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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Monday, February 15, 2016

How Poisonous is DDT?

Posted on by Josh Bloom

With Zika being in the news constantly, and sounding a little worse every week, there have been murmurs about the possibility of using DDT to fight the infection, should it turn into a serious epidemic and become a public health threat. While there are some disturbing signs that Zika could, in fact, become a legitimate threat and not just another manufactured panic like many others, it is impossible to determine at this time what the magnitude of the problem will be.

Most “end-of-the-world” infections have turned out to be duds. We just don’t know yet.
If it becomes a serious problem in America, it should provoke a serious scientific response, without political grandstanding. All options should be on the table. Yet all options probably won’t be. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane — DDT — may never be considered despite its considerable successes elsewhere, and for reasons that have little or nothing to do with science......

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