Paul A. Offit, the author, is chief of the division of infectious diseases and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philad

Paul A. Offit, the author, is chief of the division of infectious diseases and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of vaccinology and pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. One would think he'd know how to analyze the trade-offs invoked with DDT. As kkojei points our, Offit's analysis (such as it is) is just plain wrong. DDT is effective against anopheles mosquitoes and so helped control malaria. But that control came at a significant ecological cost. DDT is a fat soluble estrogen and androgen mimic with significant long-term environmental impact on fish, birds, and mammals. An honest evaluation of Rachel Carson's impact would have tried to weigh the cost of saving lives from malaria against the cost of destroying significant ecosystems and possibly pushing some species into extinction.