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We Are the Idiots

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nosh:
No. I was just drawing parallels - the smells are very different. I like them both. :P

crabby3:
No. I was just drawing parallels - the smells are very different. I like them both. :P


-nosh (December 11, 2014, 08:26 AM)
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So what does DDT smell like?  :tellme:

IainB:
It had it's own smell. Not really like any other that I could think of. Not unpleasant anyway. Not like Derris Dust, which smelt sweet but a bit acrid. As a boy I used to treat our dogs with Derris Dust, and that had its own smell - I would probably recognise it if I smelt it again. Not sure I would recognise DDT though, which I only got a whiff of a couple of times.
DDT was bloody effective - if I just put some around the entrance hole to a wasp's nest at night (so they had to trample in it as they came in and out), then they'd be wiped out in about 12 hours.

Renegade:
There is one fellow who reportedly ate DDT at every presentation he gave.

40hz:
The book Silent Spring (1962) merely suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds.
It offered no scientific proof - which is why the UK and USAID continued to use the stuff until 1984 and later, and until it became politically incorrect to continue to use it - i.e., not scientifically incorrect.
-IainB (May 26, 2013, 09:23 PM)
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I'd chalk at least some of that up to the relative innocence of most civilians in America at the time. There was a good deal more trust in the FDA and other government agencies to safeguard the general public without regard to financial inducements or political interference back then. It was also coupled to the firm belief that should such interference be discovered, it would also be firmly and swiftly be dealt with - and corrected.

There was also the general belief that American businesses had the best interests of Americans at heart. To do something deliberately harmful to people was almost inconceivable to most people. Sure, there were the bad old days back at the beginning and turn of the century. But didn't those New Deal agencies and legislation put that nonsense to bed once and for all? With the government, the unions, and the "men of goodwill" at the helm of American business - why should we be worried? This was America! Land of the Free! And we were all working together to keep it so.

Ahh...those were the days.

I think Rachel Carson didn't think to independently test her claims because she didn't think she would have to. By sounding the warning she (like most people at the time) likely assumed that the government would step in and quickly get to the bottom of it. Or if not, the manufacturers of DDT would rapidly mend their ways.

Like I said, not so much idiocy in her case. We were all Americans, with a good government and responsible businesses running the show, after all. That was more a case of our innocence I think. Or naivety if you want to be uncharitable.

But what followed after wasn't idiocy either. It was flat out lying and criminal stonewalling and political pressuring until the situation became too difficult to spin and the powers that be were forced to take action. Which they did in a minimalist manner that allowed parties responsible to escape culpability, prosecution, or punishment.

And please remember many were implicated. Uncle Sam himself via the USDA had blessed off on it. Jails routinely sprayed or generously dusted incoming prisoners with DDT as a"delousing" measure. Farmers sometimes dusted fields that were loaded with farm workers. Even schools would quickly send a janitor in to spy insecticide (in a classroom full of kids) the minute any ants or roaches were spotted by the windows or trashbins. Nobody was worried. We kids thought that weird odor that hung in the air for the rest of the day was just something to make jokes about. Those kids who got a headache or felt ill were merely told to "sit quietly by the window for a few minutes." And those unfortunates were bound to be ragged on as "sissy" and "candy ass" for days to follow. The same attitude surrounded all the other harmful aerosols my generation was exposed to growing up. (The 50s and 60s were the golden age for aerosol manufacturers.)

So yes, perhaps idiocy. But mainly in retrospect if you want to be completely fair when tossing "we" around so freely. 8) :Thmbsup:

We Are the Idiots  We Are the Idiots  We Are the Idiots

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re: smell

It was not really much like anything else IIRC. It had a heady perfumey but still noticeably "chemical" odor. It was probably added to make it a little more appealing. Once you got a whiff however, you immediately tagged it as insecticide! forevermore. Which also might have been part of the plan. It was a very persistent odor however. Good for at least an hour or more depending on how heavy-handed the application was.

No worries! :-\

We Are the Idiots

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