CALIFORNIA, U.S. — Marine scientists say they have found what they believe to be more than 25,000 barrels containing DDT dumped off the southern California coast near Catalina Island.
According to a report released on its website by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, the barrels were discovered by two autonomous underwater vehicles used to map the seafloor.
DDT was developed in the 1940s as an insecticide, but banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1972, owing to its 'adverse environmental effects.'
Today, DDT is classified as a probable carcinogen, according to a briefing on the Environmental Protection Agency's website.