Word: ddt
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...which life exists. Almost every week now brings new warnings of impending ecological upsets within our planet's infinitely interdependent chain of life processes: certain birds becoming extinct, hauls of inedible fish, mysterious animal sickness. Environment will tackle, for example, the effects of such forms of pollution as DDT pesticides and radioactive waste, chemical fertilizers and hot water from nuclear power reactors; it will explore the cacophony of modern noises that grate on the nerves and damage living organisms; it will contemplate festering cityscapes as well as blighted landscapes; it will examine the visual pollution of ugliness that defiles...
...bizarre case of ecological damage from DDT occurred in Borneo after the World Health Organization sprayed huge amounts of the pesticide. The area's geckos, or lizards, feasted on the houseflies that had been killed by DDT. The geckos, in turn, were devoured by local cats. Unhappily, the cats perished in such large numbers from DDT poisoning that the rats they once kept in check began overrunning whole villages. Alarmed by the threat of plague, WHO officials were forced to replenish Borneo's supply of cats by parachute...
...Since DDT's effects are so severe in nature, many scientists think that it will inevitably exact a toll of man. The National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., has produced evidence incriminating DDT and related pesticides as the cause of tumors of the liver and lungs in mice. When men are consistently exposed to such chemicals, adds the University of Colorado's Dr. David R. Metcalf, there is deterioration of memory and reaction time...
Impaired Effectiveness. The pesticide's defenders consider the dangers vastly exaggerated, although DDT poisoning can cause tremors and convulsion in man. "There isn't anything that doesn't have some toxic effect," insists Vanderbilt University Toxicologist Wayland J. Hayes, a former Public Health Service official and DDT's stoutest supporter. "The toxic effect of mashed potatoes," he adds rather irrelevantly, "is obesity." As proof of DDT's innocence, Hayes and others often point to studies of workers at the Montrose Chemical Corp., the world's largest DDT producer, and federal prisoners who voluntarily accepted...
...spite of its defenders, the use of DDT has already declined sharply. In 1962, when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, the U.S. produced 167 million Ibs. Last year production slipped to 138 million Ibs., nearly 80% of which was exported. Not only has adverse publicity curtailed the chemical's use; its efficiency has been impaired by the resistance developed by many strains of insects. One scientist estimates that 150 pests formerly controlled by DDT are now immune to it. Nor do scientists expect to produce a new all-purpose bug killer. Instead they are emphasizing more subtle and selective...