BEST WEAPON NOT USED

The money quote from an article on DDT by Fred Pearce in New Scientist (subscription required):

It seems millions of lives have been lost because health experts threw away their best weapon. Are environmentalists to blame? There is no doubt that DDT was misused as an agricultural pesticide and seriously damaged wildlife. In that sense Carson was right. But regulators did not recognise that spraying indoors was different. And an environmental outcry against DDT helped to ensure that the early fears about its effect on human health became entrenched dogma long after they had been proved unfounded.

So, like I've been saying for years, there was a de facto DDT ban.

It'll be interesting to see how anti-DDT propagandist Tim Lambert, and favoured groupie Ed Darrell, try to spin this.

Update: Computer guy Lambert reacts:

Yep it's the usual Rachel-Carson-killed-millions crap.

Bullshit, Pearce does not blame Carson for even one malaria death.

Update II: Ed Darrell blames DDT's non-use on Bush and unnamed corporate interests:

Since indoor spraying is authorized under current law, including international treaties, since the UN and the U.S. fund such spraying, and since most nations that could use DDT in such a fashion are already using it in such a fashion — except where industrialists or the Bush administration refuse to allow it for stated reasons that are completely absurd — I can only assume that those who complain that we need to “loosen up” on DDT are advocating broadcast spraying once again.

The guy lives in a parallel reality.