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DDT has saved countless millions of lives. It should never have been banned.
Read the article above. They put together a panel of experts who looked at the scientific evidence and testimony of experts and concluded that DDT had very low risk and that most claims of danger were false. Then, the head of the EPA ignored the science and decided a book was more important and banned DDT.
I live in Florida where they have and do spray. Have you ever seen what these people are wearing? They have masks on, and sometimes even protective gear. This isn't even DDT. If these chemicals are perfectly safe, why are they wearing protective gear? Oh, THIS is perfectly fine for pregnant women?????? You do know that in these other countries they even spray with these foggers INSIDE people homes. Want them coming into YOUR house with your children and pets?
They came around my property with a big truck and huge tank and sprayed my property. Huge blue fog. The driver was wearing gear. I was sitting outside on my lanai with my cats. He did not tell me to go INSIDE my home. If HE needed protective gear, it fine for me to be outside around all that blue flog stuff he was spraying? Did he even ask my PERMISSION to spray? No.
I took myself and my cats and ran in the house and did not go outside for hours. It still STANK outside after 2 hours. Would you want them spraying DDT around your children or your pregnant wife?
"The EPA held seven months of hearings in 1971–1972, with scientists giving evidence for and against DDT. In the summer of 1972, Ruckelshaus announced the cancellation of most uses of DDT – exempting public health uses under some conditions.[21] Immediately after the announcement, both EDF and the DDT manufacturers filed suit against EPA. Industry sought to overturn the ban, while EDF wanted a comprehensive ban. The cases were consolidated, and in 1973 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the EPA had acted properly in banning DDT.[21]
"Some uses of DDT continued under the public health exemption. For example, in June 1979, the California Department of Health Services was permitted to use DDT to suppress flea vectors of bubonic plague.[42] DDT continued to be produced in the United States for foreign markets until 1985, when over 300 tons were exported.[1]"
...
"Despite the worldwide ban, agricultural use continued in India,[48] North Korea, and possibly elsewhere as of 2008.[22]
"Today, about 3,000 to 4,000 tons of DDT are produced each year for disease vector control.[23] DDT is applied to the inside walls of homes to kill or repel mosquitoes. This intervention, called indoor residual spraying (IRS), greatly reduces environmental damage. It also reduces the incidence of DDT resistance.[49] For comparison, treating 40 hectares (99 acres) of cotton during a typical U.S. growing season requires the same amount of chemical as roughly 1,700 homes.[50]"
(My emphasis - more detail @ the URL. See especially the discussion of R. Carson's work & the 1972 US ban.)
It's a tradeoff - use of DDT is permitted in the US, India & elsewhere in the World for disease vector control (in the US, we may use other chemical means instead of DDT itself). The assumption is that human wellbeing counts more than insect or bird life, although if DDT builds up in the environment, it finds it way into water, milk, meat, eggs, etc.
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