Ddt Is A Strong Insecticide

A positive consequence of DDT is its effectiveness, even in the face of pesticide resistance in the anopheles mosquito. The eradication of malaria in the United States and the health of US Soldiers while fighting in World War II can be greatly credited to the use of DDT

Throughout his essay, Suzuki supports his arguments with specific examples. To justify his reasoning, the author uses the case of DDT, otherwise known as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane. This chemical compound is used as an insecticide to eliminate the population of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, which it did effectively, and saved millions of lives. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, complications arose, which led to an increase in chemicals and caused a domino effect of

The following involves the second chapter of Carson’s book, Silent Spring that was written in 1962. In this chapter Carson argues persuasively the adverse impacts of pesticides upon the environment and the risks on human health and the environment associated with these “genetic invaders” (Carson, 1962). Many of the extremely diverse people from Carson’s audience targeted were under the impression that chemicals like DDT, at that time in history, were safe for their health. Carson reconciles and attempts to persuade the public to consider the idea that DDT, which in the 1950s and 60s was one of the many chemical pesticides being manufactured and sold to

DDT is a very controversial product… but why? DDT was a pesticide used in the 1950s and it was very effective at killing mosquitoes. This was good because mosquitoes carry a very deadly disease called malaria. But soon the government banned its use in the USA. It supposedly has been decreasing the populations of bald eagles. They think that it makes the eggshells thinner, so when the eagle it trying to keep the eggs warm it might break the eggs on accident. Many people are happy about this ban and others are not. Some researchers feel that evidence supports a ban on DDT while others feel that it is an over reaction to an environmental concern. DDT has been shown to help control the malaria parasite. Evidence supports the banning

DDT has been used since WW2 as an insecticide to control the outbreak of malaria and typhus among troops and civilians. This is because malaria is spread by mosquitos and DDT was considered to be a powerful in eliminating these populations, thus decreasing the infection rate for malaria. Since it was first discovered as an insecticide, worldwide it was used in very large amounts because nobody knew any better and it was considered to be revolutionary. It wasn’t until 1962, when biologist Rachel Carson first outlined the potential harm DDT has on the environment, believing it caused cancer in humans and harmed bird wildlife. This led to the United Stated ban of DDT use in 1972, and later, a worldwide ban under the Stockholm

One reason why DDT should not be used is because of its harmful effects on humans. First, research had shown that the consumption of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) had caused many people to contract many dangerous diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, kidney and ovarian diseases. Studies had also linked the use of DDT to be a carcinogenic, causing breast cancer in women. A study of 9,300

The use of pesticides is an important decision that thousands of communities face each year. Nobody likes dealing with mosquitos and the diseases they bring so using chemicals and pesticides is an option but with other consequences. Mosquitos carry West Nile Virus that affects the city of Genericville every year with 50 cases projected this year in the city and two fatalities as well. On the other hand, the chemicals proposed for controlling the mosquito population has its own risks. The pesticide Malathion is also dangerous to people if they come in contact with it before it degrades. The potential for citizens of the city being exposed is almost a certainty

In the early 1940’s, a new technology emerged that was able to successfully combat crop-damaging and disease-carrying insects. A new age of synthetic chemical pesticides use arose. After their impressive success in fighting deadly insect-borne diseases during World War II, pesticides were used widely to combat insect pests for agriculture and public health. Few people challenged the benefits of the new scientific and technological products and many embraced pesticide use with enthusiasm. Despite its success, doubts about pesticide use began to appear a decade later in the 1950’s, when the government began a vigorous pesticide campaign across the country against insect pests. Scientists began reporting heavy losses of avian and

DDT use can lead to horrible effects in humans and we can not become immune to these horrible unlike the flies that we are trying to kill. We think we have all this superiority over little insects when in fact they have the hand over us. Not because they are more intelligent than us but because we are too intelligent for ourselves. Conniff’s essay shows how our own superiority can lead to our demise.

Carson clarifies that “the sprays, dust, and aerosols are now applied almost universally to farms, gardens, forests, and homes-nonselective chemicals that have the power to kill every insect, the “good” and the “bad”.” In contemporary world today many people use these mankind chemicals without understanding the effects of nature. For example, the reproduction of bees are dropping traumatically because of the pesticides effects on the insects. According to CNN “How Pesticides are killing the bees “Recent data published in science, Nature and other un journals show that bees are dying from some pesticides that are found in our food supply.” The damaged the chemicals are doing to the bees have worries many scientists. The New York Times wrote, pesticide linked to honeybee deaths, “a group of pesticide believed to contribute to mass deaths of honeybees.” Another example of the harmful chemicals affecting the good insects are by destroying favorable insects such as lady bugs and butterflies, which are another great alternative way to pollinate flower. These beneficial insects are very important for human wellbeing; therefore, we should minimize the use of

When DDT became available for civilian use in 1945, there were only a few people who expressed second thoughts about this new miracle compound. One was nature writer Edwin Way Teale, who warned, "A spray as indiscriminate as DDT can upset the economy of nature as much as a revolution upsets social economy. Ninety percent of all insects are good, and if they are killed, things go out of kilter right away." Another was Rachel Carson, who wrote to the Reader's Digest to propose an article about a series of tests on DDT being conducted not far from where she lived in Maryland. The magazine rejected the idea.

It would appear that DDT would be the obvious choice to prevent cases of malaria in developing nations and all over the world. However, DDT is not without its potential hazards. DDT was used as a pesticide in the United States until it was banned in 1972. First employed as an insecticide in 1939, the white powder would kill massive amounts of mosquito larvae. Paul Müller actually won the Nobel Prize for first using the chemical on insects. The pesticide was used throughout the United States to combat more kinds of insect-pests such as gypsy moths. It was not

DDT, one of the first insecticides, showed resistance to a species of insects starting as early as 1946, and this resistance has continued to progress and become documented showing that insects can become resistant to any insecticide. (“Insecticide Resistance,” 1958). Insecticide resistance has been shown in four major ways: behavioral resistance, penetration resistance, knock-down resistance (kdr), and metabolic resistance (Bartels et al., 2001). All of these types of resistance are allowing insects to avoid the effects of the insecticide either by physically avoiding through their behavior, or in the case of knock-down resistance, a phenotype trait is inherited giving the insect nerve insensitivity of the major insecticides – DDT, pyrethrins, and pyrethroids – through a point mutation (Gellatly et al.,

As humans, we have always been trying to gain control over nature, chemicals being one of the ways we have attempted this. Carson also explains that most of the problems we try to control with chemicals is caused by our own doing, an example being living in unsanitary conditions or accidentally bringing over new insects when we are shipping things from place to place. Then as we all know, when this book was written the solve-all solution to this problem was to spray DDT all over everything. People believed that this stuff was going to make their lives better and insect free. She even gives an example of

DDT use has been banned in most developed countries for a very long time so the most likely sources in recent times can be: