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When my father was a child, he would bike behind the trucks that sprayed DDT all over the neighborhood because the DDT mist kept him cool. I hope you'll be fin
by skim_milk 7y ago
When my father was a child, he would bike behind the trucks that sprayed DDT all over the neighborhood because the DDT mist kept him cool. I hope you'll be fine, because people have done much worse!
- GhettoMaestro 7y agoOmg I hope your dad is alright?
- joecool1029 7y agoAs scary sounding as the anecdote was, DDT is known for relatively low human (and mammal) toxicity. They did absolutely insane human studies with it in the 1950's, and dosages of up to 380mg/kg were tolerable. There was also no evidence that it produced cancer at commonly exposed dosages: http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/carbaryl-dicrotophos/ddt-ext.html http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/carbaryl-dicro... < some more info here.
- t1lthesky 7y agoHa I remember doing the same thing when I was ~6 years old in South Korea. There would be these trucks that went around spraying mosquito killing fog in the apartment complexes and all the little kids from the neighborhood would run behind them. Well now I'm 30 and so far things seem to be ok! Fingers crossed
- therein 7y agoYup, this has been my experience growing up outside of the US. Watching this video made me facepalm really hard. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2NmuQW8cjE
- emerongi 7y agoThe description on that video is hilarious.
- o-__-o 7y agoMeanwhile I’m out walking my dog and one of these trucks turns the corner. I immediately turn and run, it’s always futile.. the truck passes me and I’m left standing there holding my shirt over my face. Doesn’t matter; inhaled DEET.
- Jenda_ 7y agoFYI DDT and DEET are completely different chemicals, one is an insecticide, the other is a repellent. Some people in this thread seem to confuse them. I don't think they would spray DEET at scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEET
- christophilus 7y agoYep. We did this in the deep south when I was growing up. Good times.
- gbmor 7y agoSame here, in rural south Louisiana in the 90s. Whelp, uh, I think I'm fine ...
- WalterBright 7y agoI drank lots of Coca-cola for decades, thinking it's only sugar, what could go wrong?
- King-Aaron 7y agoMy grandmother talked about playing in piles of fresh asbestos when she was a child, because it was soft and fun to jump in.