Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane usage in the former Soviet Union

DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), an organochlorine pesticide (OCP), is one of 12 persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that is being proposed for elimination or control under the Stockholm Convention on POPs. This paper presents historical DDT usage in the Former Soviet Union (FSU) from different sources. Although the data from different sources do not agree with each other, the data clearly show that the usage of DDT in the FSU were intensive in the 1950s and 1960s, and the use of DDT continued until early 1990s although DDT was officially banned in 1969/1970 by the FSU government. Two estimations (high and low) are made for the historical annual DDT usage in the FSU. The total DDT usage in the FSU from 1946 and 1990 was 520 kt for the high estimation and 250 kt for the low estimation. Gridded DDT usage inventories in the FSU on a 18 longitude by 18 latitude grid system are created by using the gridded distribution of cropland density for the FSU, and show that DDT usage varied considerably across the FSU. Most DDT was applied in southern regions of the FSU where agricultural activity was greatest, such as in Moldova and Ukraine followed by the Northern Caucasus region of Russia and the Central Asian republics.