Rethinking DDT

Fox News ^ | June 21, 2002 | Steven Milloy

[freedomcrusader]

June 30, 1972 is a date that lives in junk science infamy. That

[freedomcrusader]

When the book 'The Decline and Fall of the United States' is written, this will be a chapter, if not part of the chapter called 'Environmental Nazis'

[Rodney King]

Good post.

[Ole Okie]

They built their "success" on junk science and the bodies of third world children.

Too much of the laws made and enacted by our congers (sic!) and state legislatures are driven by junk science.

I remember that toward the end of World War II, DDT was the "magic bullet" used to delouse myriads of our captured enemies and new-found friends (Italians). It saved untold lives.

Rachel Carson was wrong, and in being wrong, she constituted a pox on the United States and the rest of the world.

[IncPen]

About a year ago The New Yorker had a lengthy article on DDT. It quoted the son of the man who created DDT as saying his father would eat DDT, and have his kids eat it, to demonstrate that it was safe.

Neither suffered any ill effects.

DDT was well on its way to eradicating mosquito-borne diseases in the 3rd world and in the US; now there are resistant mosquitos.

Ironically the son of the inventor is now an exterminator...

[moyden]

Every environementalist is a lying thug.

[alloysteel]

The fatal flaw for DDT was the relatively long persistence of the substance and its metabolites in nature, and the fact that detection techniques have been able to trace its presence into very small parts per billion in the environment. Also, because of the very effectiveness of DDT when first introduced, the law of natural selection favored the survival of that small part of the insect population that had natural resistance to the effects of DDT. But for a while, a LOT of malaria swamps got cleaned out.

[rebelyell]

The writer of this article is an idiot. There has never been a hunting season on falcons or eagles, so they were never hunted to near extinction. People that shoot raptors are shooters, not hunters.

[backhoe]

This is old, but if you scroll well into it, there's some info on the DTT scam:

Scams, Scalawags, and an all-too-gullible Public...famous frauds sold to America

[SteamshipTime]

I agree, and I'd add that most probably, these birds were shot for their plumage and for taxidermy.

From what I've seen and read, bald eagles and peregrine falcons do fine in semi-urban, and even urban, locales.

[ijcr]

From 1956 to 1969, the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Aid, (USAID) gave $790 million to the Global Eradication of Malaria Program. From 1955 to about 1970, USAID gave approximately $1 billion to WHO and various national malaria eradication programs.

Along came Rachael Carson et al.

The resurgence of malaria in Asia in the late 1960s and early 1970s provides a dramatic example of how quickly vector-borne disease trends can change. Malaria, transmitted to humans by anopheline mosquitoes, had been nearly eliminated in Sri Lanka in the 1960s, with only 31 and 17 cases reported in 1962 and 1963, respectively. By 1967, 3,468 cases were reported.

In 1968, however, a major epidemic caused 440,644 cases. In 1969, 537,705 cases were reported, the disease has never been effectively controlled since then.

In India, a similar resurgence of malaria occurred , with sporadic outbreaks of disease beginning in the early 1970s and nearly seven million cases by 1976. Sri Lanka and India are classic examples of the lack of sustainability of vertically structured prevention/control/elimination programs.

A change in strategy from vector control to case finding and drug treatment were mainly responsible for the resurgence of malaria in these countries.

A great book to read is Mosquito: A Natural History of Man’s Most Persistent and Deadly Foe by Andrew Spielman.

DDT's persistance is it's strength,the female mosquito lands on vertical walls after feeding on blood.A coating of DDT on walls usually lasts 2-3 months and wipes out the breeding females.

There can be no doubt that Carson's name belongs right up there next to Stalin and Hitler in the super mass murder hall of shame.

[narby]

There has never been a hunting season on falcons or eagles, so they were never hunted to near extinction. People that shoot raptors are shooters, not hunters.

One of the fads from the 30's and forward, in the movies, scouting, turist geegaws and such were large indian headdresses with eagle feathers. Where'd all those feathers come from?

I have no doubt that in the past, there was not the respect for hunting seasons as now. I'm not even sure when "hunting seasons" were started, but I suspect it wasn't until around the turn of the century. Which was why the author says populations for raptors was rebounding already during the 60's, hunting seasons were being set, and followed by that time.

[The Great Satan]

There can be no doubt that Carson's name belongs right up there next to Stalin and Hitler in the super mass murder hall of shame.

Bears repeating.