kirsten vanstone's List: ddt pros and cons

• dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane
• Dr Paul Müller, won the Nobel Prize for it in 1948. DDT was first used in  disease control in 1944, among typhus-ridden soldiers released from prison camps
• successful in reducing mosquito populations – and thus malaria rates – but is  banned in many countries because of its allegedly dangerous side-effects
• for use in malaria control
• burden of the disease was reduced in Afri
• The mosquito-borne malaria parasite kills over 2 million people annually.  Africa, where 90 percent of those fatalities occur, bears most of the human and  economic costs of the disease
• ban on DDT has increased the mosquito population
• miraculous public health developments in history
• drop from 1-2 million cases a year to close to zero
• went from 2,800,000 in 1948, before the introduction of DDT, down to 17 in 1964  — then, tragically, back up to 2,500,000 by 1969, five years after DDT use was  discontinued there
• But in the short term, DDT is by far the most effective way of limiting and  reversing the plight of malaria sufferers.
• offers medical companies the opportunity to market much more expensive medical  solutions to nations that desperately need to combat malaria.
• "No DDT-related human fatalities or chronic illnesses have ever been recorded,  even among the DDT-soaked workers in anti-malarial programs or among prisoners  who were fed DDT as volunteer test subjects -- let alone among the 600 million  to 1 billion who lived in repeatedly-sprayed dwellings at the height of the  substance's use." Even if there is harm done to man, which there is not, would  one rather have traces of DDT in one’s body, or be dead from malaria?

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• DDT the first of the chlorinated organic insecticides, was originally prepared  in 1873, but it was not until 1939 that Paul Muller of Geigy Pharmaceutical in  Switzerland discovered the effectiveness of DDT
• increased enormously on a worldwide basis after World War II, primarily because  of its effectiveness against the mosquito that spreads malaria and lice that  carry typhus
• the ideal insecticideit is cheap and of relatively low toxicity to mammals (oral  LD50 is 300 to 500 mg/kg).
• developed resistance to DDT
• have a high toxicity toward fish.

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• Meanwhile, more than a million people die per year of malaria, and one child in  Africa dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

• proven savior for many crops
• "When U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief William Ruckelshaus  was about to announce his decision to ban DDT in June 1972, he confided to a  friend, "There is no scientific basis for banning this chemical --- this is a  political decision."" The 'friend' was never identified however.  In a commentary the magazine concluded (page 56): "The EPA and  environmentalists must be held accountable for their crime: There was not a  single human death from DDT usage; there have been untold thousands of deaths  and millions of disease-stricken persons as a result of the DDT  banning."
• There wasn't any disagreement about any lethalness to humans however because the  government never claimed there were any deaths, and there wasn't, not a single  one. In summation the article concluded the 'political' reason for banning DDT  was because it was 'saving too many third-world lives'... an  utterly shocking observation.
• that it is persistent in the soil with a 'half-life' of about 75 years. The term  'half-life' is commonly used to describe the amount of time (in years) it takes  for a particular chemical to breakdown naturally (by half). It is the only  negative attribute which everyone seems to agree.
• So, if no deaths can be attributed to DDT, is it dangerous to one's health?  Well, in the late 1970's a University of Arizona professor purposely ate DDT  everyday, he made it a part of his diet to publicly demonstrate it was harmless  to humans

• During 1960-1961, I worked for a company which manufactured DDT and I  personally operated the dust mill. Over a period of 2-3 months each year it ran  almost everyday, sometimes 14-16 hours a day. I was either making a batch of any  of several DDT formulations or else bagging and stacking it. It was not unusual  we'd produce 20 tons daily and by the end of the day I was always covered with  DDT dust, my clothes and hair white from it. We did, however, wear  cartridge-type breathing masks.

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• • get more from this site
• with short residual activity (DDT alternatives) is not an affordable method of  malaria control in rural areas

• An infectious disease characterized by cycles of chills, fever, and sweating,  caused by the parasitic infection of red blood cells by a protozoan