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Old 10th Mar 2014, 03:51
  #14 (permalink)  
abgd
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: The Wild West (UK)
Age: 45
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there was never to my knowledge any documented case of the mosquito population showing immunity to DDT
Try google. Resistance is, after a few years, the norm rather than the exception.

DDT resistance mosquitoes - Google Scholar

Or here for further discussions:

The Great DDT Hoax ? Deltoid
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...ombat-malaria/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...0400130_2.html


so far I have not seen any evidence it has affected me in the least
DDT isn't the most toxic substance to people, but there are some probable/possible effects:

Do you have diabetes?
Did you have any problems in your brain development due to your childhood exposure?
Have any children you've given birth to been underweight?
Did you suffer any miscarriages?

If you're not a woman and you weren't exposed to it in infancy and you're only one person, then your personal experience can only ever be a very limited guide to its potential toxicity.

In a sense this is deliberately missing the point because in malarial regions not getting malaria is going to be a bigger health priority than not having miscarriages. But of course it has rarely if ever been banned if used for public health purposes and the high profile bans (crop spraying in America, Europe) are hardly responsible for any malaria epidemics either, so blaming global malaria on DDT bans is to miss the point too.

we do know that millions have died from malaria because no one has come up with a method of controlling them that replaced DDT.
No we don't.

For example, here is an article describing how malaria cases have been reduced by 99.9% in Sri-Lanka

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0043162

Also, we do depend on wildlife so indiscriminate use of pesticides can have its drawbacks, even when measured solely in anthropocentric terms. Fancy this job?:

https://www.chinadialogue.net/articl...single/en/5193

Not that DDT is the culprit here, but as a general principle.

Last edited by abgd; 10th Mar 2014 at 07:31.
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