Posted on 05/07/2008 9:23:28 PM PDT by kingattax
Decades after most countries stopped spraying DDT, frozen stores of the insecticide are now trickling out of melting Antarctic glaciers. The change means Adélie penguins have recently been exposed to the chemical, according to a new study.
The trace levels found will not harm the birds, but the presence of the chemical could be an indication that other frozen pollutants will be released because of climate change, says Heidi Geisz, a marine biologist at Virginia Institute of Marine Science in Gloucester in the US. She led a team that sampled DDT levels in the penguins.
She worries that glaciers could release an alphabet soup of chemical pollutants into the ocean, including PCBs and PBDEs – industrial chemicals that have been linked to health problems in humans.
"DDT is not the only chemical that these birds are ingesting and it is certainly not the worst," Geisz says. Trickle-down pollution
Chemists first synthesised DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) in 1874, but the chemical wasn't used an insecticide until the 1940s. DDT spraying slashed malaria rates in many countries, but the chemical's environmental toll was starting to cause concern.
Rachel Carson's 1962 book, Silent Spring, brought these concerns to the general public, and described, amongst other things, how birds of prey exposed to high levels of DDT lay thin, easily cracked eggs.
In 1972, the US banned the pesticide, and the UK followed suit in 1984. Some countries still use DDT to fight mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue, but worldwide usage has plummeted – from 40,000 tonnes per year in 1980 to 1,000 tonnes per year now.
DDT latches onto small airborne particles then migrates toward the poles. Geisz, who has worked in Antarctica since 1999, sought to gauge long-term changes in pollutants found in the continent's seabirds
(Excerpt) Read more at environment.newscientist.com ...
We’re doomed, k. We’re doomed!
you got your bunker built yet ?
There MUST be a point at which the populace says...ENOUGH already....you’re ridiculous!!!
I have built my bunker. It’s waterproof in case the glaciers melt and the water rises.
:-)
The myth of DDT’s toxic effects on humans and birds have been debunked. Environmentalists with the help of Rachel Carson and her book are responsible for millions of deaths of children in Africa because of the ban for years in the use against Malaria. Death rates have dropped drastically in recent years because even the UN now supports the use of DDT to combat Malaria and it is back in use in developing countries. It is a shame that DDT is still reported as a villain by the MSM.
wasn’t there some scientist who ate a handful of ddt and is still living today?
the green hordes are running rampant
The trace levels found will not harm the birds, but...
You all should pay anyway!
Yeah....and they vote, too....
Look at it this way - penguins will no longer die of malaria.
Chicken Little is a happy camper these days....the sky is falling, the sky is falling.
too bad someone couldn't convince them that when they breathe it makes mother earth cry
This is excellent news! When the poles get warm enough to breed mosquitos the DDT will take care of them pronto.
I have built my bunker. It’s waterproof in case the glaciers melt and the water rises.
—
no doubt, with a big sign
No Penguins Allowed! :-)
great plan, w33 !!!
If we’re doomed we’re doomed. I’m driving to work. Then walking to synagogue on Saturday.
OK! You said it. Now I don't have to.
I just knew it. We are doomed. LOL
I wonder, how big will the grant need to be for dear Heidi to determine the full extent of the obvious catastrophe, and guide us in restorative measures.
On the bright side, malaria is at an all-time low among the penguins of Antarctica.
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