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The study found no instances of currently used pesticides in organic milk, but the researchers also looked at banned legacy pesticides: pesticides that the US has banned, but stick around in the environment as a pollutant for long periods of time. DDT and its breakdown metabolite, DDE were used agriculturally on a wide variety of crops as an insecticide, but was banned in 1972. Hexachlorobenzene is a fungicide that was used as a seed treatment, and was banned as part of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which went into effect in 2004.
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DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) has been banned for use in the US since 1972. While the chemical elements of DDT are well known for their persistence in the environment, the actual chemical makeup of DDT breaks down quickly into its metabolites, primarily DDE (dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene), so most evidence of DDT use is currently in the DDE form. When the study looked at DDE it found that organic milk had significantly lower levels than conventional milk.
Funding for this study came from The Organic Center, which gets its funding from a diversity of sources including federal grants, private foundations, and industry members. However, funders had no influence on the study design or implementation. Additionally, the lab tests were done blind, meaning that the researchers conducting the laboratory analyses did not know if the samples they were testing were organic or conventional.