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My husband remembers seeing puddles with dead birds around if after spraying DDT in nearby fields. His father died from a serious lung disease, and his family a

My husband remembers seeing puddles with dead birds around if after spraying DDT in nearby fields. His father died from a serious lung disease, and his family attributes it to the chemicals he was exposed to while farming. My husband remembers him mixing up the chemicals with his bare arm immersed completely in it.

omegaham 10y ago
> My husband remembers him mixing up the chemicals with his bare arm immersed completely in it. I think one of the issues with DDT was that it was perceived as entirely safe. People dumped it on themselves during WWII as an anti-flea treatment. Other insecticides are far more acutely toxic, meaning that mixing the chemicals with your bare arm is going to kill you. This means that people are going to be more careful in applying it rather than just casting it everywhere.
- bbctol 10y ago
  Kids used to chase DDT trucks and play in the fog they sprayed out. While we may talk these days about how people are too paranoid over "chemicals," before films like Silent Spring people were far too confident that they were safe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE
_sbrk 10y ago
> His father died from a serious lung disease, and his family attributes it to the chemicals he was exposed to while farming. Was he a smoker? If so, I'm sure that couldn't have been the cause! Silent Spring has caused the unnecessary deaths of millions due to fear and banning of DDT. https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/15583-ddt-breeds-death https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/15583-d...
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  DDT may be unfairly or overly demonized, and could be used carefully in certain limited situations where the benefit is greater than the risk. But a careless attitude like sticking your bare arm in vats of industrial chemicals (or drenching the inside of a house with kerosene and DDT, as the article describes) should not be encouraged. That sort of exposure will cause damage from even relatively safe chemicals. Unfortunately, people are bad at moderation. A binary choice between "perfectly safe" or "silent spring" seems to be the only public policy which works.
- gozur88 10y ago
  I doubt that's true. Insects evolve around pesticides relatively rapidly, and in the places DDT is still used it's not nearly as effective as it was when it was introduced.

omegaham 10y ago

> My husband remembers him mixing up the chemicals with his bare arm immersed completely in it. I think one of the issues with DDT was that it was perceived as entirely safe. People dumped it on themselves during WWII as an anti-flea treatment. Other insecticides are far more acutely toxic, meaning that mixing the chemicals with your bare arm is going to kill you. This means that people are going to be more careful in applying it rather than just casting it everywhere.

bbctol 10y ago
Kids used to chase DDT trucks and play in the fog they sprayed out. While we may talk these days about how people are too paranoid over "chemicals," before films like Silent Spring people were far too confident that they were safe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE

_sbrk 10y ago

> His father died from a serious lung disease, and his family attributes it to the chemicals he was exposed to while farming. Was he a smoker? If so, I'm sure that couldn't have been the cause! Silent Spring has caused the unnecessary deaths of millions due to fear and banning of DDT. https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/15583-ddt-breeds-death https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/15583-d...

LeifCarrotson 10y ago
DDT may be unfairly or overly demonized, and could be used carefully in certain limited situations where the benefit is greater than the risk. But a careless attitude like sticking your bare arm in vats of industrial chemicals (or drenching the inside of a house with kerosene and DDT, as the article describes) should not be encouraged. That sort of exposure will cause damage from even relatively safe chemicals. Unfortunately, people are bad at moderation. A binary choice between "perfectly safe" or "silent spring" seems to be the only public policy which works.
gozur88 10y ago
I doubt that's true. Insects evolve around pesticides relatively rapidly, and in the places DDT is still used it's not nearly as effective as it was when it was introduced.