DDT a problem of 30-50 years ago?

[Patrick Foley]

    For a discussion of practical ways to deal with mosquitos, see the book
Common-sense Pest Control: least toxic solutions for your home, garden, pets
and community. 1991, William Olkowski, Sheila Daar and Helga Olkowski, Taunton
Press, Newtown Connecticut.
    It is worth remembering that the control of mosquitos affects not only
humans but vast numbers of natural predators. There are clever techniques
(such as the limited use of DDT in houses) that avoid most of the ecological
and (human) toxicological pain caused by DDT, but there are also solutions
such as window screens that work even better. Someone might argue that window
screens are too expensive for some countries, but so are pesticides and the
trucks and airplanes to deliver them.
    It is not necessary to kill off all mosquitos to lower malaria incidence.
Diseases can only persist if the entire life cycle of the disease agent is not
only intact, but keeps infected population sizes high. (See the modeling work
of Norman Bailey 1982, The Biomathematics of Malaria or the work of Roy
Anderson and Robert May) This false dichotomy between "ecology" and "human
lives" is a rhetorical trick which discourages real solutions while it allows
us to absolve ourselves from the responsibility to find workable solutions to
complex problems.
    To be very clear about this:  The argument that Rachel Carson is
responsible for the deaths of third world people is comparable to blaming
Ralph Nader for the deaths of people who switched from Pintos to other models
and still had car accidents. DDT was an ecological disaster as it was used and
as pesticide companies encouraged its use. I am happy that contemporary
pesticide companies are somewhat more sensible and cautious, but they had to
be dragged screaming and kicking to the negotiating table.

Patrick Foley
patfoley at csus.edu


Bruce Walsh wrote:

> Obviously, a better answer than DDT whould be ideal.  However, given that
> one can use DDT TODAY and greatly reduce (for at least some window) the
> number of malaria cases, my question still stands.  Its great to say taht
> we can do better, but the cold truth is than the ban on using DDT (which I
> don;t have a problem with) kills at least 100,000s (conversatively) third
> world peoples.
>
> Peace
>
> Bruce