This pamphlet contains
the latest information on the best use of DDT against household pests. For
additional information right either to the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY AND PLANT QUARANTINE or to the UNITED
STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
Instructions given here
in simplified form are meant to guide the individual homeowner or
apartment dweller in the use of DDT to control household pests. The
instructions may not applied to its use in large establishments or
commercial operations.
DDT and other
insecticides frequently fail under dirty and insanitary conditions. DDT
will never be a substitute for cleanliness and sanitation and the fight
against harmful household insects. Basic rules of sanitation will always
be helpful in freeing your home of dangerous and troublesome insect pests.
Don't forget that DDT is just one of many insecticides and that other
insect-control methods may also be desirable or necessary. DDT is,
however, a faithful and effective ally of the good housekeeper.
PRECAUTIONS
IN USING DDT
DDT
is a mild poison but it is safe when used according to these instructions.
Take ordinary
precautions in handling and storing DDT insecticides.
Avoid applying it on
eating utensils and food.
Store it out of reach
of children and where it will not be used by accident for flour, baking
powder, or similar foods.
Wash your hands when
you have finished applying DDT.
Never used oil
preparations of DDT on animals.
Do not spray oil
solutions near open fires, because the oil may catch fire.
Remove from the room or
cover house plants, fish, and pets when applying DDT.
DDT was first used
during the war for military needs by trained experts and under careful
observation. It was used successfully to control the malaria-bearing
mosquitoes, typhus-carrying lice, and other insects threatening the health
of our Armed Forces. From this we know that DDT can be used safely. In the
United States not a single case of DDT poisoning in humans has ever been
proved when the material was used against insects.
mindfully.org note: Because of the US government's campaign to convince people of DDT's
safety, millions
of families were needlessly exposed to it. The only benefactor in the exercise
was the pesticide industry. Because the factories were built to supply the US
military, and the war had ended, the pesticide industry desperately needed new
customers for DDT to keep the factories busy and profits coming in. Many
unknowing mothers would look at this pamphlet and assume that DDT was the
"faithful and effective ally of the good housekeeper." Besides
that, they promoted the use of multiple pesticides by writing "Don't forget that DDT is just one of many insecticides."
Today, the pesticides industry
writes the regulations. It also does its own safety testing and supplies the
regulatory agencies with the results if and when it feels like it.
Even when they do supply safety testing data, many times the data is
falsified, incomplete, and/or done improperly.
The
best advice anyone can give you is to NEVER use pesticides.
Since the proliferation of
pesticides, not one species of insect has been eliminated. And in spite of the
massive yearly increases in the use of pesticides, crop losses have remained
about the same or increased in some cases. They don't work so well on insects.
That's why they have to be used regularly and in increasing amounts and
concentrations. They kill the weak insects and leave the strong to create
increasingly stronger generations. (See
the definition of pesticide)
Only
industry fronts such as Steven Milloy still demand that it is safe and
never should have been banned. Milloy is billed as a "scholar" at the Cato Institute,
which is itself billed as a "think tank." It's a gross exaggeration to
use the word think to describe anything done by Milloy at his "Junk
Science" website, or, for that matter, at the Cato Institute.
DDT Timeline
1948 Paul Muller is awarded a Nobel Prize in medicine for
discovering the insect-killing properties of DDT.
1950 DDT is shown to disrupt sexual development in roosters -- possibly by
acting as a hormone. Scientists V.F. Lindeman and Howard Burlington find
that young roosters treated with DDT fail to develop normal male sex
characteristics, such as combs and wattles. The pesticide also stunted the
growth of the animals' testes. These scientists noted a similarity between
DDT and DES, a synthetic estrogen given to women for problem pregnancies.
DDT, they observe, "may exert an estrogen-like action" on the
animal in question.
1968 DDT is shown to be estrogenic in mammals and birds.
1972 DDT use is restricted in agriculture by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency.
"The great expectations held
for DDT have been realized. During 1946, exhaustive scientific tests have shown
that, when properly used, DDT kills a host of destructive insect pests, and is a
benefactor of all humanity."
MINDFULLY.ORG NOTE: We've
been promises a scan of the original page. When that arrives, we'll replace
this one with it. But the rest is original.
