wrote in message
...
On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 22:12:46 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:
So, you don't think we should ban some really nasty pesticides?
We have. The unintended consequence is the mosquito became the most
dangerous animal in the 3d world.
Come on. http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/
DDT was not really dangerous to people. That was it's selling point.
The reason it was banned was the effect on birds.
(Read Rachel Carson's book)
Like a lot of things the knee jerk was out of proportion to the
problem. Because we thought DDT was safe we were pumping tons of it
into the environment without any thoughts about the effect and any
control on it's use. There are lots of people who think that if we
would use it with the same controls we use with other poisons these
days it would be safer than what we use. Your link to dioixin is a
good example.
Some say there are no safe insecticides. After all it is poison.
If you are talking about some third world countries we are talking
about millions of people dying from diseases spread by insects that
could be controlled more safely with DDT in very small doses.
This is not me talking, it is respected world health authorities.
You're wrong about DDT. Read up:
http://www.chem.duke.edu/~jds/cruise...t/effects.html
It was good at killing insects too... actually, most insects. Last I
checked, they're pretty essential to the environment, and wiping out good
ones isn't such a great idea.