Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Robert H. Finch, Secretary

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge:

The pesticide DDT has been one of the most widely used chemicals to control various insect populations and to protect agricultural crops from destruction by insects. Recent seientife studies have, however, raised serious questions about the effect on the environment and on human health of the continued use of DDT. Some experiments have demonstrated that DDT increased the incidence of cancer in mice, and a recent Government commission on pesticides concluded that “[t]he evidence for the carcinogenicity of DDT in experimental animals is impressive.” 1

On the basis…