Video: History of invention and use of pesticides

Pesticides play an important role in controlling harmful insects but also potential risks to the environment and health.

Pesticides help control insects but affect human health.

In 1948, a Swiss chemist named Paul Hermann Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, also known as DDT.

This type of molecule has great power in controlling many insects until the 1950s, when they were resistant to it.

Worse, the chemical also caused a dramatic decline in the number of bird populations, the source of contaminated water and eventually being found to cause long-term health problems in humans.