It’s Time to Stop Malaria Now
Having seen the ravages of that disease first hand in Tanzania, I am pleased to see the US gov’t reverse it’s anti-DDT policy (link).
I am also dismayed at the anti-DDT propaganda that became environmentalist dogma – at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
There never was any scientific evidence that DDT posed a risk to humans or wildlife. An EPA administrative law judge said as much after seven months and 9,000 pages of testimony about DDT in 1972. DDT wasn’t responsible for the decline in bald eagle populations, didn’t cause bird egg shell-thinning and didn’t cause cancer in humans, the judge determined.DDT was nonethless banned in the U.S. when then-EPA administrator William Ruckleshaus reversed without explanation the decision of the judge who actually heard all the DDT testimony – Ruckleshaus heard none of it and never read any of the transcript. As it was later revealed, Ruckleshaus was a member of the Audubon Society and raised money for the Environmental Defense Fund – the two activist groups that led the charge for the DDT ban.
The fix was in for DDT, as environmental activists subsequently exported the ban to the rest of the world – with horrific consequences, including tens of millions killed and billions made ill by malaria over time.
ligneus:
The damage the ‘do gooders’ do is horrendous, and they have no shame, so convinced they are of the rightness of their cause.
7 May 2006, 9:18 pmIndy:
hey dipwit, we still manufacture DDT, DDT isn’t even banned in america for public health use, and we export it all over the world (the EPA’s dec. 31 1972 statement, made under the administration of the guy mentioned above, should help clarify this for you.
we just don’t use it for, say, boll wevil control anymore. Anyone who tries to tell you that DDT was cataglorically banned is lying-
And the quote you have above is lying in a really ugly, ommisive way. DDT is harmless to bald eagles. It’s immediate breakdown product in acidic, wet (say, swampy) environments is DDE- which biomagnifies and chokes their calcium metabolism dead.
Curiously enough, the whole banning-DDT-killed millions hoax started out with Lyndon LaRouche in the mid 90’s. A few years ago, when the WHO was thinking about doing a global anti-smoking campaign, a bunch of tobbacco industry lobbyists ginned up this whole contreversy to try and deflect them onto malaria management. Their sites and publications have turned this idea into a zombie- despite the fact it’s totally stupid, it never dies.
everything i’m saying is on good authority, take a look, and if you’ve got any intelectual integrity, you’d better pull this post.
//sorry about the google-based drive by…
12 June 2007, 11:42 pmAdministrator:
Indy
Dipwit???
The blockquote comes from the source. Take it up with Steve Malloy, Junk Science at Fox News.
I’m just glad to see it being promoted again.
After mosquitoes feed, they tend to settle on walls. Spraying walls is extremely effective at controlling them.
13 June 2007, 6:13 amAnother pesticide that is effective for wall spraying is based on a fungus. For some unknown reason this pesticide is especially effective against malaria infected mosquitoes.
This could pressure the bug to evolve its own defense against catching malaria in the first place.