DDT is safe: just ask the professor who ate it for 40 years

Daily Telegraph ^ | originally: 07/19/2001 | Terence Kealey

[dalereed]

In the 40s we used to barbecue and eat outside most of the time durring the summer and it was my job to spray DDT before we had dinner with a flit gun and I loved the smell of it. It was a daily routine for years and I sure haven't had any ill effects from it, in fact I haven't been sick for 57 years and have never had the flu so maybe it helped develop a better immune system.

[backhoe]

I'd be interested in sprinkling DDT on Ben & Jerry to see if they are actually insectoid life-forms...

[backhoe]

We used to put "somekinda" additive in the lawnmower gas that killed the bejesus out of skeeters, gnats, and horseflies, and I'd bet it was DDT!

[TomB]

100 things you should know about DDT

[backhoe]

May Rachael Carson and her ilk burn in Hell.

I don't disagreee... the human toll of this early, fraudulent story has been horrible.

There have been over the years a series of scams that managed-- partly by dumb luck, partly with the help of a lazy, gullible media, and partly by the public's willingness to put too much stock in what they see on the TV-- to become "the accepted wisdom."

Freon was one, asbestos another, and perhaps the alleged dangers of nuclear power yet another. The Corvair also comes to mind- by the time Nader's book was published, the "tuck-under" problem had been corrected, but perception is everything, and bad perception killed the Corvair.

All those, however, were sort of a nuisance, a bother, an expense- but didn't kill people.

The effects of banning DDT on the basis of dubious science, however, left a toll of dead people behind it.

[backhoe]

Appreciate the link!

You know, maybe we can turn this thing around, with the speed and ease of information retrieval on the web. I know I stewed in silence over Freon because I had no easy way ( the pre-1996 era, before the ban ) to show people how badly they were being conned.

Maybe enough people will see this information and realize they were swindled.

[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.

[chemainus]

"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". .......Rachel Carson, when confronted with the fact that she had made up both the epidemiology and the experiments and faked the data replied " My agenda is more important than the truth...." Someone show me reliable information that DDT caused anything like Carson touted...JUNK SCIENCE from the beginning and the US Fish and Wildlife Service is proudly carrying on the traditio0n of the socialist liar Rachel Carson

[Squawk 8888]

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.

Goebels would be proud. That eggshell myth was debunked back in the 60s, there is no evidence of any kind that the eggs of exposed birds are any more fragile, but of course it gets repeated so often that nobody ever hears the truth. MOF the use of DDT actually caused the population of all species of birds (including the bald eagle) to increase because the biggest killer of birds is insect-borne disease.

[Lurker]

Here's wishing your kids come down with a nice case of malaria.

Somehow I doubt they'll be able to enjoy the sight of an eagle soaring when they are wracked with cramps. But hey, it'll be worth it, right?

Besides, who cares about all those darkies dying around the world. It isn't your problem is it?

L

[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.

[StolarStorm]

"Besides, who cares about all those darkies dying around the world. It isn't your problem is it?"

That comment is out of line and has no place in this sort of discussion.

[backhoe]

You did read the evidence in those links, didn't you?

[Sabertooth]

That eggshell myth was debunked back in the 60s, there is no evidence of any kind that the eggs of exposed birds are any more fragile, but of course it gets repeated so often that nobody ever hears the truth. MOF the use of DDT actually caused the population of all species of birds (including the bald eagle) to increase because the biggest killer of birds is insect-borne disease.

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?

[backhoe]

Your support is appreciated- than you.

[medved]

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.

A buddy of mine studied under one of America's leading falconry artists, in fact the guy who released the perigrines in Baltimore, and claims that guy said the whole thing about DDT and birds was a bunch of BS.

[backhoe]

A buddy of mine studied under one of America's leading falconry artists, in fact the guy who released the perigrines in Baltimore, and claims that guy said the whole thing about DDT and birds was a bunch of BS.

Thank you.

Since the results of the first eggshell study could not be duplicated or replicated later, it was obviously something other than DDT causing the problem.

[Steve0113]

If the DDT banning isn't responsible, what is?

Didn't t become illegal to shoot them, about the same time? Or to build where they nest?