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Emmanuel Allan Katongole It is true that most of the products used
are a danger to the survival of the ecosystem but then we weigh the options of
doing without one and the options of going with it. At the checkout supper markets, sometime
you are asked if you would prefer �plastic or a paper bag�. It is still the choice between Pepsi and
Coke. True, plastic is not easily
done with when it comes to our environment but if you go for that brown paper
bag, another tree will be cut and that is why an environmentalist will opt for
plastic. For now, let�s kill
the mosquitoes using DDT openly other than accepting millions of dollars from Super
powers to dump their waste in secrecy. DDT a Banned Insecticide
DDT the
first of the chlorinated organic insecticides, was originally prepared in 1873,
but it was not until 1939 that Paul Muller of Geigy
Pharmaceutical in Switzerland discovered the effectiveness of DDT as an
insecticide he was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1948
for this discovery).
The use
of DDT increased enormously on a worldwide basis after World War II, primarily
because of its effectiveness against the mosquito that spreads malaria and lice
that carry typhus. The World Health Organization estimates that during the
period of its use approximately 25
million lives were saved. DDT seemed to be the ideal insecticide it
is cheap and of relatively low toxicity to mammals (oral LD50 is 300 to 500
mg/kg). However, problems related to extensive use of DDT began to appear in
the late 1940s. Many species of insects developed resistance to DDT, and DDT
was also discovered to have a high toxicity toward fish. The
chemical stability of DDT and its fat solubility compounded the problem. DDT is
not metabolized very rapidly by animals; instead, it is deposited and stored in
the fatty tissues. The biological half-life of DDT is about eight years; that
is, it takes about eight years for an animal to metabolize half of the amount
it assimilates. If ingestion continues at a steady rate, DDT builds up within
the animal over time.
The use of
DDT was banned in the Other Molecules of the Month Copyright Karl Harrison 1996 and 1997.
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