[backhoe]

Since we can't bump older articles, I'm re-posting this for all to read.

After heavy rains here in south Georgia, we are plagued by swarms of mosquetoes- and nothing currently legal to use seems to faze them.

I long for the days of DDT.
( Drop Dead Twice... )

[backhoe]

A little more on this and other frauds:

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

[Aaron_A]

whadaya know...

[Publius6961]

...DDT is Safe...

Who cares?
What's a few million lives protected from disease if we might have saved a few birds?

(/sarcasm)

[Tourist Guy]

>>>To those who believe that America under George W Bush and his gas-guzzling, permafrost-drilling accomplices is the source of all global pollution, this Third World defection is disappointing. Where are the virtuous blacks when we need them? <<<

Could someone please translate the use of that term from English to American? Thanks

[niteowl77]

Deja vu bump. A good friend's grandfather used to sell farm chemicals, and one of his sales techniques was to drink a glass of water with DDT mixed in it. He was still functioning into his 80's.

I think mosquitoes avoided him too.

[Steve0113]

ping

[Jay W]

If you want to get full benefit from eatin' DDT, it's best to sprinkle some on the dioxin-laden Ben & Jerry's ice cream.....

[TomB]

100 things you should know about DDT

[eagleninja]

It is a well established fact that DDT destroyed the egg shells of a wide range of birds including the bald eagle, our nation's symbol of freedom.

If I have to swat a few bugs in order for my kids to be able to see an eagle soaring across the sky, so be it.

Not all chemical compounds are safe. That's why DDT was banned. Wake up and smell the coffee and let's move on to some real issues.

[medved]

Rachel Carson needs to be burned at the stake and somebody needs to start passing the formula for DDT around on the internet.

H.L. Mencken had a plan to end prohibition which would have worked had the feds not wised up and ended it themselves when they did. Mencken went to Germany and put himself through the standard course in brewing beer at his own expense and was in the process of teaching five of his friends, on condition that each teach five of HIS friends, on condition that...

The same idea would work with DDT. If everybody did it, the fricking feds couldn't do a damned thing about it.

[TomB]

A ping if you are still lurking.

[a history buff]

The article ignores the most salient point. With every 3 degree celsius rise in temperature, the speed of most organic processes doubles. In the tropics, DDT decomposes and is harmless; in the northern(most) latitudes, where Silent Spring was researched, it lingers.

[ninenot]

I believe that the prof who "eats" a pinch a day is/was teaching at Michigan State U. Actually, he ingested a full teaspoon of the stuff daily.

Dr. Elizabeth Whelan wrote a great book about all the hokum and bullhockey "science" used to make DDT appear to be similar to high-level nuclear waste.

She also reports on the Congressional testimony surrounding the ban, when some pro-ban type (with a lot of credentials) was testifying. Some Congressman asked whether a ban would not increase the amount of malaria in the Far East. And the 'expert' said "So what? They're just brown people."

[SamAdams76]

They used to spray our neighborhoods for mosquitoes. I looked forward to hearing those trucks rumble through the streets at night for it meant I could sit out in the yard again after dusk. Since they stopped spraying, it is almost impossible to go into your backyard after about 5PM. The mosquitoes are everywhere.

Bring back DDT!

[Old Professer]

And DDT is extraordinarily safe for humans. Prof Kenneth Mellanby lectured on it for more than 40 years, and during each lecture he would eat a pinch.

I never heard of Kenneth Mellanby, but I know that Dr. Gordon Edwards (Emeritus U.C. Berkeley) testified to Congress and advocated against the ban and for its continued use and drank the chemical during many subsequent lectures. However, ignorance is always embraced by the arrogant.

[Poser]

I go to canada and buy Sugar Twin to bring back to the US. It uses Sodium Cyclamate as an artificial sweetener. Remember when researchers in Canada soaked rats in the stuff? They developed skin lesions. The US banned it.

Canadians were smart enough to know that soaking rats for months wasn't the same as eating minute quantities.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Gee, Rachel did you stop to think that it could be the decreased number of bugs to eat, rather than the DDT, that hurt the birds?

One concern: what does DDT do to pollinating insects such as bees? Is there such a thing as too much of it?

[S.O.S121.500]

BOOKbump

[Coleus]

i thought it was an american professor ate the ddt on a weekly basis.

[dalereed]

I sprayed the backyard patio and breathed DDT when we ate outside in the summer and breathed it durring the 40s.

I love the smell of DDT!