Mad Kally

From my link:

Celsus

DDT should never be used in farming that's for sure. However, use in households and on stagnant water shouldn't be too harmful ecologically. As for research on DDT, Sri Lanka is the obvious case study: almost 2.8 million malaria deaths in 1948, 17 in 1964 after use of DDT. I'm sure those two years are the extremes, since they're cited by the pro-DDT camp. Aside from that, it almost allowed previously uninhabited areas of Sri Lanka to be inhabited, so more environmental damage for the ecowarriors, more resources for the developmentalists.

Anyway, I don't know that much about it. Here are two sites:

<a href="http://www.freecongress.org/commentaries/020816GJ.asp" target="_blank">Polemic for DDT</a>
<a href="http://info-pollution.com/ddtban.htm" target="_blank">Polemic against DDT</a>

Joel

Boro Nut

I don't think that is a realistic comparison. Most jumbo jets are deloused after each shift, so any mosquitoes would be killed before the next flight takes off. They could also get sucked into the air conditioning and killed that way.

Secondly, most jumbo flights are too short for you to develop full blown malaria, so although the pilot might be sweating profusely, he should still be able to land the plane safely before soiling himself.

Thirdly, if you fly British Airways you get free gin and tonic, which contains enough quinine to allow you to reach hospital before collapsing. I accept in this instance the kids would die from only having orange juice though.

Boro Nut

Mad Kally

Is that British humour boro?

Happy Wonderer

One thing to consider in the use of any pesticide is the concept of resistance -- otherwise known as evolution. There are a great many mosquitoes in the world, and there is absolutely zero chance of eliminating all of them in any population. The survivors will tend to be just a bit more resistant to your DDT application; rinse & repeat.

For reasons that I don't fully understand, it seems to be easier to wipe out creatures that we like (birds, fish, etc.) than it is to wipe out pests.

So the endgame result is most likely to be DDT-resistant mosquitoes and no birds. Some birds are major predators of mosquitoes, so what do you end up with? Even more mosquitoes! (Especially if DDT affects bats.)

Not that I'm arguing that we should never use pesticides, just like I wouldn't argue that we should never use antibiotics. But we have to realize that our "wonder cures" are going to stop working someday, so wonder cures with major side-effects will eventually just leave us with just the side-effects.


HW

Edited to add: I've found that a wet towel works just as well as an insecticide for killing mosquitoes in my house.

[ November 26, 2002: Message edited by: Happy Wonderer ]</p>

Rusting Car Bumper

You can't handle the truth!

DC

One of the last sane

Couple of good places to start:

<a href="http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/" target="_blank">http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/</a>

(I like the Hazardous Substances Data Bank, top database on the left of screen)

<a href="http://ace.orst.edu/info/extoxnet/ghindex.html" target="_blank">http://ace.orst.edu/info/extoxnet/ghindex.html</a>

Happy Wonderer

Great database! Quite a number of articles on Mosquito resistance to DDT. From Georghiou, GP Mosquito resistance to insecticides
IIRC the reason the developing world likes DDT is that it is far cheaper than other, safe(r) pesticides. Subsidizing these other compounds might be a short term solution. I don't know what a long-term chemical solution would be, perhaps developing enough different attacks that we can have very long rotation cycles? Probably an engineered organism would work since it could co-evolve with the mosquitoes, but the unintended side-effects of that approach could be tremendous...

HW

Agricola Senior

So far we have not succeeded in exterminating any pest. Should we conclude that it is impossible? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

[ November 27, 2002: Message edited by: Agricola Senior ]</p>

elwoodblues

In the meantime, we save some lives. And by the time we've gotten to that endgame, we may have found a new method to cut down their population. And if they become resistant to that five years down the line, go back to DDT if you have to. Remember, just because a population becomes resistant to DDT doesn't mean it stays resistant to DDT. After a few years of selecting for a different trait, the resistance to DDT will be very much diluted. It will become effective once again. For a time, at least.

Saving human lives seems damned desirable to me. The only question is balancing that against the birds. Answer that as your conscience dicatates.

A couple different reasons.

'Pests' usually have a very quick generation. Birds and fish take a year or so to create a new generation. In the same time a population of mosquitos have had a couple dozen(?). Mutations and selection occur much more often. Populations rebound dozens of times more quickly. It is in this sense that cockroaches are the pinnacle of evolution, not men.