Word: ddt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...mythology is the result of Americans' gradual realization that science and technology's dreamy wonders sometimes turn out to be nightmarish blunders. Detergents that make dishes gleam may kill rivers. Dyes that prettify the food may cause cancer. Pills that make sex safe may dangerously complicate health. DDT, cyclamates, thalidomide and estrogen are but a few of the mixed blessings that, all together, have taught the layman a singular lesson: the promising fruits of science and technology often come with hidden worms...
...that 1975 advertisement urging consumers to boycott Gallo, the UFW said that they established "the beginnings of health and safety protection," prohibited the use of DDT and other possibly dangerous pesticides, prohibited the illegal hiring of children, got toilets and drinking water and washing facilities in the fields, and "stopped forced migrancy by introducing hiring halls and eliminating labor contractors" in the six years after they won their first labor contract in 1967. The implication is that they did all those things at Gallo...
Williams, who has never suffered from lack of funding in this type of research, is working on what he calls a third generation pesticide--following the first two generations of arsenate of lead and DDT--that is unusual because it is non-toxic to mammals and is biodegradable...
...years the most effective chemical treatment was DDT, but a near-total ban was placed on that insecticide in 1972. Since then scientists have considered other ways of combatting the disease, including breeding armies of tiny parasitic wasps that would attack the fungus-bearing beetles, and defending elms with sticky traps coated with beetle-attracting odors. The newest weapon is a fungicide called Lignasan BLP, manufactured by Du Pont and put in commercial use for the first time this summer in about 1,000 locations in the U.S., including New York's Central Park, the White House lawns...
...Which affected it more than many other birds because it is near the top of the avian food chain; it eats other birds contaminated with DDT, thus further concentrating the chemical in its tissues...