The 1972 U.S. ban on DDT is responsible for a genocide 10 times larger than that for which we sent Nazis to the gallows at Nuremberg. So, there is little question that DDT, or one of its metabolites that could be found in virtually all of us in the 1970s should be present even now. DDT can be bad because it kills many animals we need in our lives and when DDT gets in our water and we drink the water without cleaning, we would most likely be sick and it isn't really worth it. Author: Chris Whitney. Rachel Carson, DDT and the Fight Against Malaria Video The author Rachel Carson’s strike against the pesticide DDT turned her into both an environmental hero and a … So my chief quarrel with DDT in hindsight is that it greatly added to the population problem.” To summarize this up, DDT can be beneficial to us, but it can hurt our environment. So, lets try our best to keep our environment clean and let more animal populations increase. History and Status of DDT Eagles, Other Birds Thrive After EPA's 1972 DDT Ban. Following World War II, it was promoted as a wonder-chemical, the simple solution to pest problems large and small. DDT was developed as the first of the modern insecticides early in World War II. Today, nearly 40 years after DDT was banned in the U.S., we continue to live with its long-lasting effects: X close. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations. DDT: A Review of Scientific and Economic Aspects of the Decision to Ban its Use as a Pesticide (July 1975; Prepared for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations) Pesticides and Public Health from The Guardian: EPA's Formative Years. The Silent Decade: Why It Took Ten Years to Ban DDT in the United States. As evidence of the harm, DDT was causing began to grow, countries worldwide started to ban the chemical or restrict its use. Yet officials in Swaziland reject foreign aid so that they can use DDT, effecting a decline in malaria cases in children under five from 65 percent to about five percent within 10 years. By 1970, Hungary, Norway, and Sweden had banned DDT, and despite overwhelming pressure from the U.S. chemical industry, the production and use of DDT were banned in the United States in 1972. How to Cite: Whitney, C., 2012. The Virginia Tech Undergraduate Historical Review, 1. It is also responsible for a menticide which has already condemned one entire generation to a dark age of anti-science ignorance, and is now infecting a new one. The Silent Decade: Why It Took Ten Years to Ban DDT in the United States. Scientific American is the essential guide to the most awe-inspiring advances in science and technology, explaining how they change our understanding of the world and shape our lives. In Guyana, within two years it had almost eliminated malaria, but at the same time the birth rate doubled. A 1972 insecticide ban on DDT literally causes the deaths of about a million people per year, though an extensive investigation by the U.S. EPA found that DDT is … When birds like the peregrine falcon ate several different contaminated prey animals. The chemicals killed insects effectively, yes, but such pesticides become more and more concentrated as they travel up the food chain. In 1990 he expressed why: “My own doubts came when DDT was introduced for civilian use. For example, the half-life (the amount of time that it takes for a 50 percent reduction of the drug or chemical, usually in the blood) of aspirin is 20 minutes, but for DDT, it is about 10 years. If there is a single pesticide almost everyone can name, it's DDT. DDT was one of the first chemicals in widespread use as a pesticide. Related Links.