Deldrin, DDT & Arsenic in Soil
Your yard may be contaminated with pesticides used by farmers decades ago that have since been banned. Unless your house is old, pre-1950, this is a theoretical possibility. The banned pesticide residues can persist in topsoil many years. Your and your family can become exposed when gardening, digging or playing in this soil. You and your pets may track it into the home.
Over the years, farmland has been converted to housing tracks. Most of the time, the soil hasn’t been tested so its possible that persistent pesticides from farming could end up in people’s yards.
HOW TOXIC ARE OLD PESTICIDES?
The old farming pesticides were generally more toxic than modern pesticides. Dieldrin, DDT and chlordane are ‘organochlorine’ pesticides that can produce cancer and reproductive/endocrine problematic effects. Arsenic was also used as a pesticide. It is a carcinogen. There is some risk even at relatively low levels of these persistent pesticides in soil.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
1) Learn about the land use history at your house before it was built. Find out if there was a farm there in the past, and if so, how long ago. Your town hall should have these records.
2) Test the soil id your house is on land that used to be a farm. At a minimum – test for Dieldrin, DDT, Arsenic and Chlordane.
3) If you have a private well on the property, test for persistent pesticides such as ethlylene dibromide (EDB), chlordane and dieldrin. The organochlorine pesticides are unlikely to reach the groundwater while EDB leaches rapidly and has been a common ground contaminant.
4) When you get the results of your soil test, consult with the state and town health officials to find out what they mean. They will give you guidance on whether you need to manage the soil to prevent exposure.
For more information on preventing exposure to Farm Pesticides click here.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Peter komeki 07.27.11 at 5:57 am
Hi, I deal in pest control and have been using chlordane but it has since been ban in our country, what is the alternative?
EJF 11.09.11 at 6:38 pm
I worked in a nursery in the 60-70′s where the State brought us Deldrin and instructed us to apply annually. Then when we were moving years later, after it had been banned and we stopped using it, we called them and asked them what we should do with the remaining deldrin. They came and told us they could not handle it, it was considered a toxic chemical. Da! !!
Randy Mansur 03.30.12 at 2:23 pm
I live less than 500 ft away from a 50 yr old piece of farm land that has recently proposed for construction of 1,000,000 sq. ft distribution center.After some low level testing results show Chlordane and Dieldren were present.My concern is the dangers of exposure when they disrupt this site for construction especially for my children and many neighbors next to the field.
DrG 04.22.12 at 9:58 pm
This is one of those “what’s not” toxic questions. Chlordane and dieldrin are old banned legacy pesticides that are typically in soil at trace levels. Digging around directly in the old farm soil could cause kids to pick up some exposure and increased cancer risk. But the near field fallout from an excavation project is very unlikely to move enough of these pesticides to your yard to be of concern, even with a project that big. What strikes me as a greater potential concern is whether your land was once a farm. If your house was built after say 1960 and the area was farmland before that, there is a reasonable chance dieldrin and chlordane could be present. If so and since you have small children its wise to test the soil for arsenic, lead, endrin, dieldrin chlordane, DDT.