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I was waiting for the DDT acronym to be explained, but no. IMHO no matter how obvious an acronym may be, it should be explained, something like "DDT (D... D...

I was waiting for the DDT acronym to be explained, but no. IMHO no matter how obvious an acronym may be, it should be explained, something like "DDT (D... D... T...) is highly dangerous". Apparently: "Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochlorine." edit: added explanation

1propionyl 6y ago
Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane. DDT.
jameshart 6y ago
It’s in paragraph 12, about 1/7 of the way in, after the scene setting opening bit about the barrels. > The world today wrestles with microplastics, bisphenol A (BPA), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other toxics so unnatural they don’t seem to ever go away. But DDT — the all-but-indestructible compound dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which first stunned and jolted the public into environmental action — persists as an unsolved and largely forgotten problem.
gattilorenz 6y ago
To be honest, DDT is like "IBM". It might mean "International Business Machines", but many people wouldn't immediately recognize it unless the acronym is used (while the opposite is true: if you know what the acronym stands for, you usually know the acronym as well). And I'm sure Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane wouldn't add much for most people that read a newspaper :)
- LittlePeter 6y ago
  Even from the context, it was not clear to me what DDT was. I suspected it was some chemical. I would have appreciated a sentence or two explaining why it is bad and what it does. What IBM is would typically be clear from the context: "IBM reported record loss in 2nd quarter of 2020".
  - NeutronStar 6y ago
    What DDT is would typically be clear from the context: "L.A.'s coast was once a DDT dumping ground". What do you think we dump? > Even from the context, it was not clear to me what DDT was. I suspected it was some chemical. I would have appreciated a sentence or two explaining why it is bad and what it does. TFA is explaining quite well. Do your homework instead of going straight to the comment?
  - jameshart 6y ago
    A sentence like this one in paragraph 7? > From 1947 to 1982, the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT — a pesticide so powerful that it poisoned birds and fish — was based in Los Angeles.
    - LittlePeter 6y ago
      You're right. My expectations we wrong. I expected short concise news article, but this seems to be a long-form article. My bad.
  - Izkata 6y ago
    Some decades ago, DDT was practically its brand name in the US, because of how well it worked on mosquitos. People used it in their backyards.
  - jeltz 6y ago
    Maybe this is a generational thing because I did not think that DDT would need any explanation. It at least used to be a household name which everyone recognized.

1propionyl 6y ago

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane. DDT.

jameshart 6y ago

It’s in paragraph 12, about 1/7 of the way in, after the scene setting opening bit about the barrels. > The world today wrestles with microplastics, bisphenol A (BPA), per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and other toxics so unnatural they don’t seem to ever go away. But DDT — the all-but-indestructible compound dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, which first stunned and jolted the public into environmental action — persists as an unsolved and largely forgotten problem.

gattilorenz 6y ago

To be honest, DDT is like "IBM". It might mean "International Business Machines", but many people wouldn't immediately recognize it unless the acronym is used (while the opposite is true: if you know what the acronym stands for, you usually know the acronym as well). And I'm sure Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane wouldn't add much for most people that read a newspaper :)

LittlePeter 6y ago
Even from the context, it was not clear to me what DDT was. I suspected it was some chemical. I would have appreciated a sentence or two explaining why it is bad and what it does. What IBM is would typically be clear from the context: "IBM reported record loss in 2nd quarter of 2020".
- NeutronStar 6y ago
  What DDT is would typically be clear from the context: "L.A.'s coast was once a DDT dumping ground". What do you think we dump? > Even from the context, it was not clear to me what DDT was. I suspected it was some chemical. I would have appreciated a sentence or two explaining why it is bad and what it does. TFA is explaining quite well. Do your homework instead of going straight to the comment?
- jameshart 6y ago
  A sentence like this one in paragraph 7? > From 1947 to 1982, the nation’s largest manufacturer of DDT — a pesticide so powerful that it poisoned birds and fish — was based in Los Angeles.
  - LittlePeter 6y ago
    You're right. My expectations we wrong. I expected short concise news article, but this seems to be a long-form article. My bad.
- Izkata 6y ago
  Some decades ago, DDT was practically its brand name in the US, because of how well it worked on mosquitos. People used it in their backyards.
- jeltz 6y ago
  Maybe this is a generational thing because I did not think that DDT would need any explanation. It at least used to be a household name which everyone recognized.