Rachel Carson was an American marine biologist and author of the book "Silent Spring." Her book, published in 1962, spurred a grassroots campaign against the use of pesticides/herbicides (namely DDT) and aided in the development of the Environmental Protection Agency. Per the World Health Organization, malaria kills roughly 1 million people per year in Africa. According to Donald Roberts and Richard Tren (authors of "The Excellent Powder') anti-DDT groups like Greenpeace, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, and Rachel Carson could be held responsible. According to Roberts and Tren, "DDT detractors argue that if mosquitoes develop resistance to DDT and it no longer kills them, the chemical has no use for reducing malaria. They would be right if DDT were primarily a toxic agent, but in fact it is primarily a repellent that acts secondarily as an irritant and lastly as a toxic agent. This means it is still useful in malaria control even in the presence of resistance to toxicity. Thus, a lack of understanding of how DDT works has resulted in it not being used and lives being lost."
Sunday, June 27, 2010
John Stossel commentary on the need for DDT in Africa
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_14_05_JS.html
Friday, June 4, 2010
Mercury Consumption Advisories
EPA's fish consumption guidelines for females who are nursing, pregnant, may become pregnant, and young children:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/fish/files/MethylmercuryBrochure.pdf
Georgia State Guidelines for Safe Fish Consumption:
http://gaepd.org/Files_PDF/gaenviron/GADNR_FishConsumptionGuidelines_Y2010.pdf
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Dr. Marc Lucotte
Universite du Quebec a MontrealInstitute des Sciences de l'Ënvironnment
CP 8888, succursale Centre Ville
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3C 3P8
lucotte.marc_michel@uqam.ca
Dr. William Fitzgerald
University of Connecticut
Dept of Marine Sciences
1080 Shennecossett Road, Groton, CT 06340
Dr. Johan Gottgens
Dept of Environmental Science, University of Toledo2801 W Bancroft St., Toledo, OH 43606
johan.gottgens@utoledo.edu
Dr. Johan F. Gottgens
Dr. Gottgens is a proffessor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo which functions out of the Bowman-Oddy/Wolfe Complex. Two of his publications dealing with mercury contamination include: Estimation of methyl mercury concentration in fish due to deposition from an urban area on water bodies and Uncertainty in paleoecological studies of mercury in sediment cores. One of his publications not dealing with mercury contamination is Neotropical wetlands: Building links among wetland scientists.
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