Onondaga Lake--Chemicals 100's of times more toxic than DDT found

Upstate Health, an  Upstate Medical University Publication, has an article, "Mystery at the Lake", in their summer that says toxins 100's times more toxic than DDT are embedded in the soil in Onondaga Lake.

They cite John Hassett, PHD professor at SUNY Environmental School of Forestry who says that two DDT like compounds that have no name because they were not used commercially are found in the mud. He believes they were a byproduct of coking coal and were dumped in the lake and in pits by the lake.

The toxic chemicals are found in the mud and it is believed that "there is a layer through the whole sentiment of the lake."

The chemicals were dug up because of the dredging of the lake.

The chemicals are extremely toxic, "at very low levels , hundreds of times lower than toxic levels of DDT." Time magazine recognized DDT as one of the 50 worst inventions of the 20th century. Rachel Carson in Silent Spring sang about the dangers of DDT to the environment and helped relaunch the environmental movement.

Wow one of the most sacred places in the world may still be the most polluted lake in the world.

So Sad

I wonder if all the politicians and experts who went swimming in the lake (50 dignitaries, 2 children, a dog and a goofball take a swim in Onondaga Lake ) and proclaimed it was clean would be up for a mud bath at Onondaga Lake?

You can read the article"Mystery at the Lake" by clicking on the link for the Summer Issue.

Summer 2017 Upstate Health magazine  

The only other reference I could find was in the Syracuse University's student newspaper the Daily orange. But it only talked about DDT, not the super jacked up version.  Click to read,

Can the toxins in Onondaga Lake cause epilepsy? Researchers are trying to find out