Living Dead Chipmunk

Ok, this is getting on my nerves.

I'm trying to do a bit of research for a paper on DDT. Why is it so hard to actually find the truth?

I've gotten sites saying things like "DDT KILLS KITTENS!" and "DDT CAUSES CANCER OF THE ENTIRE BODY AT ONCE", and then I've got sites that say "DDT CURES ALZHEIMERS!" and "RACHEL CARSON WAS A LYING PINKO COMMUNIST OUT TO DESTROY THE US FARM ECONOMY!"

But I have yet to find any *real* information. Can anyone give me a point in the correct general direction? I think Google hates me.

Coragyps

My bet would be that the bulk of the straight dope on DDT isn't on the web at all, but in those musty stacks of journals from the 60's and 70's at the rear of the U. library's fourth floor. DDT almost certainly thins osprey eggs and such, but we all know what causes god to kill kittens, and it ain't DDT.
I don't know the ecological literature at all to know where to point you, but Chemical Abstracts from back in those days would give you tons of leads.

Mad Kally

Here's an article about something I learned in microbiology class. <a href="http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020616-11558965.htm" target="_blank"> DDT & Malaria. </a>

Primordial Groove

Here is a DDT question that you might present in your research paper.

-DDT has a knack for killing mosquitoes.
-Mosquitoes have a knack (recently) of carrying the west nile virus and killing humans.

What is more important: the dark side of DDT or protecting human lives?

EDIT: HA! mad kally had a great article on my train of thought.

/wave mad kally

But again, if limited to use in the regulation of the mosquitoe population, why keep the ban?

[ November 24, 2002: Message edited by: Primordial Groove ]

[ November 24, 2002: Message edited by: Primordial Groove ]</p>

elwoodblues

I looked into it some years ago. As far as I could tell, there was evidence that DDT makes the eggshells of certain birds thinner, thus reducing their survivability. That is basically the only negative I could find that was provable. The plusses are self-evident and obvious, especially in countries where malaria deaths are so pervasive. It's really a no-brainer, once you have the facts in front of you. It's getting the facts that is a bitch.

Good luck with it. As Coragyps said, you're probably not going to find straight dope on the internet. Look in the studies and texts. But don't limit yourself to the 60s and 70s. Develop a preference for more recent journals and studies; as long as they're honest, they'll be more accurate because of the greater wealth of data and science available to them.

Jackalope

Actually, the bit about it making bird eggshells thinner is more serious than it sounds at first. This is a _major_ reason that the California Condor almost died out. Nesting egrets and several other water birds in this area of the world have also suffered pretty huge drops in population because of the longterm effects of DDT. It's not so much that DDT is absolutely evil...it's that the gunk persists in groundwater for a very long time. And here in California, there are already too many things that are polluting the aquafiers. Not to mention big time agriculture increasing the saline content in the aquafiers. And the MBTE that was supposed to save our air quality getting into water table as well.

Seriously, if you look up the conservation efforts to save endangered bird species, you'll turn up more on the real effects of DDT.

Vorkosigan

When I lived in Kenya in the mid-1980s the Kenyas used to argue that the DDT ban was a western plot to keep Africans down. There was a guy who wrote regular letters to the English newspapers claiming that he ate a tablespoonful everyday and it had never harmed him.

Vorkosigan

thebeave

Try seacrching for DDT on this website published by the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH):

<a href="http://www.healthfactsandfears.com" target="_blank">Health Facts and Fears</a>

Chip

Try <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi" target="_blank">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi</a> and enter DDT into the box. Gives more than 5,000 references to abstracts that might help you point your research.

Even more telling is to put DDT and the word Cancer in the search box.

Regards, Chip

[ November 25, 2002: Message edited by: Chip ]</p>

Happy Wonderer

The falcon population in the San Juans is recovering after disappearing during the DDT years. This leads to some interesting dilemmas, as these predatory birds are wiping out populations of endangered shorebirds. The big question is what the pre-DDT population balance was.

Not absolute proof, of course there has been a lot of development here that destroys habitat, but since the ban there has been an impressive population rebound. (We don't have good records on what the early population was.)

HW

<a href="http://www.frg.org/frg/fieldnotes/nwreport_june6.html#overview" target="_blank">Falcon research notes</a>