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Re: Another DDT issue...???
At the risk of straying off topic, I haven't seen a warning yet.
Most pests that insecticides such as DDT were used against were becoming immune to any rational dosage. Mosquitoes and flies have a rapid life cycle that will adapt to environmental pollutants (this is what insecticides are for them) much more quickly than a longer reproductive cycle will. You reach a point where you can still kill the bug of concern, but the dose is also lethal to just about everything else that you don't want to kill.
There is also an issue of how these chemicals affect other organisms. In addition to the CNS affects many of these pesticides and metabolites can act as hormone mimics, causing other problems. Although this is an area of developing controversy, a correlation, if not cause and effect, does seem to exist.
If you want an example of this at work in the Developed world, check out the recent articles on head lice and the (old) treatments that are no longer effective. Or the apparent total immunity of some tuberculosis strains to antibiotics. Yes antibiotics are a pesticide in the broad sense of the term, they are designed to kill something.
Hope this helps some.
Zack Clayton
zclayton@epa.state.oh.us
Ohio EPA
Voice 614-644-3066
FAX 614-460-8249
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