DDT Should it be used?

[Michaelangelica]

Here's another collection of information which seems to be organized by Purdue University:

 

Home - National Pesticide Information Retrieval System (NPIRS)

 

 

:cup:

Thanks InfiniteNow

2.45amMonday morning

Going to bed now

Florida seems to use orthophosphates & synthetic pyrehtroids.

In there own literature they say Syn. pyrethroids are bad news.

(To paraphrase:-"This stuff is worse than CHs and breaks down into even nastier stuff. Sometimes we don't even know what it breaks down into."

MA (thinks) These guys really know their stuff; very intelligent read.

Then, a few pages on, I find they are using them- Astounding Hypocracy!)

 

A friend with a Ph.,D. in chemistry says the organophosphates are worse than chlorinated hydrocarbons.

All that is OK, but Florida has an Air Force bigger than the RAAF, to spread them throughout a state, about as big as as small Oz sheep farm. Astounding again!!

Why has you bee population been plummeting for ten years?

Why are your birds dying?

You need to ask?

Rachel Carson will be turning over in her grave.

Someone in the environment movement has seriously taken their eye of the ball. Perhaps they thought, like me, that the pesticide battle had been won years ago?

 

But I don't think Yanks really give a stuff about the ecosystem when I read what Dow Corp. gets up too-and away with- (They have already poisoned Sydney Harbour with Agent Orange- and we were on their side!) and when I read things like this

CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Army admits it dumped 64 million pounds of chemical weapons at sea

 

So I might give up on the Yanks and see what my own sweet enlightened :lol: Little Bonsai :tree:is up to.

I noticed that "The State of the Nation- Oz Environment Report 2006"- a beautifully presented waste of trees- was an excellent PR document which said nothing.

3.10am

[DougF]

Quote: Michaelangelica,

 

But I don't think Yanks really give a stuff about the ecosystem when I read what Dow Corp. gets up too-and away with- (They have already poisoned Sydney Harbour with Agent Orange- and we were on their side!) and when I read things like this

CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: Army admits it dumped 64 million pounds of chemical weapons at sea

 

Reply:

You mite be surprised, they have most of the people in the USA (and the world ) horn swaggered in to believing that they are working for the good of the people, DOW will bye adds in favor of them then if (and when) we find out the Truth it will end up on the last page of the paper, so it turns out BIG ADD IN FAVOR small size add against most Americans will think the small add is trying to descretet them.

 

I for one fell fore this, :(

 

I am older now and the stuff (DDT....) that was supposed too be band, and just plain not use/sold anymore is still out there they keep making more polluting the earth as we speak, (I just don't know how my kids and grandkids are supposed to Keen this up, I fill guilty that I've not been watching them closer, What do you think they well say when they find this mess.) :cup:

 

 

I found this site Look what else they were dumping in the ocean.(this is sad the disposal method was 55 gal steel drums, I'll find more info.)

 

GREENPEACE’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST OCEAN DUMPING OF RADIO ACTIVE WASTE1978-1998

 

GREENPEACE’S CAMPAIGN AGAINST OCEAN DUMPING OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE 1978-1998

[DougF]

quote=DougF

I found this site Look what else they were dumping in the ocean.(this is sad the disposal method was 55 gal steel drums, I'll find more info.)

 

Here are more links on this.

 

Radioactive Waste

 

Radioactive waste is also dumped in the oceans and usually comes from the nuclear power process, medical use of radioisotopes, research use of radioisotopes and industrial uses. The difference between industrial waste and nuclear waste is that nuclear waste usually remains radioactive for decades. The protocol for disposing of nuclear waste involves special treatment by keeping it in concrete drums so that it doesn't spread when it hits the ocean floor. The dumping of radioactive material has reached a total of about 84,000 terabecquerels (TBq), a unit of radioactivity equal to 1012 atomic disintegrations per second or 27.027 curies. Curie (Ci) is a unit of radioactivity. One curie was originally defined as the radioactivity of one gram of pure radium. In 1953 scientists agreed that the curie would represent exactly 3.7 x 1010 atomic disintegrations per second, or 37 gigabecquerels (GBq), this being the best estimate of the activity of a gram of radium. The unit is named for Pierre and Marie Curie who discovered radium. The high point of nuclear waste dumping was in 1954 and 1962, but this nuclear waste only accounts for 1% of the total TBq that has been dumped in the ocean. The concentration of radioactive waste in the concrete drums varies as does the danger to marine life and humans.

 

Ocean Dumping Grounds - MarineBio.org

 

Stop Ocean Dumping - Radioactive waste

 

U.S. Department of Energy

OCRWM - Ocean Floor Disposal

 

Managing nuclear waste: Options considered

Managing Nuclear Waste: Options Considered - Fact Sheet

 

Nuclear Waste: Storage and Disposal Methods

"In the half century of the nuclear age, the U.S. has accumulated some 30,000 metric tons of spent fuel rods from power reactors and another 380,000 cubic meters of high-level radioactive waste, a by-product of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons. None of these materials have found anything more than interim accomadation, despite decades of study and expenditures in the billions of dollars on research, development and storage," Chris G. Whipple, Can Nuclear Waste Be Stored at Yucca Mountain? Scientific American, June, 1996

 

Nuclear Waste: Storage and Disposal Methods

 

 

Nuclear waste poses Arctic threat

 

BBC NEWS | Europe | Nuclear waste poses Arctic threat

 

 

TED Case Studies

Arctic Sea Dumping

 

Arctic Sea Dumping

 

 

TED Case Studies

Japan Sea Contamination

 

Japan Sea Contamination

 

there are more just Google "nuclear waste ocean"

[Michaelangelica]

After Rachel Carlson’s shoddily-researched Silent Spring

Jay Reding.com - The Lessons Of The DDT Ban

After this journalist's shoddily researched article on DDT.?

So he has degrees in Biology?

You wonder who is paying these drop-kicks.

[Michaelangelica]

Magnitude and origin of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) compounds resuspended in southern Lake Michigan

Settling and suspended sediments, as well as air and water samples, were collected in southern Lake Michigan over a 12 month period. Analysis of contaminant fluxes on settling particles shows that approximately 370 kg of PCBs and 110 kg of DDT compounds are resuspended in southern Lake Michigan during a single basin-wide event (January 1999).

Magnitude and origin of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) compounds resuspended in southern Lake Michigan

50 years after Rachel Carson. This is still happening?

[Michaelangelica]

The preliminary report at the ACS meeting fits with evidence from a large study published in July that suggests that exposure to pesticides might increase the risk of developing the degenerative brain disease, which often is diagnosed after age 60. That report didn't zero in on a specific pesticide, but Miller and his colleague Kurt Pennell at the Georgia Institute of Technology did.

 

The team examined brain tissue taken from 14 Parkinson's patients and 12 people who did not have the disease. They found that levels of dieldrin were three times higher in the brain tissue taken from the Parkinson's patients. That tissue also had the same high levels of a breakdown product of DDT.

 

A second report by the same team helps explain how pesticides might injure the brain.

 

Miller and Pennell gave small doses of dieldrin to laboratory mice. After only a month, the team found that the pesticide increased the amount of brain damage done by free radicals, highly reactive molecules that are a byproduct of metabolism.

 

The team found evidence that free radicals had damaged certain brain cells that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in Parkinson's disease. People who sustain damage to these same brain cells start to develop the symptoms of Parkinson's, such as a shuffling walk, Miller says.

 

He believes Parkinson's is kicked off by a combination of factors, including genes, but then the disease speeds up as a result of exposure to pesticides such as dieldrin.

 

The findings add to others that have linked pesticides to Parkinson's, including a study of more than 143,000 people conducted by researcher Alberto Ascherio of the Harvard School of Public Health and published in the July issue of the Annals of Neurology. He found that people who had reported exposure to pesticides had a 70% greater risk of Parkinson's.

USATODAY.com - Lingering pesticides linked to Parkinson's

 

DDE was also found, Dielrin is in the same chemical "family" as DDT

 

I just came accross an aricle entitled " 100 things you should know about DDT

 

by J. Gordon Edwards and Steven Milloy

It was so patiently wrong and misleading I found it difficult to know where to start with it. So first I looked up the author's credentials. One is dead the other Steven Milloy seems to be an apologist and lobbiest for many polluting industries.

The Junk Science Page is not about junk science so much as it is about anything which does not support a conservative or libertarian political agenda for businesses and industries that do not like regulations that limit their ability to pollute or poison us or our environment.

Internet Bunk The Junk Science Page

and

Prior to launching the JunkScience.com, Milloy worked for Jim Tozzi's Multinational Business Services, the Philip Morris tobacco company's primary lobbyist in Washington with respect to the issue of secondhand cigarette smoke. He subsequently went to work for The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC), a Philip Morris front group created by the PR firm of APCO Worldwide. [3]

 

Although Milloy frequently represent himself as an expert on scientific matters, he is not a scientist himself. He holds a bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences, a law degree and a master's degree in biostatistics. He has never published original research in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

JunkScience.com - SourceWatch

There are many similar bios so I guess I will just ignore the specious article on DDT

[DougF]

[/b]

Magnitude and origin of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) compounds resuspended in southern Lake Michigan

50 years after Rachel Carson. This is still happening?

 

I know that they are doing some underwater logging in Lake Superior I just hope they are not mucking up the water as this would/could explain the suspended sediments

 

Underwater Logging: Tough, but not Impossible

As the world's thirst for wood grows and the resulting deforestation contributes to a wide range of environmental problems' date=' one enterprising group has gone to a surprising location to search for more sustainable wood supplies--under the water.

 

A great amount of timber sank during log drives or was flooded during the construction of hydroelectric dams around the world. Although under water, the trees may be as good as new. One obvious--but dangerous and expensive--way to retrieve this "rediscovered wood" is to hire divers to run underwater saws. A second solution, uprooting the trees with a chain, mucks up the water and disrupts aquatic ecosystems.

 

Now Triton Logging, a firm in British Columbia, has come up with a third alternative: the Sawfish. This remotely piloted submarine--named for a relative of the shark that has a beak like a giant hedge trimmer--sports a long, electric-powered chain saw. Triton president Chris Godsall, who has a master's degree in business and sustainability, had worked salvaging individual sunken logs when he realized there was more to gain by salvaging whole drowned forests. The Sawfish, he says, represents "an arranged marriage of marine and logging technologies" that may offer a sustainable way to reduce the environmental impacts of logging and the attendant road building. [/quote']

 

Underwater Logging: Submarine Rediscovers Lost Wood

 

Triton Logging Company

[Michaelangelica]

Malaria Deaths Dropped To One Quarter Previous Level In Zanzibar, Tanzania

 

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2007) — Research in Zanzibar, Tanzania has found a remarkable fall in the number of children dying from malaria. Within a three-year period (2002 to 2005), malaria deaths among the islands' children dropped to a quarter of the previous level and overall child deaths to half.

 

Achuyt Bhattarai, Anders Björkman and colleagues from Tanzania, Sweden, Italy, USA and UK have published their results in PLoS Medicine, where they show that the achievement follows the introduction of improved treatment. Malaria control was then further enhanced by the implementation of widescale use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs).

 

Malaria kills about one million people every year. Most are young children living in Africa. The parasite responsible is transmitted to people when they are bitten (usually at night) by an infected mosquito. The World Health Organization and experts now recommend a new form of treatment known as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), which include the drug artemisinin -- obtained from the sweet wormwood plant. ITNs are also strongly promoted.

 

People with malaria have had free access to ACT in Zanzibar since late 2003; children under five years old and pregnant women have been given free ITNs (long-lasting insecticidal nets) since early 2006.

Malaria Deaths Dropped To One Quarter Previous Level In Zanzibar, Tanzania

[Michaelangelica]

We should be VERY worried by research such as this.

Articles

Science, Vol 189, Issue 4201, 463-464

Copyright © 1975 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

 

articles

Chlorinated hydrocarbon pollutants and photosynthesis of marine phytoplankton: a reassessment

NS Fisher

 

The chlorinated hydrocarbons DDT and PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls), ubiquitous pollutants of the marine environment, have been observed to reduce the cell division rate of marine phytoplankton, thereby indirectly reducing the total photosynthetic carbon fixation in treated cultures.

The photosynthetic capacity of each cell was not affected.

Total marine photosynthesis will likely remain undiminished by these compounds, although alterations in phytoplankton communities through selective toxicity could effect herbivore populations.

Chlorinated hydrocarbon pollutants and photosynthesis of marine phytoplankton: a reassessment -- Fisher 189 (4201): 463 -- Science

[Michaelangelica]

Dow seems to be a one-company, environmental disater.

Dioxin is a chlorinated hydrocarbon like DDT with a very long half-life.

I would like to know how Dow intends to destroy it.

 

Dioxin spot in Michigan could be worst ever

Dow Chemical says it will remove plume; fish advisories issuedMichigan health officials were worried enough about last week's announcement that they extended a fish consumption advisory already in effect for the Tittabawassee River — a Saginaw River tributary that winds through Dow's plant in Midland — to include the entire Saginaw River and a portion of Lake Huron's Saginaw Bay, where both rivers' water ends up.

 

Dow is removing three dioxin concentrations along a six-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee. The company plans to remove the latest find, Dow spokesman John C. Musser said.

 

"We don't believe there's any imminent or significant human health or environmental threat," Musser said.

Dioxin plume could be worst ever in U.S. - Environment - MSNBC.com

[Michaelangelica]

i couldn't find this thread using the Hypography seach engine. so I used Google.

 

Antarctic Penguins Reveal Steady DDT Levels

Jessica Marshall, Discovery News

 

 

May 5, 2008 -- Although use of the pesticide DDT was banned in the Northern Hemisphere in the 1970s, and DDT levels in the Arctic have declined steadily since then, new measurements show that DDT levels in Antarctic Adélie penguins have remained constant.

. . .

"It didn't come as much of a surprise that there is still DDT in penguins in Antarctica," environmental chemist Frank Wania of the University of Toronto Scarborough told Discovery News after reviewing the findings. There are only a few historical data points for the researchers to compare with, he noted, which makes it difficult to conclude too much from the findings.

 

Still, "it is surprising that it wouldn't have declined since the 60s or 70s," he said.

Discovery News : Discovery Channel

Why should he be surprised with China and India producing it and selling it to Africa and . . .? Is that a half or a third of the planet's population?

Pesticide Metabolites Associated With Increased Risk Of Testicular Cancers, Study Shows

 

ScienceDaily (Apr. 30, 2008) — Men exposed to organochlorine pesticide metabolites, such as DDE, had an increased risk of testicular germ cell tumors.

Pesticide Metabolites Associated With Increased Risk Of Testicular Cancers, Study Shows

DDT when and if it breaks down breaks down into DDE

[Michaelangelica]

Ugandan farmers push for DDT ban

 

Posted Sat May 31, 2008 10:20am AEST

 

The Ugandan Government is embroiled in a court battle with farmers and agricultural exporters over its use of the chemical spray DDT to fight the spread of malaria.

 

The farmers are arguing that their businesses are being destroyed because many western countries ban imports of food containing traces of DDT.

 

Lawyers representing a consortium of agricultural exporters have been granted permission by the High court in Uganda to mount a legal challenge to the Government's use of DDT.

 

They also succeeded in obtaining a temporary ban on its use while the court case goes ahead.

 

Spraying began in two districts of northern Uganda in April but the exporters argue that the Government is failing to follow strict guidelines on the use of DDT, set out buy the World Health Organisation and Uganda's own national environmental management authority.

 

Ugandan farmers push for DDT ban - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Michaelangelica]

An interesting report on the ABC Catalyst science programme tonight.

It seems most DDE ends up in cold climates like Antarctica and is found in Krill.

The levels in whales who eat a lot of Krill is 17 times higher.

Catalyst

8:00pm Thursday, 16 Oct 2008 Education CC G

Website

 

CHEMICAL WHALES

 

Paradoxically, the polar regions are not as pristine as we like to think.

What should be the cleanest places on earth are accumulating a nasty residue of toxic pollution from the rest of the world.

Dr Susan Bengtson-Nash started looking for more than a hundred long-lived chemicals in Antarctica, like DDT, dioxins, and PCBs (persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to establish what impact they are having on the environment.

Tiny shrimp-like krill swarming in their billions are the basis of the Antarctic food chain, and every other animal depends directly or indirectly on the krill, which makes them an obvious choice to analyse for their chemical content.

Krill is the exclusive diet of humpback whales, and they swallow them by the tonne before they set off on a ten-thousand kilometre journey north to their Australian breeding grounds.

This year, Susan is waiting for them, ready to take a sample of their blubber to discover how much chemical contamination they're getting with their diet.

In the middle of the humpback highway off North Stradbroke Island, Catalyst's Mark Horstman joins the whale hunters in a scientific adventure, following the trail of the very toxic, from the quite small to the incredibly huge.

You should be able to download the video tomorrow and for the next four weeks or so.at

Catalyst - ABC TV

[Michaelangelica]

An interesting report on the ABC Catalyst science programme tonight.

It seems most DDE ends up in cold climates like Antarctica and is found in Krill.

The levels in whales who eat a lot of Krill is 17 times higher.

Catalyst

8:00pm Thursday, 16 Oct 2008 Education CC G

Website

 

CHEMICAL WHALES

 

Paradoxically, the polar regions are not as pristine as we like to think.

What should be the cleanest places on earth are accumulating a nasty residue of toxic pollution from the rest of the world.

Dr Susan Bengtson-Nash started looking for more than a hundred long-lived chemicals in Antarctica, like DDT, dioxins, and PCBs (persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to establish what impact they are having on the environment.

Tiny shrimp-like krill swarming in their billions are the basis of the Antarctic food chain, and every other animal depends directly or indirectly on the krill, which makes them an obvious choice to analyse for their chemical content.

Krill is the exclusive diet of humpback whales, and they swallow them by the tonne before they set off on a ten-thousand kilometre journey north to their Australian breeding grounds.

This year, Susan is waiting for them, ready to take a sample of their blubber to discover how much chemical contamination they're getting with their diet.

In the middle of the humpback highway off North Stradbroke Island, Catalyst's Mark Horstman joins the whale hunters in a scientific adventure, following the trail of the very toxic, from the quite small to the incredibly huge.

You should be able to download the video tomorrow and for the next four weeks or so.at

Catalyst - ABC TV

[Theory5]

DDT was horrible. It distroyed many food-chains and killled many animals. It should not be used to fight anything. I dont think I really need to tell you guys that. But I think with DDT the cons outweight the pro. They should try something else, like amping up those mosquito things that repel them with sound. Could protect small towns or something.

 

gahh they changed the title! This is why you should never leave your computer unguarded while on a forum in school! (could an admin change it back plz?)

[Michaelangelica]

DDT was horrible. It distroyed many food-chains and killled many animals. It should not be used to fight anything. I dont think I really need to tell you guys that. But I think with DDT the cons outweight the pro. They should try something else, like amping up those mosquito things that repel them with sound. Could protect small towns or something.

 

DDT is the most benign of the group of chemicals called "chlorinated hydrocarbons" historically DDT was one of the first used.

These chemicals have very long half lives and bio-accumulate; especially in the fatty tissue of mammals.

The report I posted was from Antarctica and specifically on DDE (What DDT "breaks down" into).

It will be interesting to see their future research on the dozens?, hundreds? of other Chlorinated Hydrocarbons that are being accumulated at the poles.

 

Most of the world (China, India, Africa) now uses DDT.

 

Look forward to another Silent Spring

Rachel Carson will be turning over in her grave.

[Michaelangelica]

This is some good news for the environment.

Now we just need away of getting it out of the fatty tissues of mammels

Biotechnology breaks down toxic waste

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Environmental Biotechnology CRC

 

Australian scientists have discovered a new technology that can easily break down recalcitrant chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHC) on-site. Most CHCs are highly toxic products or by-products of chemical reactions and are associated with some well known environmental problems.

 

“Our technology is based on the use of granulated activated carbon which together with a common solvent and an electron enhancer helps hydrogen turn a CHC into a hydrocarbon and salt, thereby converting a harmful compound into harmless ones”, said Dr David Garman, Executive Director of Environmental Biotechnology CRC (EBCRC)

. . . .

 

“There is an increasing awareness of the detrimental effects of CHCs on human health as well as the environment at large. Our technology will definitely contribute towards a cleaner and healthier environment”, Dr Garman concluded.

 

CHCs represent a large group of synthetic chemical compounds whose physical and chemical properties give them a broad range of applications such as pesticides and dry cleaning solvents.

CHCs have a number of negative health effects: they have been shown to be highly carcinogenic and hepatotoxic.

Due to the highly stable nature of the carbon-chlorine bond, CHCs are very resistant to normal biological degradation. Consequently, these compounds are environmentally persistent and because of their lipid solubility, multiply through the food chain.

Biotechnology breaks down toxic waste (ScienceAlert)

Biotechnology breaks down toxic waste (ScienceAlert)