Erm, this junkscience article is full of scientific errors. It seems to be fulfilling its namesake. How can this site pretend to be fighting in the corner of science when it is full of such gaping holes?
For example:
Gas chromatography detected DDT in samples of wildlife and soil collected before DDT was even produced.
Which is, frankly, bollocks. Organochlorides are xenobiotic - they are not found in nature. The only real way they can be produced non-synthetically is by the burning of organic matter with a lot of salt (sodium chloride). They are not produced by any plant or animal, to my knowledge. They are alien to life chemistry, partly why they are so effective at killing it.
Human ingestion of DDT was estimated to average about 0.0026 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day (mg/kg/day) about 0.18 milligrams per day.
In 1967, the daily average intake of DDT by 20 men with high occupational exposure was estimated to be 17.5 to 18 mg/man per day, as compared with an average of 0.04 mg/man per day for the general population.
Yes, but two vital facts these fail to tell you are that:
a) DDT intake is cumulative (it is not broken up by the body or excreted, and accumulates as DDT and DDE in fatty tissues. Over time the poisoning can become chronic. The body cannot excrete it because none of its metabolites are polar, and so cannot be extracted by the kidneys.
b) DDT and DDE are endocrine disruptors even at very low levels, like most organohalides. This means it can cause diseases not related to itself. For instance, cancers associated with hormone imbalance. Such poisoning likely takes time, and so tests on lab animals with huge doses of DDT are worthless. Note how there is not one test mentioned where small cumulative doses are given over a period of years or even decades.
"Even after 20 years of follow-up, exposure to relatively high concentrations of DDE or PCBs showed no evidence of contributing to an increased risk of breast cancer."
The article listed is old. PCBs are now known to be carcinogenic and if burned can form dioxin, an even more lethal compound found in agent orange. If a farmer burns his leftover crops containing DDT, chances are he'll produce dioxin. Dioxins are among the most lethal compounds known to man and are teratogenic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, and very toxic.
Summary: the junkscience article is a very one sided review that lists only one side of the difficulties in DDT use. It has zero scientific value, and I can only assume so does the whole site. Junk science indeed.
*clonk*
(The sound of my cranium hitting some masonry.)
