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This is the story of a miraculous white powder that is helping to win the war.
Its name is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; for short, DDT.
It may one day prove our greatest weapon towards victory over an enemy more murderous even than the facists.
Against disease.
Time was when disease conditions in other lands didn't concern us much.
The Black Death, bubonic plague of India, the Orient, Africa.
Periodically sweeping through the crowded millions.
Transmitted from the rat to the human by--the flea.
Typhus, common to nearly every densely populated city on Earth.
Explosive epidemics wiping out almost entire populations.
Transported by--the louse.
Malaria, scourge of the tropics, carried by--the Anopheles mosquito.
And the many filth diseases that can be borne by flies, including the dread cholera.
But these were all in far-off places with strange names.
And maybe, in the security of our homes and families, we shuddered at the thought that such things could happen in the 20th century.
And then suddenly, they weren't in another world after all.
Our own men were out there, all over the globe, and disease was as much a menace as the enemy's bullets.
We learned the full import of that--at Bataan.
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Of our 36,000 troops left in the last days of Bataan, 20,000 were out on their feet or down with malaria.
The mosquito had helped the Jap to bring on the end.
The flea, the louse, the fly could bring similar disaster wherever our men went.
In anticipation of this, the nation's scientific resources had already been marshaled by the War Department to meet the challenge.
Something new must be found to fight the menace of the disease-bearing insect, to take the place of insecticides no longer available because of the war.
Through the National Research Council, this United States Department of Agriculture Laboratory at Orlando, Florida
was one of the several places in which the work was centered.
It was the job of this laboratory to raise the healthiest, sturdiest specimens of the common disease-bearing insects,
and then, to find the means of killing them.
Hundreds of insecticides were tried out here, developed from materials sent in from all parts of the world.
Some were fairly effective, even good.
Compounds and solutions that dropped a mosquito in mid-air, could stun a louse, quickly dispatch a fly or a flea.
But something better was needed. Something that would kill all four insects and could be produced in the enormous quantities needed.
If possible, something that might continue to kill, for a few hours anyway, or better, a few days after application.
November 16th, 1942 was the day that brought in a new insecticide sample from Switzerland. An accompanying letter gave some of the details.
One feature sounded particularly interesting, yet a little unbelievable.
That was the claim that after a single application in a barn, this insecticide had continued to kill flies for a month thereafter.
But scientists were accustomed to hearing exaggerated claims.
The new material was given a code number and started along the testing routine.
First, an elementary test against lice. A solution of the material is placed in a beaker and the lice are added.
Yes, it kills, but of course you can't catch all the lice in the world and put them in beakers.
Now, to apply it in powder form on the body of a volunteer.
The lice are placed in a sleeve on the subject's arm.
Another sleeve which contains the standard army delousing powder, for purposes of comparison, is removed first.
The results are as good as expected, with only a few lice surviving.
Now for the other sleeve, dusted with powder prepared from the new material.
The results: every last louse dead.
A fuller test: more volunteers harboring lice wear suits of underwear dusted with the new material.
Results: again, every last louse dead.
The new material, then, is already an important discovery, a better louse powder than any now in use.
But how good is it against the other vicious three: the mosquito, the flea, the fly?
First, is it adaptable, readily solvent for use in solution form?
Yes. Kerosene, diesel oil, even fuel in crankcase oil, dissolve it easily. That's promising.
It's easy to get these materials in the field. An emulsion is readily prepared with both fresh and salt water.
It has shown really remarkable qualities for dispersion and suspension in every medium tested.
Very valuable, if its killing properties in these agents prove out.
Its action against the common pest mosquito is excellent.
Dissolved in fuel oil, a tenth of a pound per acre is enough to kill every mosquito in the area.
But it's the Anopheles mosquito that carries malaria. What about that?
A little stronger dosage is needed, but it's still amazingly potent. This is a find.
In dust form, it has many advantages over the old standby Paris Green against the malaria-carrying Anopheles.
The laboratory's scientists now know the material is good. Very good, that's definite.
And now, what if...that information that came in the letter with it, about still killing weeks after the first application.
In a testing chamber, just a box with a glass cover, a light spray of the material in five percent emulsion was applied.
Then, the scientists waited 48 hours. At the end of that time, flies were put in the box. Big healthy flies.
In five minutes they were in violent convulsions. In a little while they'll all be dead. Check.
Mosquitoes next. The malaria kind. They didn't last as long as the flies and another day had gone by. The spray was a day older.
Cockroaches the next day. Sure death.
And six days after the original spraying, lice were put in.
The lethal effects of the insecticide hadn't weakened an appreciable amount and this was not the end of its fantastic strength.
Fourteen months later, one year and two months after that original spray, without a drop being added,
the new insecticide was still killing all comers almost as quickly as on the first day.
Another thing, clothing impregnated with emulsion of the substance, was still killing lice after the clothing had been thoroughly laundered from six to eight times.
Science had come on its greatest weapon against the insect killer, an incredible new weapon against disease.
The War Department was quick to put the new substance into use in the field, under the abbreviated name DDT.
But let a medical officer tell you how effective it has proved.
[Dr. J.S. Simmons:] DDT is the most powerful of the new weapons that the Army's now using in its war on the insect-borne diseases.
The development of this weapon holds a spectacular example of the effective ways in which all of the scientific agencies
of this country have cooperated with the medical departments of the armed forces.
Because we are armed with DDT, we no longer fear typhus fever.
This chemical affords protection to American soldiers against the mosquitoes that carry malaria, yellow fever, dengue, and filariasis.
And against the ever-present flies that spread certain filth diseases.
DDT is now being used by the Army in all of our tropical theaters.
However, there is still much to be learned about it.
Therefore our research collaborators continue their investigations in the laboratory and in the field.
We already know of the miraculous results it has produced.
But its full potentiality against all the insects that spread disease must be determined.
I consider this amazing chemical the most valuable contribution of our wartime medical research program,
for the future health and welfare not only this nation, but of the entire world.
[Narrator:] This part of the world has already experienced the effectiveness of DDT in one of the miracles of modern medical history.
This was Naples, Italy shortly after the Allied occupation. Its crowded population lacked almost everything for the safeguarding of public health:
food, fuel, blankets, housing, clothing, sanitation.
And refugees from all parts of Italy were swarming in. With them, the louse, the perfect set-up for epidemic.
And then it struck: typhus.
The Naples area was immediately placed off limit to Allied military personnel.
Within armies, typhus has won and lost more wars than all the strategy and weapons ever developed.
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But for the jammed civilian population of Naples, there seemed little hope.
Winter was only arriving when typhus hit Naples, and never in history had a typhus epidemic ended before the warmth of the spring.
Then, DDT was brought in. Dusting with DDT was begun at once.
First, every case of typhus was tracked down and every person who had been exposed was rid of the murderous louse by the powder.
Next, the 40,000 Italians dwelling in jam-packed air raid shelters were deloused.
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Finally, 43 DDT stations were set up throughout the city and the entire remaining population was dusted.
In January, when the large-scale dusting started, 60 new cases of typhus a day were being reported.
Another month and it might well have been 600 or 6,000 cases a day.
Yet, by the middle of February, the menace of the epidemic was over.
DDT had won, by not only removing the lice when dusted, but by continuing to kill long after application, preventing re-infestation.
In the Pacific, DDT goes to war against malaria in a big way, by airplane.
On D-Day at Morotai, we hit both enemies at the same time. The Jap and disease.
Simultaneous with the bombing of our two-legged enemy, we went after the mosquito with DDT spray, and as a result of the spray
malaria was already under control before our troops set foot on the island.
The Japanese did not live long enough to enjoy the island rid of mosquitoes by DDT.
Yes, today DDT is necessarily a military weapon. We're turning it out by the thousands of tons, but every ounce is needed for the war effort.
When the fascist is finally beaten though, DDT will be available to all.
Already is has been found to be highly effective against many kinds of agricultural insect pests.
It will aid in stamping out disease around the world.
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And the homecoming of the healthiest army in military history will be in no small part due to DDT,
our great new weapon for war today, and peace tomorrow.
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