Relation between smoking and levels of DDT and dieldrin in human fat.

The adipose tissue of humans with known patterns of cigarette smoking was collected during 1973-74 and analyzed for DDT components and dieldrin. Although smokers are exposed to high levels of insecticides from smoke of cigarettes and some of these compounds can be stored in adipose tissue, it could not be demonstrated that a relationship exists between smoking habit and residual levels of DDT found in fat. Smokers seem able, through induction of enzymes by substances in tobacco smoke, to metabolize these insecticides at a rate approximately equal to the rate of their intake in the smoke. Dieldrin residues in black male subjects were found to be linearly related to the number of cigarettes smoked, but the factors governing this relationship were not obvious.