[cymbeline]

“I bet the eggs they lay have thin shells”

You didn’t say it all. DDT’s effect on the eggs of birds was the reason it was banned, wasn’t it? Not that it was harmful to people.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Actually the reason the test birds laid thin shelled eggs was that they were fed a low calcium diet.

In the wild it is pretty clear that DDT had nothing to do with thin shells but that it was mercury that was causing problems.

DDT was a pesticide that did what it was suppose to do. Killed the pest and did no harm to anyone else. So, of course, it had to be destroyed.

Anything that kept more people alive was bad you see.

[John Valentine]

The weird and wonderful thing is that DDT has no effect on eggshell thickness. That was just one of the false memes promoted about DDT.

[JoeFromSidney]

You didn't say it all. DDT's effect on the eggs of birds was the reason it was banned, wasn't it? Not that it was harmful to people.

It turns out that argument was fraudulent. A scientist conducted a series of experiments on chickens, adding DDT to their diet but reducing the proportion of calcium. He reported in Science that their egg shells were thinner than normal. He then ran another experiment, feeding the chickens DDT and the normal amount of calcium. The eggs had the normal thickness, but Science refused to publish the paper.

That's the origin of the "thinner eggshell" story. Just more junk science.

[9422WMR]

“I bet the eggs they lay have thin shells”

You didn’t say it all. DDT’s effect on the eggs of birds was the reason it was banned, wasn’t it? Not that it was harmful to people.”
Ha haa, my comment was about the eggs laid by the people who were taking the DDT tablets. Note: most people don’t lay eggs. Now I may be wrong here, but I have never seen a couple of Hollywood 1960’s vintage hippy weirdos laying eggs. Even after taking DDT capsules, or doing LSD, egg laying was not involved.