Give Us DDT

WSJ ^ | 06.12.07 | SAM ZARAMBA

[Coleus]

Green Theology
RETHINKING NUCLEAR POWER

Global Warming: The Perversion of Science

Science, Politics and Death
Stopping Malaria
DDT revisited

The Truth About Science
Global warming fight going underground?

[Sundog]

You’da thought Idi Amin woulda done sometin about it.

[Old North State]

I’m all for using DDT, but the claim the somehow malaria is a vestige of colonialism is bizarre.

[litehaus]

All Hail RACHEL! Carson, Carson, Carson !!!

[stm]

Colonialism has nothing to do with this, that’s absurd. Unsanitary, third world living conditions and piss poor health care are to blame. Malaria is very treatable with sulfamethoxazole or other sulfa drugs.

[VeniVidiVici]

I’m all for using DDT, but the claim the somehow malaria is a vestige of colonialism is bizarre

I was confused about that too. However, I came to the conclusion that the author was referring to the decision by the "colonial" powers to BAN DDT, thereby consigning Africa to deal with the scourge on their own.

[Zon]

That's how I read it.

It's the flip side of NIMBY. I've got one in my back yard, but can't have one in yours.

[stm]

DDT, PCB’s and Dioxin are all very similar chemically and are extremely toxic and carcinogenic. As if these people don’t have enough health issues (most of their own making), introducing deadly chemicals into their environment is the last thing they need at this point.

[EEDUDE]

Very interesting article in this months National Geographic re malaria and DDT.

[RKV]

Agreed. Neither is it curable. It IS highly preventable and at low cost using small amounts of DDT. That said, countries CHOOSE which pesticides they allow to be sold, so its just NOT the case that the return of malaria is a consequence of colonialism. What is the case is that this waste of skin is looking for a way to blame others for what he and his fellows have done.

[Sloth]

Why don’t you go live there?

[RKV]

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. DDT is not extremely toxic to humans, nor is it a proven carcinerogen. Historically it was used as a treatment for barbiturate poisoning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT#Effects_on_human_health

[preacher]

Source?

[GoldCountryRedneck]

Oddly, for years after, one could still buy DDT. It was sold as white field (football, etc)) marking material.

Inventories are probably long gone now tho'...

[Crawdad]

DDT, PCB’s and Dioxin are all very similar chemically and are extremely toxic and carcinogenic. As if these people don’t have enough health issues (most of their own making), introducing deadly chemicals into their environment is the last thing they need at this point.

Maybe the dumbest post I've ever read on this forum.

[ElkGroveDan]

DDT, PCB’s and Dioxin are all very similar chemically and are extremely toxic and carcinogenic.

DDT is not Dioxin, and no one is suggesting the use of Dioxin.

The whole jihad against DDT was based on bad science and myths -- like most of the political environmentalism that became fashionable in the last century.

http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.html

[Old North State]

It’s the flip side of NIMBY. I’ve got one in my back yard, but can’t have one in yours....
I suppose, but it seem a stretch, I mean it was banned everywhere after the hysteria caused by the junk science in “Silent Spring”, not just in Africa. In fact, I don’t think it was banned in Africa, they just could't get any body to give it to them any more.
To another point, the claims that DDT is toxic and carcinogenic have never been proved, the Carson claims remain unsubstantiated.

[eyedigress]

I got into a debate about DDT with one of our liberal managers at work last year about this very issue. There were no facts presented on her side about the reason DDT was out-lawed. (nor did I give them to her)After I stated that millions of Africans could have hope against Malaria if they would be able to use it, she said "Who cares about Africans, Republicans certainly don't!)

My conversation ended with her on that note, saying: "I don't have time for your drivel and neither does Africa"

[Farmer Dean]

If these African countries want DDT,why don’t they just manufacture their own?Or are they waiting for us to just give them some?

[Old Professer]

When I was four and just learning to read, along with driving my parents nuts by pronouncing everything literally the way it was spelled, I began to commit certain words to memory; “acknowledgement” was the very first just because it was on the first page of every book I ever read.

The acronym, DDT (along with the word “acronym”) became members of the first ten.

Diphenyl-dichloro-trichlorethane, I repeated over and over to myself as I fell asleep, determined to remember it forever because it had such a melodic sound to it.

Twenty-eight years later, the product was banned and I had filled up my child’s mind with all the words it could hold.

Then I was busy trying to raise a child of my own and make sure he didn’t embarrass himself in public by shouting Ply-Mouth everytime an ugly car went by; he must be taught to say plim-uth or he would be like me and out of place.

He shunned words as his sister behind him ignores them and neither cares as much about the things that once caught my mind before them and all the while I watch the parade go past my door and wonder whether I should have spent more time building floats or sweeping empty streets.