Mosquitoes kill us; DDT doesn't

Jewish World Review ^ | Nov. 14, 2003 | Drs. Michael A. Glueck & Robert J. Cihak

[Blood of Tyrants]

Even the Discovery Channel (supposedly the "scientific" channel) repeats the mantra the DDT was responsible for thinning egg shells (since proved to be absolutely false).

[mewzilla]

Skeeters also become resistant to DDT. Why pollute the environment while creating better skeeters? DDT isn't the solution.

[HairOfTheDog]

I have a couple questions when I see these articles....

First.... Are mosquitos really that hard to kill with other pesticides? Why the fixation on DDT?

Second... If DDT was not responsible for the thin egg shells, what was?

Third.... I have horses immunized with a West Nile vaccine... What is the status of a West Nile vaccine for people?

[jscd3]

First.... Are mosquitos really that hard to kill with other pesticides? Why the fixation on DDT?

Because the characteristics of this pesticide - low cost, ease of application, extreme safety to human beings, unparalled effectivemess against mosquitos, makes it by far the most effective method of protecting people. In the absence of DDT, there are 1.2 - 2 million additional deaths per year.

Second... If DDT was not responsible for the thin egg shells, what was?

Egg shell thinning was never even demonstrated as a causal factor in the reduction in populations of most birds of prey. Frankly, most of the endangered species were endangered because people hunted them to the point of extinction. And not out of an uneducated ignorance either; I remember reading part of an essay written in the 1930s by the head of the department of ornothology at the American Museum of Natural History on the status of the perigine falcon - his commentarty was along the lines of "the perigine falcon is a rotten bird, it has no value, it's almost been wiped out, and that's a good thing". No joke, that was the summary of his opinion.

The few birds of prey that did seem to suffer from shell thinning (the osprey, for example) had the misfortune of living in areas of the country that were undergoing transformation that severely impacted the birds food supply, both in quantity and quality. I believe that it is well established that poor food supply relative to population, which will in the long run lead to a population crash, in the short run leads to, among other things, shell thinning. The problem here is lack of nutrition, not presence of DDT

There have been many controlled studies across species of birds to determine if DDT ingestion has any affect on shell thickness. None of them show any statistically signigficant effect, with experiments demonstrating insignificant shell thickening in the presence of DDT ingestion slightly outnumbering those that show statistically irrelevant shell thinning, both outnumbered by studies showing no statistically disernable difference. Check out Dr Steve Milloys Junk Science site www.junkscience.com , or Dr Fred Singers Science & Environmental Policy Project site www.sepp.org for lots of information.

Hope this was helpful.. :-)

[HairOfTheDog]

Thanks..... I will chew on that awhile!

[Geritol]

First, DDT is perhaps the least poisonous to humans of the really effective pesticides. When it was outlawed, it was pointed out that half a million would die a year because of it, but the senators were ok with that because most of those people were brown. the ban was very racially motivated.

Second, the thinning egg shells was first documentated in the 1800s. During the 30 years that DDT was used, rapto populations were actually increasing.

Third, viruses are very tiny. It is almost impossible to have only one type of virus in a vaccine. Many vaccines are actually infecting the recipients with other infections. Plus vaccine immunity has again and again proven to be rather marginal and short lived. For example the projected lives saved from the chickenpox vaccine is rather offset by the equal and rather conservative expected number of lives to be lost to shingles because of the chickenpox vaccine.

[Wombat101]

Damn! There goes my plan for disrupting the next anti-(after it's already over)war protest!

[Aegedius]

1. Because DDT is virtually harmless to humans and other mammals, while the substitutes are not. I breathed DDT for hours at a time working on a farm in the 50s. Who knows how many farmers have died from exposure to the other chemicals, but I can personally name two.

2. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc. Click here

3. DDT is also a mosquito repellant. Spray it on the inside walls of your horse barn, and mosquitos will avoid it for 6 months. And none of it will leach into the environment. That is why the author emphasized "careful" use.

[jscd3]

No problem, have a good one!

[Balding_Eagle]

Skeeters also become resistant to DDT. Why pollute the environment while creating better skeeters? DDT isn't the solution.

Skeeters become resitant to most methods used to eradicate them. Are you saying that we shouldn't even try, just in case we might make them more resistant to whatever method we use?

[Gabz]

There have been many controlled studies across species of birds to determine if DDT ingestion has any affect on shell thickness. None of them show any statistically signigficant effect, with experiments demonstrating insignificant shell thickening in the presence of DDT ingestion slightly outnumbering those that show statistically irrelevant shell thinning, both outnumbered by studies showing no statistically disernable difference.

All very good information!!!

The above brings up a major peeve of mine - I think it should be required that any member of the media that is going to right or report on studies, etc...that use such numbers should take a brief course on the use of statistical numbers, correlation and causation, and relative risks.........maybe then the truth of most of these studies would actually be seen, instead of just the press releases claiming want the authors wanted the studies to say.

[DustyMoment]

As a kid living on an AF base in FL in the 50s where DDT was sprayed at least every other day, I lived through the experience just fine, even though I was caught outside in the spray several times.

FL, in those days had fewer mosquitoes than today. Today, as the result of the DDT ban, most of the time during summer evenings, you simply can't take so much as a walk outside without having to carry a can of Raid with you.

Thanks, stupid legislators . . . for West Nile Virus, Equine Encephalitis, Human Encephalitis and all the other wonderful diseases these pests are able to spread as the result of your idiocy.

[skeeter]

Skeeters become resitant to most methods used to eradicate them. Are you saying that we shouldn't even try, just in case we might make them more resistant to whatever method we use?

Makes sense to me.

[E Rocc]

1. Because DDT is virtually harmless to humans and other mammals, while the substitutes are not. I breathed DDT for hours at a time working on a farm in the 50s. Who knows how many farmers have died from exposure to the other chemicals, but I can personally name two.

Soldiers were sprayed with concentrated amounts of the stuff during World War II, without ill effects. It's estimated that DDT has saved more human lives than any non-food substance except penicillin.

-Eric

[CanadianLibertarian]

DDT is the most effective insecticide on the planet. It is a miracle, a gift, and a triumph of modern technology. No other chemical is as effective, safe and efficient at controlling insect populations.

The banning of DDT was an act of genocide almost without parallel in the bloody history of man. The numbers of malarial dead that could have been saved make Rwanda look like a pleasant dream.

No bird ever went extinct because of DDT. The thin eggshell claim has been soundly refuted. And even if it were true; so what? Millions of brown people should die so some small hawk would survive? Rachel Carson and her liberal ilk have perpetrated among the worst crimes of the twentieth century, or any century.

[hgro]

Skeeters also become resistant to DDT. Why pollute the environment while creating better skeeters? DDT isn't the solution

A typical uninformed comment. Lets hope no one in your family gets West Nile Virus. The solution is to use DDT again. The looney Rachel Carson crowd killed many times more humans by their phoney B.S. than DDT ever hurt anything including birds. Malaria is rampant again and people are dying because of this insane thinking.

[Blood of Tyrants]

1. No, but DDT is extremely effective and it has an excellent "linger factor" that repels mosquitos for days. And it very cheap to manufacture and it is absolutely safe for humans and animals.

2. Stress, diet, mercury, and a whole host of other things. But under many strictly controlled experiments, DDT was not among the causes of eggshell thinning. There are many studies published on the web detailing this.

3. I have no idea. But as I understand it, healthy people have little to fear from it.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

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[farmfriend]

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