A renewed role sought for DDT in malaria war

The rush to ban DDT has cost literally millions of lives to malaria in the third world. Check the cover story of July 2,2001 issue of "The New American".

They are going to need to bring back DDT to fight the West Nile virus also. It is rapidly spreading across the US. It is now in Memphis, Tennessee.

With more mosquito borne illnesses in the United States, e.g. West Nile Virus, I believe that the pendulum is poised to swing back towards some sense in responsible pesticide use. Perhaps unrestrained use of DDT caused some significant environmental problems, but I do not recall any effort to regulate its use; the governemnt just banned it completely. I live in extreme eastern North Carolina. When we have an extended dry period followed by an inch of rain, the mosquitos become unbearable. While some of the available insecticides slow these bugs down a little, nothing works for long and even then we still have swarms of mosquitos that seem to have survivied the sprayings. I remember the days of running in the fog behind the municpal DDT truck that fogged the mosquitoes in my hometown. My mother used to drag my brother and me out of the fogged DDT by the ears, which helps explain the nickname "Wingnut".

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the pesticide caused their eggs to become too fragile to hold their tiny embryos.

From Dixie Lee Ray's Trashing the Planet an excellent antidote to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring:

"In the case of thin egg shells, it is a phenomenon that predates use of DDT. It has been known for decades. There are many causes: diets low in calcium or Vitamin D, fright, high nocturnal temperatures, various toxic substances, and diseases such as Newcastle's disease. Experiments designed to show a toxic effect from eating DDT failed, even though the experimenters fed their birds (pheasant and quail) from 6,000 to 20,000 times more DDT than the 0.3 parts per million residue of DDT found in food."

Also, "DDT is not a carcinogen. Laboratory studies have reported liver deformations in mice, but not in any other experimental animal (including rats). This is the basis for the charge that DDT is "cancer-causing." The doses, given by injection, required to cause the deformation of a mouse's liver were about 100,000 times higher than any possible ingestion from DDT residues in food."

"These data and much more were presented at the 1971 hearing and the recommendation, after considering 300 technical documents and the testimony of 150 scientists, was that a total ban on DDT was not desirable, based on the scientific evidence. The hearing examiner declared in his final decision: 'There is a present need for the continued use of DDT for the essential uses defined in this case.'

That was in April 1972. Nevertheless, two months later, on June 14, 1972, William Ruckelshaus, EPA administrator, banned all uses of DDT unless an essential public purpose could be proved. Whey did he do it? Two years earlier, Ruckelshaus had stated his support of DDT, citing its 'amazing and exemplary record of safe use.' Was he trying to curry favor with the environmental activist organizations? (When he left the EPA, he signed membership solicitation letters for the Environmental Defense Fund, the organization that led the fight against DDT.) Or was he trying to demonstrate muscle and establish the power of the EPA?

Years later, Ruckelshaus admitted that 'decisions by the government involving the use of toxic substances are political...[and] the ultimate judgment remains political....[In] the case of pesticides, the power to make this judgment has been delegated to the Administrator of EPA."

I live in Louisiana,,we cannot, even with spraying, go outside for about five mnths of the year. We live on a lake and it rains alot. The mosquitoes are terrible. About a hundred years ago most of my fathers family were wiped out in an epidemic related to mosquitoes, yellow fever I think. Now there is W Nile virus. I spent my childhood with my dad coming in a spraying out room with one of those sprayers for mosquitoes with flit, I think it is ddt. I vote bring back ddt and make life bearable. Or we may get one of those mosquito buster machines, 8 hundred bucks, but I don't know if they even work.

Rachel Carson is one of the greatest mass murderers of all time. Al Gore wrote the foreword for the latest edition of Silent Spring.

Another excellent, but long, treatment of DDT and other chlorinated compounds, by Michelle Malkin and Michael Fumento is Rachel's Folly (PDF viewer required)

I live in Louisiana,,we cannot, even with spraying, go outside for about five mnths of the year

Excuse me, while I adjust my tinfoil hat.

First they ban DDT, and try to ban anything else that might actually work.

Then they re-dub "swamps" as "wet lands", something to be preserved at all cost.

These people are at war against all humanity. They even say as much. No one listens.