RACHEL CARSON/DDT WANK-O-RAMA


After a brief appearance in comments, where he suffered a good old-fashioned arse-kicking, Carson cultist Ed Darrel retreated to the safety of his blog where he reckons he's fisking JunkScience.com's 100 things you should know about DDT. In the process, Darrell finds fault not only with Steve Milloy's DDT stuff but with his science in general:

The “100 things” list is attributed to Steven Milloy, a guy who used to argue that tobacco use isn’t harmful, and who has engaged in other hoaxes such as the bizarre and false claim that Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) can pose serious toxic hazards in your home (and therefore, you should continue to waste energy with less efficient bulbs)...

CFL manufacturer Philips acknowledges the hazards, suggesting that broken units be swept up using paper towels with latex-gloved hands and not vacuumed because this could spread mercury around the room -- exactly how the remnants can be removed from carpet without vacuuming isn't explained.

Anyway, point number eight from the 100 reads as follows:

Some mosquitoes became “resistant” to DDT. “There is persuasive evidence that antimalarial operations did not produce mosquito resistance to DDT. That crime, and in a very real sense it was a crime, can be laid to the intemperate and inappropriate use of DDT by farmers, especially cotton growers. They used the insecticide at levels that would accelerate, if not actually induce, the selection of a resistant population of mosquitoes.”

[Desowitz, RS. 1992. Malaria Capers, W.W. Norton & Company]

Darrell doubts Science.com's accuracy:

Assuming Milloy quoted the book accurately, and assuming the book actually exists, this point says nothing in particular in favor of DDT; but it reaffirms the case Rachel Carson made in her 1962 book, Silent Spring.

Uh, the book exists and is quoted accurately. How do I know? In his very next paragraph Darrell links to the book and confirms the quote's accuracy. So, if anyone's being fisked, it's Darrell.

More to come, as time allows.

Update: Carson apologists argue that DDT has been continuously available for use in the fight against malaria. In fact, DDT has been subject to a de facto ban. According to the Pesticide Action Network, 102 countries prohibit the import of DDT, with DDT registered for use in only 16 countries. PAN provides no information on the number of countries actually using DDT.

Update II: CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith damns DDT-spaying farmers:

In 1967, there were but 417 nesting pairs in all of the lower 48 states. Now there are more than 10,000 pairs. The eagle was disappearing because of the widespread use of the insecticide DDT. Farmers sprayed DDT into local streams and rivers. The eagles ate contaminated fish and, while the DDT didn't kill the birds, it rendered their eggs inviable, and the great birds began to die out.

Farmers, determined to exterminate the bald eagle, apparently found spraying airborne birds too difficult so they did the next best thing and purposely contaminated their food.