HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Demonizing DDT: Challenging The Scare Campaign That Has Cost Millions of Lives

Views: 838
In The Excellent Powder: DDT's Political and Scientific History, Richard Tren and Donald Roberts argue that the infamous insecticide is the world's greatest public-health success stories, saving millions of lives by preventing insect-borne disease. Unfortunately for those in areas still infested with mosquitoes and other flying bugs, DDT is also the world's most-misunderstood substance, the target of a decades-long scientifically ignorant and ideologically motivated campaign that has vastly limited its use and applications.

From Rachel Carson in the 1960s to contemporary critics, DDT has been the object of what Roberts, a professor of tropical public health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, calls "scare campaigns" that link DDT to "theoretical harms to wildlife and human life that simply don't exist."

Dubbed "the excellent powder" by Winston Churchill for its life-saving qualities, DDT has the potential to transform the developing world from a malarial hell into something else again. Yet as Tren, the winner of the 2009 Julian L. Simon Award, warns, under current international conventions, global DDT production is scheduled to be halted in 2017, thereby consigning much of the world to less-effective and more-expensive alternatives that will consign millions of poor people to living hell.

Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Tren and Roberts, who are part of Africa Fighting Malaria, to talk about how DDT got such a bad rap and what can be done to set the record straight.

Approximately 9.15 minutes. Shot by Meredith Bragg and Dan Hayes; edited by Hayes and Josh Swain.

Go to http://reason.tv for downloadable iPod, HD, and audio versions, and for links to the book and more.
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for We The Living: Trailer to the new DVD version of the 1942 film based on Ayn Rand's novel4:14
We The Living: Trailer to the new DVD version of the 1942 film based on Ayn Rand's novel
ReasonVids
825 views
Thumbnail for Rail to Nowhere: Honolulu, Hawaii's Train Boondoggle8:40
Rail to Nowhere: Honolulu, Hawaii's Train Boondoggle
ReasonVids
988 views
Thumbnail for How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires | The Hated One24:13
How Kurzgesagt Cooks Propaganda For Billionaires | The Hated One
invidious
481 views
Thumbnail for Bitcoin Is Free Speech: Why Jamie Dimon Was Wrong and Governments Can Never ‘Close It Down’2:36
Bitcoin Is Free Speech: Why Jamie Dimon Was Wrong and Governments Can Never ‘Close It Down’
ReasonVids
867 views
Thumbnail for John Goodman on Curing the Health Care Crisis4:12
John Goodman on Curing the Health Care Crisis
ReasonVids
825 views
Thumbnail for Amazon Go0:20
Amazon Go
bestofupgoat
437 views
Thumbnail for Budget Deficits for Dummies: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love $1.4 trillion1:32
Budget Deficits for Dummies: Or how I learned to stop worrying and love $1.4 trillion
ReasonVids
958 views
Thumbnail for Spiked's Brendan O'Neill: "The Real Threat To Free Speech Now is Conformism and Cowardice"13:23
Spiked's Brendan O'Neill: "The Real Threat To Free Speech Now is Conformism and Cowardice"
ReasonVids
918 views
Thumbnail for Quote-Faking Imagine Author Jonah Lehrer: Why I Became a Journalist0:34
Quote-Faking Imagine Author Jonah Lehrer: Why I Became a Journalist
ReasonVids
856 views
Thumbnail for Should the Government Break Up Big Tech? A Soho Forum Debate1:24:26
Should the Government Break Up Big Tech? A Soho Forum Debate
ReasonVids
763 views
Thumbnail for Boobquake: Live from Dupont Circle1:36
Boobquake: Live from Dupont Circle
ReasonVids
739 views
Thumbnail for water kitties0:22
water kitties
bestofupgoat
57 views
Thumbnail for Pierre Poilievre will Boycott World Economic Forum if Elected Prime Minister ~ Clyde Do Something12:18
Pierre Poilievre will Boycott World Economic Forum if Elected Prime Minister ~ Clyde Do Something
bestofsaidit
1020 views
Thumbnail for Fighting Youth Discrimination: Q&A with NYRA President Jeffrey Nadel4:30
Fighting Youth Discrimination: Q&A with NYRA President Jeffrey Nadel
ReasonVids
809 views
Thumbnail for After Escobar: How the US Imposed its Own Drug War on Colombia26:22
After Escobar: How the US Imposed its Own Drug War on Colombia
ReasonVids
871 views
Thumbnail for Bring the First Amendent Into the 21st Century says Freedom of the Press Foundation's Trevor Timm8:00
Bring the First Amendent Into the 21st Century says Freedom of the Press Foundation's Trevor Timm
ReasonVids
839 views
Thumbnail for Pelosi to land in Taipei Tomorrow Night, China Posts Threatening Military Video on Wechat Before Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan — Complete with Chinese Invading Forces Seizing Control of the Island Nation2:26
Pelosi to land in Taipei Tomorrow Night, China Posts Threatening Military Video on Wechat Before Pelosi’s Visit to Taiwan — Complete with Chinese Invading Forces Seizing Control of the Island Nation
bestofpoal
572 views
Thumbnail for Trump Can't Stop Marijuana Legalization (But He Can Slow it Down)2:15
Trump Can't Stop Marijuana Legalization (But He Can Slow it Down)
ReasonVids
946 views
Thumbnail for The Revolt of the Canadian Truckers4:15
The Revolt of the Canadian Truckers
ReasonVids
875 views
Thumbnail for Stossel: How Government Caused 'The Boy Crisis’5:21
Stossel: How Government Caused 'The Boy Crisis’
ReasonVids
1026 views
Thumbnail for Multi million dollar solar park destroyed by hail storm0:26
Multi million dollar solar park destroyed by hail storm
bestofupgoat
321 views
Thumbnail for #StandWithRand: Rand Paul, Barack Obama, Drones, and Presidential Kill Lists2:46
#StandWithRand: Rand Paul, Barack Obama, Drones, and Presidential Kill Lists
ReasonVids
1018 views
Thumbnail for Pope Francis Doesn't Understand Economics & Capitalism: Judge Napolitano7:14
Pope Francis Doesn't Understand Economics & Capitalism: Judge Napolitano
ReasonVids
794 views
Thumbnail for Cops seize $41,680 From INNOCENT Man. Wasn’t Charged With a Crime4:33
Cops seize $41,680 From INNOCENT Man. Wasn’t Charged With a Crime
IJvids
988 views

points

Permalink
Reply
reason.tv, reason.com, reason.org, reason magazine, reason foundation, ddt, rachel carson, earth day, richard tren, donald roberts, excellent powder, environmentalism, stockholm convention, malaria, africa fighting malaria, nick gillespie, dan hayes, meredith bragg, josh swain
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle