DDT

To watch clips of people being blasted by massive clouds of DDT while they smile and continue eating, to show that the chemical is completely “safe,” and then proceed to read about the horrible things that happen to animals coming in contact with it, is alarming. Once an animal gets it in its system, say a robin for example, it will start losing its balance, and become dazed. They get tremors, which escalate into convulsions, before finally dying. While animals may be somewhat different to humans, it doesn’t seem like too farfetched of an idea that something that can kill other mammals might be able to affect us, too.

It makes me wonder if the people who participated in that ad, or let’s face it, pesticide propaganda, ever felt ill afterwards or not. I would really like to know more details on its affect on humans, if it’s the same, or not. I know the robins had to ingest around eleven to twelve worms to be poisoned, so would it be about a hundred for a full grown adult? Could just breathing it have the same outcomes of convulsions, then death? How much would you have to breath in, how much would you have to eat?

My dad just told me a story about how a friend of his had a dog that had a flea-infestation in the 80s. No matter what flea powder they used, or how much, or how often, the fleas persevered, and seemed to be resistant to every method. The friend happened to have an old can of DDT lying around in his barn, and ended up using it on his dog. All the fleas died and didn’t come back. I asked in shock if the dog died, since surely it would lick itself and get the chemical into its system, but he said no. But, there had to be somewort of negative effect, even if it wasn’t death. There seems like there would be no way that any living creature could come in contact with DDT and be completely fine. Perhaps the dog had suffered complications later on down the road that were caused by it?