DDT

It is ironic to think that man might determine his own future by something so seemingly trivial as the choice of an insect spray - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

DDT
DDT

image by: Straight From a Scientist

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Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Turns 50


Reading Silent Spring today, it is disquieting to realize how much was already known in 1962 about the environmental health impacts of petrochemicals. Even more shocking is to recognize how little our regulatory response to these chemicals' effects has changed, despite the past five decades' great advances in scientific understanding.

Best known for its alarming account of DDT's decimation of birdlife across the United States, Silent Spring is widely credited with sparking the public concern that lead to the chemical's ban in the US ten years later. "Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings,…

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Resources

 Rachel Carson's Silent Spring Turns 50

Best known for its alarming account of DDT's decimation of birdlife across the United States, Silent Spring is widely credited with sparking the public concern that lead to the chemical's ban in the US ten years later.

The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson

Disturbed by the profligate use of synthetic chemical pesticides after World War II, Carson reluctantly changed her focus in order to warn the public about the long term effects of misusing pesticides.

African American Environmentalist Association

The Wall Street Journal endorses using DDT on its Editorial Opinion page (8/16/07) stating: "Opponents of DDT are only ensuring more misery and death." Great. We have been stating this for years. It is good to know that this respected publication has finally come around to agreeing with us.

Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry

This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for DDT, DDE, and DDD. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects.

CDC

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is an insecticide used in agriculture. The United States banned the use of DDT in 1972, but some countries still use the chemical. DDT has also been used in the past for the treatment of lice. It is still in use outside the United States for the control of mosquitoes that spread malaria. DDT and its related chemicals persist for a long time in the environment and in animal tissues.

EXTOXNET

DDT is an organochlorine insecticide used mainly to control mosquito-borne malaria; use on crops has generally been replaced by less persistent insecticides (79). It was extensively used during the Second World War among Allied troops and certain civilian populations to control insect typhus and malaria vectors.

Malaria Foundation International

Our Mission is to facilitate the development and implementation of solutions to the health, economic, and social problems caused by malaria.

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