Is DDT Bad?

[TSD]

With this recent bed bug crap people are talking about the banning of DDT. On Howard Stern he was talking about this scientist in an attempt to prove DDT was no big deal and its dangers were a myth, fucking drank the stuff. (Howard Stern is paranoid of bed bugs, and wore a hazmat suit to work a couple of times when the building was found to have bed bugs and is an advocate of lifting the ban on DDT.)



http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-worst-bed-bug-infested-cities.html



The media apparently wants to perpetrate that it is still horrible:



A decade ago bed bugs were still the vermin of lore--blood-sucking creepy-crawlies laid to waste by the amazingly effective (and toxic) pesticide DDT.





Ive been finding alot of articles, purporting the opposite, that used responsibly DDT is safe.



http://www.ecoworld.com/animals/bring-back-ddt.html



D.D.T. is the safest, most inexpensive, and most effective pesticide ever known. Only massive over-use of D.D.T. causes the kind of harm to ecosystems and organisms that got it banned. Meanwhile throughout the tropical world, Mosquito-borne disease is on the rise. While we sit comfortable in the cool north we can afford our articles of faith – D.D.T. is evil – yet still tens-of-millions in the tropics die each year of diseases brought to them by Mosquitoes.

 

[MassHavoc]

Did they have someone there from the other side to test that it really was DDT? If not, I'm going to go ahead and let you know that my coffee is actually DDT too.

 

[supraman]

So from reading the 2nd article I gathered that DDT should be made available for use but the quantity used must be regulated.

 

[bri]

I saw a story several years ago on one of those shows like 20/20 where people were buying what they believed to be new mattresses, but were in reality old mattresses that had been recovered to look new. Some of these people had bed bugs because the mattresses underneath were infested. I'm not really sure what they use to get rid of them now, but is it any safer? I don't think of any pesticide as being safe.

 

[TSD]

Im sure none are completely safe. Alot of articles i've been reading have been saying if used properly DDT is safer and more effective than our current alternatives.

Did they have someone there from the other side to test that it really was DDT? If not, I'm going to go ahead and let you know that my coffee is actually DDT too.

Oh I agree with you, I didn't see it first hand, howard Stern mentioned it on one of his shows.

 

[MassHavoc]

Im sure none are completely safe. Alot of articles i've been reading have been saying if used properly DDT is safer and more effective than our current alternatives.













Oh I agree with you, I didn't see it first hand, howard Stern mentioned it on one of his shows.

I don't doubt it was, and I don't doubt DDT could be safe (who owns the patent?) I just know how he likes to sensationalize things so I was wondering.