I made a drawing of DDT since we learned about it in class.
DDT is relatively nontoxic to humans and other mammals but he got into troubles especially with environmentalists and bird-lovers and has been condemned for ecological destruction.
The professor showed us a video of technicians trying to convince an African tribe to apply DDT to control malaria in their village. The chief, being skeptical about anything modern and "magical", shook his head. One of the technicians wanted to show the safety of DDT so he sprayed some DDT in a tray AND HOLY CRAPS HE DRANK IT! (Urrrgh, chlorinated hydrocarbon, I bet it tasted awful.)
Well, it's true that people back in the 50's and early 60's thought DDT was totally safe and the savior of getting rid of all bug problems and insect-vectored diseases. In the same video, the "safety" of DDT was demonstrated by having people dined and swam joyfully in fume of DDT spray.
Things in the drawing:
Top-left: bird death and broken eggs due to DDT poisoning and egg shell thinning.
Top-right: 4 mosquitoes - one dead and three alive - implying that more mosquitoes survived than killed due to resistance.
Right: The personified DDT in his overall.
Left: the (young) Rachel Carson - author of Silent Spring.
Down-right: malaria parasites coming out of a red blood cell.
Down-left: African residents suffered from malaria and hoping to find a solution. DDT is still an important and effective way to reduce the spread of malaria in some African countries by controlling mosquito population.
I just couldn't lift my energy to prepare for exam today. I went back and forth falling asleep and waking up feeling awfully tired. Now it's 3:40 AM but I feel so stressed that I can't sleep. Well, if at least I'm feeling less tired now I'm going to study a bit.
When Dad child age, we alway spread DDT for prevent bit by mosquitoes
ReplyDeletein my memery that the odor of DDT is really very very awfully
every time after DDT was spreaded than every body well run away the room for several hours.