Should DDT remain illegal

1. Should DDT remain illegal By Millie Hiner

2. What is DDT and what was it used for • DDT is pesticide that was used all over the world in the 1900s to put an end to malaria, once malaria was coming to an end in the United States DDT was being used for an insect killer. After WWII it was such an effective insect killer that people called it “atomic bomb” of pesticides. • DDT was used to control “common pests” like potato beetles, coddling moths, corn ear warms and tobacco budworms.

3. How it became illegal • In 1962 Silent Spring was written by Rachel Carson who writes about how commonly DDT was being used and how she started to notice changes in the environment. It was being used in homes gardens and farms and forests. DDT was a non-selective insecticide it kill good and bad insects . • Carson said DDT had the power to “still the songs of birds and the leaping of fish in the streams, to coat the leaves with a deadly film and to linger on in soil” • Silent Spring became a best seller and thousands of people were reading that DDT is stored in human bodies and how it will permanently poison the water system.

4. Using DDT Pros: Cons: Run-off into water systems Will be stored in humans fat cells where it is passed thru milk into children Poison fish, who then get eaten by people and other animals Will soften the eggshells of birds Could kill of more animals than we know It never breaks down from being a POISON It’s an experiment using the environment • Could save millions of people

5. Can not be used again • In Malaria infested countries millions are adults and children are dying, while there is a sure way to get rid of Malaria once in for all but at what risks? • DDT needs to be remained illegal for many reasons. • People may only see using DDT as only losing a few birds but that is not the case; no one knows the long term effects DDT could have on humans it is a poison that never gets broken down and it is stored in our bodies, it could cause a million different types of disease and sicknesses that we haven't ever seen before. Causing one specie to go extinct would be the cause of many more to become extinct; it is a domino effect. • DDT poisons fish by poisoning all water systems, anyone who drinks the water or eats the fish now has DDT poison inside of them. • "It's in those species which are perhaps at the higher end of the food chain where there is this magnificent term called bio-cumulation that occurs. What happens is there is a gradual accumulation of the pesticide in prey items that are then accumulated and absorbed into the fatty tissues of animals. So particularly things like whales and dolphins that have got large fatty tissues, they end up storing and accumulating a concentrated amount over time that is way beyond the external environmental levels at that time. There have been things associated with wildlife in Australia such as Peregrine Falcons and a whole raft of other species due to egg shell thinning. This resulted in the loss of reproductive output from a whole range of animals so it's been pretty dramatic right throughout the world.“ • People who believe it should be reused only believe in big business and see it as a way of making money and fixing a problem temporarily.

6. We need to protect our environment and there needs to be an environmentally friendly alternative for malaria protection, one that works and that does more good than bad in the future. We need to protect and save all types and species of life not just our own.