Coffee, tea, or DDT?

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


What do you take with your tea? Milk? Sugar? DDT?

Like it or not, you may very well be taking it with just a dash of the banned pesticide. IN THESE TIMES reports that some brands of green tea — popular with breast cancer patients and survivors because of low breast cancer rates in Japan, where the drink is nearly universal — contains trace amounts of the chemical.

It’s not surprising when you consider that DDT, though banned in this country since 1972, is still manufactured in India and China and in use in much of the Third World.

The United Nations and environmental organizations are pushing for a treaty to ban DDT worldwide. But many developing countries are resisting, saying the cheap and effective pesticide is needed to help restrict transmission of malaria, which in many parts of the world poses a much more immediate threat to health than DDT.

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

PLEASE—BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things it doesn’t like—which is most things that are true.

We’ll say it loud and clear: At Mother Jones, no one gets to tell us what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please do your part and help us reach our $150,000 membership goal by May 31.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate