What is the latest thinking of the use of DDT?
I have been in correspondence with someone living in Africa, who says people
over reacted to this pesticide and that it's a crime it has been banned. He
reckons it should be reintroduced to third world countries.
Here are some of his arguments:
Introduced in 1945, DDT's instant success led to a Nobel Prize for the
scientist who discovered the pesticide's effectiveness. DDT is estimated by
the World Health Organisation to have saved some 50 million lives. The
pesticide essentially wiped out malaria in America and Europe.
The benefit to poor nations was also enormous. For instance, after the
introduction of DDT, malaria diminished dramatically in India, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh
Unfortunately, the pesticide was also used indiscriminately for agriculture.
Although there is no persuasive scientific evidence that DDT harms humans,
it did reduce the population of raptors and songbirds. Rachel Carson's
Silent Spring helped generate pressure on the Environmental Protection
Agency to ban DDT in the United States in 1972, despite the lack of evidence
that it harms humans.
Lorna Bloom.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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