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DDT is safe: just ask the professor who ate it for 40 years
Daily Telegraph ^ | originally: 07/19/2001 | Terence Kealey

Posted on 07/03/2002 4:09:24 AM PDT by backhoe


Culture/Society Editorial Editorial
Source: The Telegraph (U.K.)
Published: 07/19/2001 Author: Terence Kealey
Posted on 07/18/2001 16:55:32 PDT by Pokey78

THE World Health Organisation, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the UN environmental programme and its development programme, USAID, and almost all the other international representatives of the great and the good now campaign against DDT.

But, perversely, the Third World still uses it. 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?

DDT was introduced as an insecticide during the 1940s. In Churchill's words: "The excellent DDT powder has been found to yield astonishing results against insects of all kinds, from lice to mosquitoes."

And astonishing they were. DDT was particularly effective against the anopheles mosquito, which is the carrier of malaria, and people once hoped that DDT would eradicate malaria worldwide. Consider Sri Lanka. In 1946, it had three million cases, but the introduction of DDT reduced the numbers, by 1964, to only 29. In India, the numbers of malaria cases fell from 75 million to around 50,000.

But, in 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the book that launched the environmental movement. In that book, Carson showed how DDT was imperilling wildlife, particularly predators at the top of the food chain that accumulated the chemical in their fat and in their thinning egg shells.

Within a decade, the developed countries had banned DDT, as did some developing countries, to the detriment of their health. In Sri Lanka, cases of malaria soon rose to 500,000. Worldwide, malaria has returned with a vengeance, accounting annually for 300 million cases and, sadly, one million deaths, mainly of children.

As the Third World now knows, there is no ready substitute for DDT. The spraying of houses with DDT prevents malaria because most people are infected after dusk as they sleep indoors. DDT permeates the walls of buildings, and a single spray will provide indoor protection for months.

Other chemicals are available, but they are generally less effective, shorter-acting and - most importantly for the Third World - more expensive. 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.

Nor need DDT imperil wildlife. The destruction that Carson described was caused by the agricultural use of DDT as a mass insecticide in vast quantities on crops. But the discriminating application of DDT indoors involves only a tiny, contained, environmentally tolerable, reversible fraction of the dose. That is why some international health (as opposed to environmental) agencies, including Unicef, still support the judicious use of DTT. Even the WHO is now softening its stance.

Malaria was once endemic in Britain. Cromwell died of it and both Pepys and Shakespeare described it. Until the 1930s, it was still active in Essex. But we are lucky in our frosty climate, which kills anopheles, and we have eradicated the disease. Yet Greenpeace and other environmental agencies resist the appropriate use of DDT in the tropics.

Politics has long bedevilled malaria. Its first effective cure was quinine, which was discovered by Jesuit missionaries in South America during the 1630s, but for decades Protestants preferred to die rather than swallow "Jesuit's Powder". Today, Third World health is endangered by comfortable Western environmentalists, some of whom, discreetly, view black natives as threats to the local wildlife.

Supporting those black natives, however, are two researchers, Richard Tren and Roger Bate, whose Malaria and the DDT Story, recently published by the Institute for Economic Affairs in London, shows how to foster both a healthier and an environmentally friendlier Third World. Greenpeace, in its self-assurance, embodies a contemporary cultural imperialism as offensive as any Jesuit's.


1 Posted on 07/18/2001 16:55:32 PDT by Pokey78


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: ddt; deathcultivation; malaria; pesticides; un
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To: HiTech RedNeck
The funniest thing is that when I started drawing up a list of left-wing bloodsuckers whose legs I wanted to fall off, I couldn't stop! Maybe we could just dump the stuff on Washington and all the state Capitols, clean 'em out, and start all over again...
101 posted on 07/04/2002 7:05:28 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: backhoe
"child labor laws,"

I wonder how many people are scheming that a kid should not be allowed to do any work at home as that would fall under these child labor laws? Give it a few years.

My bet is that these self-righteous, pompous, "I'm right" people who do a Sherman march on some segment of humanity if shown the damage they have inflicted on humanity would say "it's for the birds".
102 posted on 07/04/2002 8:53:44 AM PDT by jwh_Denver
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To: backhoe; seamole
Now that you know, add new material as you find it. Also consider adding some of your older posts to the index. But in either case, please add a short comment as to why the thread fits in *Death Cultivation, pointing to specific post numbers where needed.

I wish I had done that myself sooner. Some very long threads have some really good material buried within at specific posts -- I'm sure you've seen that with a lot of threads. Without explanation or referencing it's often way too difficult to find the gems.

-Av

103 posted on 07/04/2002 10:26:35 AM PDT by Avoiding_Sulla
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To: 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.

That's just not true. All the government agencies that studied the issue in the early 70's said that it was not true. It was the politicians that banned it.

104 posted on 07/04/2002 10:35:10 AM PDT by Rodney King
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To: Sabertooth
Not that there's necessarily a demonstrated cause and effect, but Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon populations have increased greatly since the 60s, since DDT was banned. Since their declining numbers had made these species the prime DDT poster children, on its face the ban seems to have achieved its puropse. If the DDT banning isn't responsible, what is?

It was also perfectly acceptable to kill them until the 50's and early 60's in many parts of the country. Perhaps that, along with the increased forest land in this country are repsonsible.

105 posted on 07/04/2002 10:37:39 AM PDT by Rodney King
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To: Publius6961
There is absolutely NO evidence or experimentation linking DDT to population declines in birds. This was a lie. Look at population graphs and you will instantly see the lie. Rachel Carson was a socialist , " my agenda is more important than the truth", and unfortunately the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service which she headed and the EPA and many other "environmental" groups are still populated by her infiltrators and the school books still teach her lies as truth.
106 posted on 07/04/2002 10:45:03 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: Jay W
Why do you say Ben and Jerrys is laden with dioxin ? (2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzodioxin)
107 posted on 07/04/2002 10:47:18 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: chemainus
Why do you say Ben and Jerrys is laden with dioxin ? (2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzodioxin)

Junkscience.com bought a tub of Ben & Jerry's and tested it. It found dioxin levels far higher than the amounts that Ben & Jerry are always bitching about. Of course, no Attorney General's sued them.

108 posted on 07/04/2002 10:49:03 AM PDT by Rodney King
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To: shigure
100 million people are infected with Dengue Fever...coming soon to you because we now have a vector in the imported Aedes albopictus mosquito, whereas before this infestation by the 'Tiger Mosquito' we did not have a vector. Also remember it is not safe now in the US to be "eaten up with mosquitoes' because of West Nile Virus. In addition, the D.C. area has reported incidents of malaria...it will join the pool soon because we have the vector in place. DDT would stop all this. Look at Junk Science for debunking the Rachel Carson lies about DDT. Silent Spring, taught to your children as gospel , was admitted by Carson herself to be a lie.
109 posted on 07/04/2002 10:52:40 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: TomB
Post #25 by TomB ....thank you...and everyone please read it and forward this to all your friends and Congressmen....a little truth would be good for them too !
110 posted on 07/04/2002 10:55:22 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: eagleninja
EAGLENINJA is so full of misinformation....I have read the papers on egg shell thinning and not a single one of them produces ANY notion of eggshell thinning due to DDT....quite the contrary, the decline was due to poor nutrition and loss of habitat due to large numbers of "family farms" denuding millions of acres because the people were starving !!! Large agribusiness...some may hate it...is responsible for the resurgence of bird, deer and predator populations.... not a damned thing done by the environmentalists or the Rachel Carson socialist liars brought these populations back!!!!
111 posted on 07/04/2002 11:00:32 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: Rodney King
Thank you Rodney King....dioxin is a common bleach used to make paper white....it is very resistant to solar or biological degradation therefore it amplifies as it goes up the food chain....my guess is that the paper carton of B&J is whitened by dioxin and it leaches into the ice cream over time....BTW watch your coffee filters...i wash the filter if I have to use a white one...try to use only brown or even better, the gold mesh filters....dioxin will be found wherever you find white paper...it is a harmful substance
112 posted on 07/04/2002 11:06:49 AM PDT by chemainus
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To: chemainus
Thanks, I didn't know that.
113 posted on 07/04/2002 11:10:01 AM PDT by Rodney King
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To: medved
...somebody needs to start passing the formula for DDT around on the internet.

If everybody did it, the fricking feds couldn't do a damned thing about it.

What theoretically could happen to you if you brewed up your own DDT to fog your woods and yard with? Would JBTs come with flash-bangs and kick your door in?

114 posted on 07/04/2002 11:25:04 AM PDT by AK2KX
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To: chemainus
Why do you say Ben and Jerrys is laden with dioxin ? (2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzodioxin)

Because it is! See post #108. It pays to pay attention to the news.

115 posted on 07/04/2002 11:39:39 AM PDT by Jay W
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To: chemainus
...quite the contrary, the decline was due to poor nutrition and loss of habitat due to large numbers of "family farms" denuding millions of acres...

Mmmmaybe for eagles, but I'm not sure how that applies to falcons, who feast of the type of small prey that's often a pest on farms, like birds and rodents.

If falcons do well in cities and suburbs, it's hard to see how they wouldn't thrive on a family farm.




116 posted on 07/04/2002 11:48:43 AM PDT by Sabertooth
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To: B. A. Conservative
"What are the costs to wildlife because of the fire ant invasion. My quail hunting buddies don't hunt much anymore because they claim fire ants eat the baby quail before they are large enough to defend themselves. Anybody remember something called the "law of unintended consequences"?"

They tried using DDT to stop the fire ants. It didn't work. I was in grade school in Louisiana in the Fifties and can remember the airplanes flying over, dropping tons of DDT-laced corn meal in the campaign. THAT massive over-use was probably the reason for any ecological effects on bird-egg shells. However--I agree that DDT should NOT have been banned. There are places and uses where it is the correct solution to the problem (i.e. termites, malaria prevention, etc.). The evidence of any MAJOR ecological or human effects are lacking.

117 posted on 07/04/2002 12:03:03 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: chemainus
"....dioxin is a common bleach used to make paper white....it is very resistant to solar or biological degradation therefore it amplifies as it goes up the food chain.."

Nope--chlorinated dioxins are the result of the use of CHLORINE to bleach paper white. It is a byproduct of such use. However--chlorinated dioxins are also NATURALLY caused by any relatively low-temperature combustion process (i.e. brush and forest fires). I wonder what the chlorinated dioxin concentration in Arizona and New Mexico looks like these days.

118 posted on 07/04/2002 12:28:56 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Avoiding_Sulla
Some very long threads have some really good material buried within at specific posts

Yes, that's a great strength of this site- locked within a shortcoming... finding the material! I keep telling people that even if they hate the opinions they see here, they still need to cruise the sight because it has such good information and articles.

119 posted on 07/04/2002 4:19:49 PM PDT by backhoe
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To: Sabertooth
go look at the population charts for yourself
120 posted on 07/05/2002 6:19:47 AM PDT by chemainus
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