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> 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
by _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 agoDDT 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 agoI 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.