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West
Nile Virus and DDT
Monty
Rainey
September
26, 2002
The recent
outbreak of the West Nile Virus in the U.S. has reminded me of an
event that was lightly skimmed over earlier this year by the national
media. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the banning
of DDT (Dichloro-Diphenyl-trichloroethane).
This bit
of environmental regulation gone awry has cost millions of lives in 30
years since it was enacted.
It began
in 1960 with Rachel Carsen’s book, Silent Spring. The book is
filled with unsubstantiated predictions about the use of pesticides,
most of which have been proven wrong. Just one example, she claimed
DDT spraying would wipe out the U.S. robin population. Instead, the
bird’s population actually increased during the 30 some years that
DDT was widely used.
The number
of people who have died from mosquito-borne disease because of
Carsen’s book cannot even be calculated, but the loss of DDT alone
has doomed millions. Dr. Kelvin Kamm, Ph. D. of Pretoria, South Africa
noted, "When a Boeing 747 crashes killing all on board, it makes
massive international headlines. But seven of of those 747’s full of
people is the same number of Africans who die every day from malaria,
and there are no international headlines".
Environmentalists
are horrified that pesticides are used to control the billions of
insects that represent a threat to human life, but they rarely express
concern that humans die needlessly when deprived of pesticide use. In
1997, nearly 300 million cases of malaria were reported worldwide,
resulting in a death toll that approached 10 million human lives. How
many of those could have been saved by the use of DDT? Which is worse,
the "potential" for overexposure to pesticides through
misuse, or the certainty of the loss of human life when such
pesticides are banned?
In 1939,
Dr. Paul Muller independently produced DDT. He won the Nobel Prize in
1948 for his work with DDT after it was widely used during World War
II. During the war, the pesticide was used in Italy to squelch a
rapidly spreading epidemic of louse-borne typhus. DDT was also issued
to soldiers in WWII to use in eliminating body lice, head lice and
crab lice.
In May of
1955 the Eighth World Health Assembly adopted a Global Malaria
Eradication Campaign based on the widespread use of DDT against
mosquitoes. As a result of the Campaign, malaria was eradicated by
1967 from all developed countries where the disease was endemic and
large areas of tropical Asia and Latin America were freed from the
risk of infection. The eradication of malaria in these regions alone
prevented 500 million human deaths, due to malaria, that otherwise
would have been inevitable. Today, according to Africa News, it is
believed that malaria afflicts between 300 and 500 million every year,
causing up to 2.7 million deaths, mostly among children under age 5.
The
biggest basis used by the environmentalists to ban DDT, was the
inaccurate claim that DDT would cause wide spread eggshell thinning
among foul. However, the experiments associating DDT with eggshell
thinning involve doses much higher than would ever be encountered in
the wild. Because the use of DDT greatly reduces mosquitoes, the
deadliest predator on earth, bird populations actually increased
during its use, in most cases.
Other
things contribute to eggshell thinning which were never considered
during the environmental insanity started by Carsen’s book. Things
such as oil, lead, mercury, noise stress, dehydration, temperature
extremes, decreased illumination, predator intrusion, phosphorous and
calcium deficiencies have all been proven to contribute eggshell
thinning. Egg shell deficiencies were attributed to DDT by U.S. Fish
and Wildlife researchers even though the birds tested had been placed
on low-calcium diets. Another known egg shell thinner, dieldrin, was
also added to the diet.
Another
misnomer was that the use of DDT was killing the bald eagle
population. After 15 years of heavy and widespread usage of DDT,
Audubon Society ornithologists counted 25 percent more eagles per
observer than during the pre-DDT 1941 bird census. The U.S. Forest
Service studies reported an increase of nesting bald eagle
productivity of over 100 percent between 1964 and 1971.
Like every
American, I want our world to be a clean and safe place for future
generations. Doesn’t that include replacing hysteria with common
sense? DDT is a proven affective device in the eradication of disease
carrying mosquitoes. "But what about the health risks?",
scream the environmentalists. As a young boy in the Texas panhandle, I
spent some time one summer working for a crop duster as a flagman. By
the end of the day, I was drenched in DDT. Over 30 years later, I have
had no major illnesses, save from the fact that I am bald as a
baby’s backside. And anyone who has ever attended a Rainey family
reunion will readily attribute that to genetics.
The rise
of the West Nile Virus is just one more reason to bring back the
widespread use of DDT. At the time of this writing, over 1500
confirmed cases have been found in the U.S., and 64 people have died.
Isn’t it time to bring back common sense and stop letting our lives
be dictated by the knee-jerk reaction policies of the
environmentalists?
Monty L.
Rainey
Email
montyrainey@juntosociety.com
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mrwnv
9/27/2002
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