tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post6771057248806559810..comments2024-03-22T10:01:39.458-04:00Comments on Paradigms and Demographics: We Are the World’s Healthiest ChemophobesRich Kozlovichhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13745960671409518147noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-40251144781799126122010-06-11T17:25:19.672-04:002010-06-11T17:25:19.672-04:00I am increasingly astonished by the blind, ignoran...I am increasingly astonished by the blind, ignorant biases of self-anointed anti-chemical spokes-people. <br /><br />Everything on earth is chemical. The fact that humans have learned to make/manage chemicals is of irrefutable benefit.<br /><br />Want to remove the pesticide chlorine from drinking water? Better invest in coffins, first. Or, do you still believe Rachel Carson's largely made-up factual fairy tale that destroyed use of DDT? Then I have a bridge to sell you.<br /><br />Chemicals - our lives depend on them. Don't be mindlessly fooled.<br /><br />Dave Dietz<br /><br />Mr. Dietz has a law degree from Willamette University and was the Executive Director of Oregonians for Food & Shelter (OFS) from its inception in 1980 until 1987. RKRich Kozlovichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13745960671409518147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-26524602316894200132010-06-08T05:02:27.471-04:002010-06-08T05:02:27.471-04:00Dr. Jay Lehr has given me permission to post this ...Dr. Jay Lehr has given me permission to post this under his name. RK<br /><br />There is little doubt that DDT is the most important chemical ever manufactured by mankind. From the time it was developed in the 1940s till it was all but outlawed in the early 1970s it had brought reduced malaria around the world by an amazing 90%. I worked in Sri Lanka when Malaria was killing 250,000 annually. When I went back in 1971 the death toll was below 100.<br /><br />All the arguments against it such as bird thinning and carcinogenesis have been totally disproven. Bird counts in all species during its use went up dramatically because it killed vermin that killed birds. The shell thinning stories were caged experiments where birds were deprived of calcium in their diets.<br /><br />Since DDT was taken out of wide use over the past 30 years there have been about 2 million deaths a year from malaria. It is clear that those who continue to speak against the use of DDT to save lives do so as they see the withdrawal of DDT as a population control mechanism. It is the ultimate in human cruelty.<br /><br />Jay Lehr, Ph.D. <br />Science Director<br />The Heartland InstituteRich Kozlovichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13745960671409518147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-34837882619690121492010-06-06T16:41:20.120-04:002010-06-06T16:41:20.120-04:00I have made factual statements here. I regret, an...I have made factual statements here. I regret, and cannot in any way control, your taking those facts personally.<br /><br />If you want to discuss, come on over to my blog. I'll not censor your posts in any fashion. Truth wins in a fair fight, Franklin said, and I believe he was 100% correct.<br /><br />I regret you find the facts "filled with nonsense." But then, you did not address and of the points I made in my post substantively. U.S. EPA has no authority to ban chemicals in Africa. EPA's ban on cotton spraying in the U.S. specifically left alone the ability of U.S. manufacturers to make DDT for export to Africa, which they did with abandon for at least a dozen years. If Africans did not use DDT, I doubt that it would be as your allegations require, that people like Idi Amin refused to use DDT because he put a lot of stock into Rachel Carson, or he thought he should go farther than the EPA, or that he was any friend of the environment in any way.<br /><br />DDT remains a deadly poison, and malaria remains a serious problem -- though death rates today are half what they were when DDT spraying was at its peak in Africa.<br /><br />I believe we have a choice: We can fight malaria, or we can rail against environmentalists. I wish you would join us in fighting malaria.Ed Darrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10056539160596825210noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-74493402153896179742010-06-06T15:08:16.657-04:002010-06-06T15:08:16.657-04:00Mr. Darrell,
I have permitted your post including...Mr. Darrell,<br /><br />I have permitted your post including the link to your blog. I will allow you one more post to defend yourself. After that, please don’t waste my time! I recommend that you review my rules for posting on the main page.Rich Kozlovichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13745960671409518147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-46891992859225751252010-06-06T15:07:38.192-04:002010-06-06T15:07:38.192-04:00Dear Mr. Darrell,
Unlike you, I hate to make thes...Dear Mr. Darrell,<br /><br />Unlike you, I hate to make these issues personal, so I have not attacked you or your blog, which I consider to be filled with nonsense, and have not allowed you to post on my blog because I consider you to be intellectually dishonest. <br /><br />Unless I am mistaken, you are an expert in researching scientific studies. Yet, you have claimed in the past that you don’t have any idea where those who support DDT find their information, although it is readily available. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You talk about the ready availability of DDT in countries that didn’t officially ban the product, yet you must know that the pressure from countries that they do business with was so great that it became a de-facto ban. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You have talked in the past about the efficacy of bed nets and even said that those on my side of the issue are opposed to them. That is untrue, and all of those who write supporting DDT have stated so over and over again. They, as well as I, consider bed nets to be an important part of a control program. There is so much literature to show that bed nets by themselves or with less efficacious more expensive pesticides are a failure. You must be aware of that. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You imply that we only care about DDT and not about disease control through better medication. No one from my side of this issue has said that. We happily applaud those who are working diligently on efficacious medication. Efficacious, inexpensive readily available medications are disparately needed. The problem with that approach is availability and expense and in the meanwhile the suffering continues. You must know that. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />While you finally admit that DDT is part of a control program you still continue to dismiss the very real importance of it even though literature outlines exactly how important it really is. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You talk about the total elimination of mosquitoes as if we are advocating that. As you have said; that didn’t work. But we are not advocating that! We are advocating indoor residential spraying. The impact of spraying DDT indoors is dramatic and you must be aware of that. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You are a master in the effective use of logical fallacies, non-sequiturs, and asides; and to such a degree that you must have taken a logic course. I can’t imagine anyone who could do it better and it seems clear that this is done deliberately. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You make incredulous claims about DDT that I find difficult to understand. I have yet to find any literature that shows how DDT eliminated “whole eco-systems”, but even if that were true; we are only advocating indoor residential use. Even if your statement was true, it is a logical fallacy. You have to know that. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />You have gone on about the problem with DDT and birds and claim that you can’t find any studies that validate the things I have said. These studies are rampart. You are an expert on this. If you can’t find them it is because you don’t wish to find them, or worse yet, you choose to ignore them or imply they do not exist. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.<br /><br />I too wish that Rachel Carson were alive to sue everyone. When someone sues someone else everyone has to be deposed. This is a discovery she would not have fared well in. She would have had to publicly acknowledge her inadequacy as a “scientist”. You are an expert in studies and yet you defend her in spite of the fact that her work has been discredited by many scientific studies….and don’t ask for me to provide them for you….you are an expert at finding these things and yet you ignore them. That, in my opinion is intellectually dishonest.Rich Kozlovichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13745960671409518147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2556326304729519232.post-28245463555395804252010-06-06T10:45:00.597-04:002010-06-06T10:45:00.597-04:00Children die from a lack of medical care, proper d...Children die from a lack of medical care, proper diagnosis, early treatment and access to effective medicines. <br /><br />We can't poison all mosquitoes -- it was tried, and it didn't work. The only solution is to cure malaria in humans. DDT still plays an important but small role in that. DDT, as you know, has never been banned in Africa, and is still cheap and freely available there.<br /><br />Here's a <a href="http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/?s=malaria+%2BDDT" rel="nofollow">collection of articles on DDT and malaria you'll find useful.</a>Ed Darrellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10056539160596825210noreply@blogger.com