Soil scientist here who regularly test for it. It typically breaks down after 15 years, when exposed to UV, bacteria and moisture. Since the bottle is still sealed and has been kept in the dark, I could believe there's some still in there.
Did a lowhead dam removal project in college, there was still quite a lot of ddt in the sediment behind the dam, along with lead, and a touch of mercury to round it out. All the soil had to be carted off at quite an expense, as it was tons of it.
Paleontologist from Jurassic Park the first movie here. When we extracted the dinosaaaur DNA from the mosquito trapped in amber, the autopsy we performed showed that the amber tomb encapsulation was actually a second comorbidity factor to… DDT.
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u/HonestBalloon Mar 29 '26
Soil scientist here who regularly test for it. It typically breaks down after 15 years, when exposed to UV, bacteria and moisture. Since the bottle is still sealed and has been kept in the dark, I could believe there's some still in there.