladder and cause cancer from the
irritation)

She also points out that chemical carcinogens are dose related and quite
site specific. Furthermore, low doses and high or "heroic" doses may not
act the same way in test animals. She says at page 131:
This use of heroic doses is accepted without question by regulatory
agencies despite its acknowledged pitfalls, while the public is
generally unaware that such pitfalls exist. The pitfalls derive from
the fact that the biochemical fate of very small doses of a chemical
is usually not the same as that for large doses. The differences that
chemicals display between their acute and chronic toxicities is
testimony to the fact. Small doses of a chemical may follow metabolic
pathways that does not convert it into a carcinogen, but with
increasing doses the pathway becomes saturated and the excess
chemical is diverted to a new pathway that does convert it to a
carcinogen. Or,small doses of the chemical may be prevented from
exerting carcinogenic activity be combination with a biochemical
normally present in the body. If the supply of the biochemical is
expended by the large doses, the excess chemical is then free to exert
its carcinogenic effect.
In considering the beneficial effects, such as the apparent prevention
of cancers, there may be a whole group of physiological activitites working
in concert.
There are some studies which I want to call to your attention,
particularly because they seem to refute the idea that DDT in test animals
will result in adverse effects.
K.C.Salinskas and A.B.Okey, 1975 (J. Nat, Cancer Inst.55:653-57)
predosed Sprague-Dawley Rats with diets containing either 100 ppm of DDT
and or 250 ppm of Malathion, for 14 days. Beginning on day 50 following
the conditioning, these rats were dosed daily by stomach tube for 21
consecutive days with 0.714 mg. of dimeythylbenzanthracene (DMBA), a known
carcinogen. These animals were sacrificed 230 days following the start of
the DMBA treatment. The DDT treatment reduced the incidence of rats
with leukemia and mammary tumors, and no deaths occurred with the DDT
treated rats until the time of autopsy. The significance of the absence of
tumors in rats treated with DDT was greater than .001. The authors
speculate that the DDT caused increase hepatic enzyme activity, causing
increased metabolism and excretion of the DMBA>
E.M.6ialker et a1.1970 (Indust. Med. 39(7):60) administered DDT in
dimethyl sulfoxide (DHSO) 4 to 6 days I.P.to mice which had Ehrlich ascites
carcinomas. The note I saw was short, and the reason for mentioning this
reported inhibition of tumor development was to comment on the use of Ll4SO
as a carrier. 1he same solvent was used with DDT in part of the Bionetics
Study, which was looking for, but not finding evidence of Teratogenicity in
mice when DDT in DMSO was administered sub-cutaneously. When I received
the document which contained the report of this study, I wrote to the
National Institute of Health and asked about this use of DMSO. The NIH
response was that DMSO alone was tolerated without teratogenisis in the
types of mice under test. The concern I have is that in those pesticides
where there was some reported adverse effects, the coupling effect of IM50
could cause greater than simple additive effect. In live animal tests, the
the cell walls might be crossed faster with a solvent such as I1M60, because
of its alleged capacity to penetrate cells and its solvency which could
2502146196

carry another dissolved chemical through cell walls, that otherwise might
not have been crossed by the chemical without the DMSO. .
Using a test where cancer was induced in mice by subdural implantation
of methyl-cholanthrene crystals, E.R.Laws (in a manuscript submitted to EPA
on May 13, 1970) reported that cells from this cancer could be transplanted
by injection of a saline suspension of cells into other mice. He also
reported that visual tumors developed in 10 to 18 days, with subsequent
relentless growth and eventual death of the mice as the normal consequence.
DDT administered at 5.5 mg/Kg/day gave preliminary evidence of prolonging
the life of the treated and challenged animals. There was some suggestion
that DDT had an adverse effect on the Sodium-Potassium-stimulated ATPase in
the tumor, and an alternative suggestion was that DDT might have a^general
subliminal toxic effect an the whole animal" which could make it a less
suitable host for the transplanted tumor.
A paper by R.P.H. Thompson et al.,1969. (Lancet II (7161):4-6, July 5,
1969) explains how DDT was administered to a 17 year old boy for control of
unconjugated juvenile jaundice. This treatment replaced phenobarbitone
which had been used earlier. The mechanism suggested for the successful
therapy was the induction of liver microsomal enzymes, which resulted in
reduced plasma bilirubin levels. The treatment resulted in producing an
elevated plasma DDT level, and for 7 months after the end of DDT therapy,
his biliruben level had remained low. The authors reported no side effects
were noticed, there was no proteinuria, and other liver function tests and
routine haematological tests remained normal.
A paper by Hazeltine in 1971 (Clinical Toxicol. 4:55-61), looked at
the Literature for evidence about DDT residues in people Living in
Agricultural areas, and the possible impact this chemical and other
agricultural chemicals might have on juvenile jaundice. The conclusions I
drew were that DDT appeared to be present in significant (+therapeutic)
levels in the body fat of people living in this area, that the observed
infants who were breast fed and had a reduced incidence of jaundice, could
be explained by the effects of this residue. There were other interesting
parts to this literature review, such as the competitive or counteracting
effect on liver enzyme induction by DDT, attributed to exposure to the
pesticide Malathion. " -
The competitive or antidotal effect of DDT and barbiturates was the
basis for hospital emergency room treatment of attempted barbiturtate
suicide cases with injected DDT. (Richard Rappolt Sr.,M.D., personal
communication) Dr. Rappolt treated at least two patients with DDT
dissolved in peanut oil; both patients were reported ambulatory and went
home the next day. This therapy evolved from the understanding of
veterinary practitioners who use barbiturates to antidote animals that have
organochlorine pesticide poisoning. Apparently the competitive antidotal
action explains the speed of effect, which is too fast for enzyme induction
and metabolism of the excess chemical. It was also interesting and sad to
see Dr. Rappolt dismissed from the hospital emergency room where he
practiced for reasons that appeared political. The published newspaper
story explained that he was dismissed for experimenting on people with
DDT; his reply was that a good emergency room physician must be ready for
all kinds of unusual situations.

Iz
Finally, while not directly dealing with cancer testing,'but still
bearing on the rat liver enzyme induction issue, two papers should be
mentioned. These are P.R.Datta 1970, and Datta and Nelson, 1970
(Industrial Med. 39:190-94 and 195-98). These papers report on a study in
which carbon 14 DDT and its metabolites were applied to perfused rat liver
and kidney slices, with the rate and metabolite production recorded. The
experiment was well quantified by accounting for the total radioactivity.
Each step of the metabolic process was confirmed by synthesizing the
molecules and applying each one to confirm the entire process. Keep in
mind that this was an in-vitro study and there was no fat sink to
preferentially adsorb (selectively partition) the highly lipid soluble
molecules, as would occur in a living rat. These workers showed that the
metabolism proceeded from DDT to DDA, a water soluble metabolic product.
The rats used in this test were preconditioned with DDT for three days
prior to the use of their tissues. These authors reported that the first
roughly two-thirds of the metabolism occurred in the liver, and the last
third in the kidney. The rates of metabolism were found to be quite rapid
in this isolated tissue system. The alleged persistent DDT metabolite in
nature (DDE) was degraded to DDA, with 14.5X of the DDE converted to DDA in
24 hours in untreated (unconditioned) animals, and 23.8% found as DDA after
12 hours in rats which had been conditioned for 3 days with DDT.
Susmary
In response to the format proposed for this Seminar, and looking for
significant correlations between forecasts and the facts available today,
it appears that the suggestions and predictions made in the 1970s about DDT
as a human carcinogen were only strawmen which have failed to occur. The
data from a number of studies showing some alleged adverse effects in mice
fed at maximum tolerated doses of DDT for lifetimes (more or less) is
suggestive but extremely difficult to interpret. At the same time, there
is evidence to refute the hypothesis that DDT is a human carcinogen. These
conflicts appear to occur for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons
are:
1. The choice of inappropriate test species and protocols to evaluate
DDT as a carcinogen, has led to a diversity of conflicting results. High
doses of DDT have seemed to produce random physiological effects, but these
conflicting data have had the tendency of making the whole process of
dose-response evaluations of the data for cancers remote, if not -
impossible. .
2. There is no clear data for the doses correlated with cancer
production in mice treated with large doses of DDT, in the literature I
have reviewed for this seminar. This suggests that DDT is not causally
related to the adverse conditions seen in the test mice, so other
explanations should be sought to explain the abnormal pathology which is
described.
3. People who work in "pure research" do not seem to be interested in
getting into the political arena, where their research findings may be
expected to be made to fit into some social framework, or to support some
I
cause.
4. Extrapolations of data that may provide some meaningful insights
may also involve some risk of being wrong. Therefore such extrapolations
2502146198

are usually avoided by "pure research" workers, and left to the
"apocalyptics", who do not seem to care much about accuracy or integrity.
5. Positive data on anticarcinogenic and therapeutic effects of DDT
are generally neglected, when looking at dose-response data. Most
researchers are looking for harmful effects. Society does not reward
findings of no harm.
6. There is a strong tendency to neglect the unprovable, such as the
evidence on improved vigor and increased life span for the human
population, which has been exposed to low levels of DDT for many years.
7. We need to examine the idea that a potential or weak organic
chemical carcinogen can also act in a way analogous to a therapeutic agent
at non-carcinogenic doses, to show beneficial actions within a
dose-response relationship. If there are both beneficial effects at low
dose, and harmful effects such as carcinogenicity at high dose, from the
same chemical molecule, then it could be appropriate to label a carcinogen
as beneficial. Selenium, the inorganic element may to provide a model for
this kind of thinking.
8. In any carcinogenic testing experiment, the most important question
concerns what is the highest dose which the test animal can tolerate
without loss of normal physiological body system functions. Doses
which cause loss of homeostasis are not expected to show reproducible
dose-response effects at any particular target site. This high dose loss
of homeostasis is the most reasonable way to interpret the alleged DDT
mouse cancer test data reviewed for this report.

GROUP
x 1
2
3
~~Z~z~~ - 4-
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e;l y:<s:_~ x 6
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~
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Stock .
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2
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4
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Protein
Lu1nuu uvUiUtlcuG- Ulelu;AlhD CD-I7:1ICE E 5 /l . s~.
t(3-]2 mice necropsie:flsxlgraupl l~Gmc:i
PERCENTAGE \YttH TUMORS
- MULTIPLE LYMPHOMA- -
ANYTUMOR TUMORS LEU:EfdIIA LUNG. HEPATOMAS irASCULAI;
MALES '
.67 33 33 28 17 17
.57 7 -94 29 7 0
56' 13 ' 13 13 .
' 6_ 13
50 14 14 28
0 .:14
21 0 5 5 t5 0
r 72 16 22 44 ~6 6
.
FEMALES .
as 30 50 30 0.. 0
73 7 '7 60 0 0
' 69 23 15 23 ' 0 15
67 - 20 . 13 .33. 7- ' 13
17 35 - 24 ` 0
' 6
82
?3 5o
-23 .. .
0 , , :
18 :
Number of mice
x killed at and at 9:of survivors
Fat 80-tveek study with liver no3ules .1NC1 55; 37 1975.
26.3
2Z7
M
276 260
lot 121' -
8roup No. at
Mice Feeding+ Total
Tumours
by 18
months . Liver
Tumours Lung
Tumours Lympho- .-
Reticular
Neoplasms
OiheP
Neoptasms .
1- 40 4g. dietlday 4 1.. . 1 2 D
I mouselcage .
2 40 -1j. diet/day 4' 2-- 0 1 1 testis
I mouselwge -
'3- 40 Diet ad libitum 32 15' 2 11 2 testis
1 mouselcage ' - L kidney
I I thyroid
6 40 Oiet sd libitumX 23 8 " 6 9' , 0
5 micelcage
~ Autbred Swiss albino males maintained under SPF Conditions
+'5iandar.dpeileteddiet '
x 5.83. dictlday .
N
~
0
N
~
A
W
N
O
O
