Pete Clarke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Kennuchelover,
>
> "Pesticides HAVE been implicated in human health
> problems, but "minor residue" would naturally
> imply "minor problem" COMPARED to "heavy residue".
> Hey, some industry shill once even ate a large
> quantity of DDT on camera, for propaganda purposes
> ("see how safe it is!"). This doesn't mean they're
> "safe", even in minor amounts, especially where
> future generations are concerned."
>
> Yes they have - unfortunately only certain
> pesticides have, and it isn't always helpful to
> tar everything with the same brush. Not all
> pesticides accumulate in the environment and many
> break down within several weeks - hence the
> repeated spraying.

The problem is, that many of these daughter compounds are ALSO damaging, and that dammed few of them have been studied. They test how long it takes for pesticides to break down, they rarely look at WHAT they break down into, and what THOSE compounds react into when in the presence of breakdown products of OTHER pesticides & herbicides, not to mention natural biological compounds found in nature..... quite literally, the permutations are nearly infinite, and we know very little about them.

But.... what we do know, especially with respect to environmental & health impacts "long after the pesticides have supposedly broken down in the environment".... is disquieting.

> DDT wasn't good in general -
> unless you were living with malaria, in which case
> it may have bought your children a chance.

Eh, I'd say a better investment would be BT, gambusia, and mosquito netting. Maybe some bat houses as well.

They've got BT variants ("Mosquito Dunks") that kill mosquitos but are NOT toxic to humans, and aren't thought harmful to most things with the possible exception of "maybe" some insects.

Gambusia are a small fish (self reproducing mosquito control!) that eat mosquito larvae, yet don't take over an ecosystem.

Mosquito netting is self evident.

Bats... and some birds.... eat hundreds of mosquitos per hour (DDT only works if you hit the breeding pool, bats & birds will eat them ANYWHERE, especially in the vicinity of their lodgings. So if you put up housing in human villages.....)

I honestly think that world wide use of DDT had more to do with corporate influence & naive scientific arrogance, than with logic or good science.

> BTW - the guy that used to regularly eat DDT to
> prove it was safe died of stomach cancer - one of
> the conditions linked with heavy DDT exposure.
>
> Pete
>
> History is not a science; it is a method.
> Charles Seignobos

Ouch.

Kenuchelover.