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The banning DDT may be the single most destructive thing humanity has ever done to itself. It could have wiped malaria off the face of the Earth. In comparison, the atomic bomb killed 90,000 japaneese. Hitler killed 6 million jews. But over one million people EACH YEAR die of malaria. In the past 30 years, that's over 30 million lives needlessly pissed away in the name of environmentalism. Almost all of these lives could have been saved with DDT. The ironic thing is that there has never been any proof that DDT poses any kind of health threat to humans. Even environmentalists now acknoledge that it is relatively harmless. Look it up.
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Follow your own rec Madape...
Here's the CDC info:
DDT affects the nervous system. People who accidentally swallowed large amounts of DDT became excitable and had tremors and seizures.
A study in humans showed that women who had high amounts of a form of DDE in their breast milk were unable to breast feed their babies for as long as women who had little DDE in the breast milk. Another study in humans showed that women who had high amounts of DDE in breast milk had an increased chance of having premature babies.
In animals, short-term exposure to large amounts of DDT in food affected the nervous system, while long-term exposure to smaller amounts affected the liver. Also in animals, short-term oral exposure to small amounts of DDT or its breakdown products may also have harmful effects on reproduction.
Here's the EPA info:
What harmful effects can DDT have on us?
Probable human carcinogen
Damages the liver
Temporarily damages the nervous system
Reduces reproductive success
Can cause liver cancer
Damages reproductive system
DDT has a half life of 8 years.
I don't know about you, but I don't want to have ANY of that near me, my family, or my country.
From your logic on the incidence of malaria being reduced by applying DDT, it is obvious that the "cure" would be as bad as the disease; to have cancer, sterility and nervous system disorders but not have malaria. Fine choice you seem to propose...there are alternatives to DDT and they should be used rather than polluting our world with a probable carcinogen that causes sterility, premature births and internal organ damage.
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As for the penguins getting a sunburn down at the south pole... well, maybe they should read up on their scientific literature. Humans have about as much impact on the ozone layer as they do the rising of the tide. And as for the link between the Ozone Layer and armageddon... well, let me just say I'm not keeping myself up at night worrying about it.
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The problem is we don't know why the ozone layer is decreasing, but it is. That's a FACT jack. These are people, not penguins (penguins BTW have skin protection) who have to wear full covering of clothing to protect themselves. But then, we could just act like nothing bad is happening and keep doing what we'v been doing, and the hole could get larger, and more skin cancer could develop, when we could act responsibly to limit those activities that COULD be contributing to the problem. Which do you prefer, having yourself in harms way or to work to get out of harm's way? Smart people would prefer to get out of harm's way...
edit: I couldn't miss mentioning what DDT does to the animals it enters, and it inevitably does as it sticks to their fat, which is ingested, destroying their reproduction #'s...I actually can't believe that I need to defend the banning of this stuff!
BTW I am a free trade advocate.