I grew up in India, and DDT is good actually. It’s sprayed once or twice a year, and the decrease in the number of mosquitoes after the spray is dramatic. Even ignoring the reductions in malaria, dengue, etc. it becomes markedly less unpleasant to be outdoors.
Sure, there are other molecules that work, and it may well be true that “the only advantage DDT has over those is lower production cost,” but that’s a big fucking advantage. I suppose you could apply the expensive stuff to your backyard or something, but cheap stuff makes it possible to spray the streets of every village in the country.
And regarding “environmental harms,” from personal experience scratching myself bloody as a kid from itchy bites after going to the park in the evening, I would extinct a dozen species if mosquitoes went down with them.
As a side note, without looking it up, I bet the drive to switch from DDT to newer compounds, pyrethroids or whatever else, kicked off just as the old patents expired, just like what happened with CFCs and DuPont’s patents.
It’s worth noting that countries (such as India) have the option of simply not respecting a patent when the use is important and the fees requested are unreasonable. Also, patents aren’t international; it’s often possible to get around them by simply manufacturing and using a chemical in a different country.
The only advantage DDT has over those is lower production cost, but the environmental harms per kg of DDT are greater than the production cost savings, so using it is just never a good tradeoff.
As I said, if DDT was worth using there, it was worth spending however much extra money it would have been to spray with other things instead. If it wasn’t worth that much money, it wasn’t worth spraying DDT.
And regarding “environmental harms,” from personal experience scratching myself bloody as a kid from itchy bites after going to the park in the evening, I would extinct a dozen species if mosquitoes went down with them.
The biggest problem with DDT is that it is bad for humans.
I grew up in India, and DDT is good actually. It’s sprayed once or twice a year, and the decrease in the number of mosquitoes after the spray is dramatic. Even ignoring the reductions in malaria, dengue, etc. it becomes markedly less unpleasant to be outdoors.
Sure, there are other molecules that work, and it may well be true that “the only advantage DDT has over those is lower production cost,” but that’s a big fucking advantage. I suppose you could apply the expensive stuff to your backyard or something, but cheap stuff makes it possible to spray the streets of every village in the country.
And regarding “environmental harms,” from personal experience scratching myself bloody as a kid from itchy bites after going to the park in the evening, I would extinct a dozen species if mosquitoes went down with them.
As a side note, without looking it up, I bet the drive to switch from DDT to newer compounds, pyrethroids or whatever else, kicked off just as the old patents expired, just like what happened with CFCs and DuPont’s patents.
Found this paper on insecticide costs: https://sci-hub.st/http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2915.2000.00262.x
It’s from 2000, so anything listed here would be out of patent today.
Here are the costs from the above link:
It’s worth noting that countries (such as India) have the option of simply not respecting a patent when the use is important and the fees requested are unreasonable. Also, patents aren’t international; it’s often possible to get around them by simply manufacturing and using a chemical in a different country.
As I said, if DDT was worth using there, it was worth spending however much extra money it would have been to spray with other things instead. If it wasn’t worth that much money, it wasn’t worth spraying DDT.
The biggest problem with DDT is that it is bad for humans.