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0 pointsfalk12y ago0 comments

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is credited with starting the anti-DDT movement. It's been discredited and is full of junk science and needless corporation-bashing. Read the paper Chemicals and Pests which tears apart Carson's book. [1]

Checkout the New York Times article from 1962 titled "Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Out Real Science" [2]

A choice quote:

"Ms. Carson used dubious statistics and anecdotes (like the improbable story of a woman who instantly developed cancer after spraying her basement with DDT) to warn of a cancer epidemic that never came to pass. She rightly noted threats to some birds, like eagles and other raptors, but she wildly imagined a mass “biocide.” She warned that one of the most common American birds, the robin, was “on the verge of extinction” — an especially odd claim given the large numbers of robins recorded in Audubon bird counts before her book."

You may also want to check out the story of Professor Kenneth Mellanby who ate DDT for 40 years. [3]

Make sure to take a look at the scientific paper mentioned in this Times article. It concludes "DDT is practically harmless to humans who get it on their skins or breathe it into their lungs." [4]

[1] http://www1.umn.edu/ships/pesticides/library/baldwin1962.pdf

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/science/earth/05tier.html?...

[3] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/4264030/DDT-is-safe-just-...

[4] http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,812248,00.h...

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3 comments · 1 top-level

mistercow12y ago· 2 in thread

But the environmental effects regarding birds, as well as the impact of indiscriminate spraying on mosquito resistance to DDT are a far cry from "safe". Regardless of whether Carson was completely right about everything she said, it's silly to claim that DDT is generally safe when it clearly is not.

falkOP12y ago

"DDT is generally safe when it clearly is not."

I'd love for you to cite your source on that. When used properly DDT is generally safe and has saved millions of lives. There is no arguing that it doesn't do a great job killing mosquitos. Resistance is mostly due to agricultural use. The video claimed we are using chemicals toxic to humans and flashed some footage of DDT being sprayed. That's simply a false assertion on the part of the maker's of the video and the product. They're trying to use junk science to push their product onto naive consumers.

mistercow12y ago

>I'd love for you to cite your source on that.

Do you actually need me to cite my source on the fact that it harms birds and can lead to resistance? I can, if you need me to, but I didn't think those facts were in dispute. The extent of the problem is arguable, but all I'm asserting is that these are measurable effects. There is also evidence that DDT is harmful to humans, but as far as I can tell, it doesn't seem to be significantly more so than a ton of other things that we happily accept. It seems unlikely, for example, that DDT usage at its peak killed more people per year than air pollution from coal power.

Anyway, I think your general point is fair and that it was irresponsible to try to scare people away from controlled DDT use on mosquitoes. But I also think it's irresponsible to assert that DDT is safe. It's OK to use solutions that aren't safe if the benefits outweigh the risks.

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