It was from a source I normally trust. It was from a source that if the truth were understood, they could make an impact. It was upsetting, but I told myself I would not get upset. Would NOT get upset. Then I got upset.
They said Rachel Carson’s getting DDT banned was bad. They set up a false dilemma fallacy argument that DDT is the only way to stop people from dying from malaria (it is not). They said that the bad effects of DDT have been disproven (they have not, not by a long shot. I guess they are believing the flawed studies.)
Evidence is fairly overwhelming that DDT in the environment is not a good idea, for a number of reasons.
I am very fatigued from life and fighting the contamination in my house (which could be some kind of bacterial toxin or something else but also could be indoor DDT or a related substance, judging by where it came from), so please forgive me, I am not going to footnote my findings. Many are fairly easy to find on the internet, though.
DDT thins the shells of bird eggs. It negatively affects the liver and the reproductive system. It probably causes cancer. It accumulates in fatty tissue. It can cause vomiting, tremors, seizures, anxiety, extreme restlessness, extreme muscular weakness. The levels of the breakdown product of DDT (DDE) are found to be four times higher in Alzheimer’s patients than in the average population.
Okay, I’ll footnote one article. 😊 This was too good not to quote:
“Although DDT produces serious functional and morphologic changes in virtually every organ of the body (2, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18-22, 24, 28, 30-33, 38-40, 42, 44-49, 51-61), among its most disturbing and debilitating manifestations are those of the nervous system….The incredible carelessness with which this lethal compound is now used by the public has no known precedents….The relationship would undoubtedly have been detected much earlier, however, were it not for the tremendously wide variation in sensitivity to DDT in the general population; Certain individuais [sic] appear to be able to tolerate large cumulative doses without apparent ill effect; others are so sensitive that mere traces of DDT can set off an almost immediate reaction of the type described.” (Biskind, M.D. and Irving Bieber, M.D.)
This is why I say Rachel Carson saved my life. She almost single-handedly got DDT banned. What if she had not? I have been close to death from the cumulative effect of toxins and toxicants more times than I can count. What if, instead of being cut off and still persisting in the environment to an incredible degree, DDT was used for years and years after Carson’s book? How much more of the environment would be contaminated by this stuff? Even if the current contamination of my house is something else, I know that my broken and weak body could not handle much more than it has been handling for years.
Thank you, Rachel Carson.
Biskind, M.D. and Irving Bieber, M.D. “DDT Poisoning: A New Syndrome With Neuropsychiatric Manifestations.” American Journal Of Psychotherapy. (1949). p261. 8/25/19. http://whale.to/a/biskind11.html.
