>Wasn't it DDT that the American mosquito abatement folks would drive >down suburban streets rolling two great clouds of behind their trucks >for we kids to run through in the street, playing moorish >hide-and-seek in a couple of times a week during the summer? Those >were the days, back when we all trusted that the government would >never do anything to harm us. Even when they warned us (Close your >windows), we thought they were joshing. -Allan
Allan, Yeah. that was the fifties and sixties. The spray trucks went out in the affluent New Orleans suburbs between about 1 and 4 a.m. That was the parish (Louisiana doesn't have counties) protecting us from the nasty, hateful mosquitos. Yeah! Back then they DID warn us to stay in, which we kind of ignored though you could tell the spray WAS poisonous and it made your head spin. But then we always washed our parts in gas with bare hands throwing out the leftovers to sink into the clam shells in the driveway. Our precautions in the chemistry laboratory were laughable, but then we had big refineries in Norco, Chalmette, Belle Chasse, etc. and in Baton Rouge a huge Exxon (was Esso) monstrosity who made the paper mill in Bogalusa smell like roses (sulfurous ones). Back then toxic polution wasn't a crime, it was a joke. Now, post Rachel Carson, when we know it is a crime, government and everyone else besides the tobacco companies stonewall it and pretend they're not doing anything toxic so they don't have to warn anyone. Sheesh! At least DDT (which still shows up in egg shells) isn't allowed in this country. But it's still being made and there's a clamour for its use against malarial mosquitos in the third world. The situation is similar to that of racial prejudice. We haven't come very far yet. There's only been a rather superficial recognition of the inherent evils of toxic chemistry, but, sub rosa, government and business leaders are still doing it ninty to nothing. It isn't hopeless, but it is appalling. Best, Hugh
