1Paige Owens Bethann Bowman English 101 2 December 2008 The Secret Dangers of DDT Pesticides are chemicals

and biological materials that are used by man to reduce pest organisms (Matsumura 3). If these chemicals kill off living organisms, commonly known as pests, what does that mean for the other living organisms that come in contact with them? Agriculture and forest pest control is the greatest use of pesticides in any country . P.C. Kearney estimated that in 1964, about 119 million acres in the United States were sprayed with herbicides, 97 million with insecticides, and about 25 million acres with fungicides and other pesticides (qtd. in Matsumura 4). Out of the 400 million pounds of insecticides used annually, about 170 million are used for agricultural purposes. More importantly , 90 million pounds were used on cotton each year (Matsumura 5). According to Horn, cotton is the most intensive pesticide-use crop in the world. (54). And with those statistics, that statement is not hard to believe. Horn goes on to say that approximately 25% of all insecticides used worldwide are accounted for in cotton. Worse yet, all none of the top pesticides used on cotton are classified by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) as Category 1- the most dangerous category of chemicals (54). Yes, you read correctly; very harmful and dangerous chemicals are being sprayed directly onto your foods and even the clothes that you wear. These pesticides are harmful to all living organisms; and I do not know about you, but I do not like the idea of chemicals unknowingly entering my body, or anyone elses for that matter. But, even though some of these

chemicals, like DDT, were banned in the United States, there are still several others being sprayed into the agriculture (Horn 35). With that being said, just because DDT was banned in the United States, that does not mean that other countries did the same. There are many different types and classifications of insecticides; not all of them are equally harmful, but they are still dangerous. Perhaps the most famous and controversial insecticide is DDT (dichloro- diphenyl- trichlorenthane). Since its introduction in 1956, DDT has caught the attention of people with many different views about DDT and its effects. In 1972 DDT was banned in the United States as an insecticide on foods because of the dangers it caused. Even so, Dr. Walter Crinnion, N.D., of Seattles Bastyr University, wrote in the 1995 Organic Gardening Almanac that he tested a patient for 18 of the more common pesticide residues and found the patient had nine of them in his blood, including active DDT. Horn makes light of the fact that even though DDT was banned, it still is present today. Although DDT was banned in 1972, it is amazingly present in the soil. Residues of this pesticide, believed to cause cancer, liver toxicity and fertility problems are still quite common. (Horn 35). Horn later quotes Dr. Crinnion as saying: If [the patient] had 50 percent of the chemicals we tested for, how many did he have that we didnt test for? Unfortunately out of 70,000 chemicals in current daily used in this country, only about 250 can be tested for in humans (Horn 35). Now that is scary to think about. You already know that there is a potential for chemicals in your body, but you can only really know if 250 are there. What about the other 69,750? Do we just not care about our bodies? Or does it go deeper than that? DDT has been known to have many different effects on its victims. The most talked about is the effect on the wildlife. Matsumura explains that the most debated phenomenon of the effects

of insecticides is eggshell thickness. This was originally reported by Ratcliffe and by Hickey and Anderson, who observed that the eggshell thickness of wild birds generally decreased as the levels of environmental contamination increased. Thinner eggshells, which result in egg breakage, have been suggested as the reason for the declining reproduction rate in several bird species. (qtd. in Matsumura 450). Fish are very susceptible to pyrethroids, a viscous and water-insoluble liquid, and other very harmful chemicals that are found in the water supply. In the same aspect, mammals are more sensitive to carbamates, salts made from acid, which are generally airborne. (Matsumura 446). When these or other animals are exposed to and poisoned by DDT, they first become nervous and hyperexcitable with excessive blinking, cold skin, and other symptoms. They may also experience rapid tremors due to muscular fibrillation, particularly in the heart muscle, which can result in paralysis, clonic convulsions, and death. In the most common of cases the symptoms are clonic poisoning at low levels over a period of time. When administered in low chronic doses, it is absorbed as readily in solid form as in solution. The result is the gradual appearance of symptoms, especially the first ones. DDT is secreted in the milk of mammals and can be dangerous to the young (Matsumura 493). On the bright side, DDT has so far not been known to show as many harmful effects on humans. Mackerras and West report an instance in which 25 men ingested various amounts of DDT by mistake (for baking powder). Within two and on half hours, all the men became very weak and light headed. Fortunately, all of them recovered within 48 hours (qtd. in Matsumura 494). Matsumura goes on to explain that severe accidents have occurred, but they are less common; [t]here have been numerous case reports of human DDT poisoning where fairly low

dosages caused severe symptoms and even death. However, such results are unusual, and there is a large body of evidence which testifies to the general safety in the use of DDT as far as acute poisoning is concerned. [I]t is clear that the inhalation or skin absorption hazard of DDT is low indeed (Matsumura 494). DDT, even though it was banned in 1972, it is still being used to kill insects that are harmful to humans. In1956, American scientists came up with a plan to wipe malaria from the face of the Earth using the pesticide DDT (Pearce 1). The reason they used DDT was because the chemical had eliminated malaria in the U.S. and in Europe. Scientists saw mosquitoes as an easy target for DDT. Pearce continues to explain: The insects passed on malarial parasites while going on human blood as their victims slept. Afterwards, they settled on bedroom walls to digest the blood. Spraying those walls with DDT every six months had been shown to repel or kill most of them (Pearce 1). After hearing of all the bad things that DDT and other pesticides and insecticides can do to your body, one might be skeptical to let the very same chemical in your home, more importantly, where you sleep. But with the spraying of the chemical, the many cases of malaria steadily decreased. In India, spray teams doused hundreds of thousands of villages, just three years after the start of this program, hospital admissions for malaria had fallen by 90%, and global death rates had fallen by around 95 percent (Pearce 1). After people became concerned about what DDT can do to your body, the U.S. banned the insecticide and stopped the funding for the spraying of the other countries. What a big pay-day that was for America, with more than half a billion dollars returning from the task. But somehow DDT got reintroduced into the world, this is partly because [s]upposedly less harmful pesticides were tried but nothing worked against mosquitoes as well as DDT (Pearce 2). After the banning of

DDTs spraying, more people were being killed than ever before (Pearce 1-2). Then in 2006, the World Health Organization made a dramatic change and began encouraging the use of DDT again. Announcing the change, Arata Kochi, director of the World Health Organizations new Global Malaria Program, said: Of the dozen insecticides, WHO has approved as safe for house spraying, the most effective is DDT. Spraying indoors, he continues, it poses no harm to wildlife (Pearce 2). But what about the people who are inside, and even their pets for that matter? Does the threat of harm not still pose for them? The World Wide Fund for Nature says the insecticide should be phased out and ultimately banned. But its benefits are hard to dismiss. Virtually all countries that had a high incidence of malaria half a century ago saw a dramatic decline when they used DDT. When the spraying stopped, the incidence rose again. Perhaps the best-documented recent case is South Africa, where DDT was banned in the mid-1990s. Malaria then increases tenfold, and since spraying resumed in 2001, results have begun to fall again (Pearce 2). The people who were assigned to spray these countries and their inhabitants homes were all dressed in protective clothing. Even today the people who spray insecticides on our crops, whether they are farmers or plant workers, almost always wear protective clothing. And if they do not , they really need to. But do these companies ever stop to think that if they need to protect their employees with these clothes, then maybe the public should have some sort of protection against the very same chemicals, especially when they are directly entering the body? If they know of the potential dangers that these insecticides pose, then why do they not feel any remorse for letting other people, and perhaps themselves and their children, be exposed to the same things? All of the chemicals they spray on our foods are very dangerous, but a lot of people do not even know any

thing about them. Rifkin touches this subject by saying: The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] announced in 1992 that special labeling for genetically engineered foods would not be required . . . (Rifkin 294). The FDA knows of these chemicals and the dangers that come with them, but they are not telling us! But, not only through our foods are we being exposed but, also through the clothes we wear, like cotton mention earlier, and now the spraying of dangerous chemicals in our homes. Are you kidding me?! Is any body ever going to notice that we are being poisoned? Many of the opinions voiced about the spraying of chemical insecticides usually pertain to that of foods. That topic is thought of more than spraying the insecticides to kill off diseases. But do not let this so- called positive effect affect your thinking. DDT and the numerous other insectcides are still very dangerous. There are many cases of people being exposed to these chemicals every day, who are having strange medical difficulties. People all over the world are taking in pound after pound of chemicals, whether they come from foods, clothes, or insect repellant, and it is doing a great deal of damage to them. The world needs to permanently ban the use of these dangerous chemicals.