In Response to Reid

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I want to respond to Reid, who posted a very thoughtful response to my last blog. He raises a few very important points, and I thank him for bringing them up. Here is my reply…

Pesticides are Not Evil

First, I realized from reading his comments that I need to qualify my position on DDT, lest it be misunderstood. I hope I was not perceived as “jumping on the bandwagon” and promoting a strictly evil perception of pesticides. I am not advocating a complete ban on pesticides. DDT and other pesticides are needed to control insects, most notably malaria. Furthermore, agriculture simply could not produce as much unspoiled food as it does without the use of pesticides and herbicides. However, the important point is that we must use these chemicals responsibly, because once released into the environment, they do not decay easily and they influence the ecosystems in which they are released. In addition, insects WILL develop a resistance to any pesticide we use, so responsible use is necessary to ensure that pesticides will work when we really need to defend ourselves against a bug invasion.

How Do I Know What I Know?

Ok, onto the question of whether DDT is benign or whether it really causes physiological effects in animals, most notably birds and mammals. First, by pointing out the references that he did, Reid is providing me with an excellent opportunity to talk about the importance of SOURCE of information. You cite a report from the American Council on Science and Health. Is this organization impartial? Who are they? Who sponsors this organization? In fact, I had never heard of them before, so I did a bit of research and discovered that this organization receives a significant portion of its funding from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Knowing this, how much credibility do you want to ascribe to their reports? As for the webpage whose link Reid provided, it is a person’s personal webpage, expressing this person's opinion. He is entitled to them, and he makes a case for them, but personally, I prefer to go to government-sponsored sources of information, preferably peer-reviewed, when I seek impartial information. Websites you may want to consider to research health information are the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is the US’s foremost health research agency, Pubmed which is a database of most of the published, peer-reviewed health research ever produced (it is maintained by the NIH for the scientific community), and the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the United Nation’s agency for health. Researching these sites, I think you will find little doubt that DDT is linked to thinning of eggshells, and that while it has never been conclusively demonstrated that DDT causes cancer in humans, it has been shown to cause it in other mammals (Find the NIH report HERE). From this information, I have decided that we should be careful about using DDT without restrictions.

Climate Change, DDT, Cigarettes, and Other Controversial Issues

On the grandeur question of which information you should be listening to when you are bombarded with often contradictory information, sometimes from several trustworthy sources… well, that is the world we live in, isn’t it! People have been examining the evidence for and against global climate change for at last 40 years and not being able to reach any decisive conclusion… but now, the evidence seems to be finally swaying in one direction. The responsibility of an educated person in the 21st century is to be mindful of the credibility of the sources of information one gets, to weigh the evidence from those sources that are trustworthy, to make your mind based on the evidence presented, and finally, to keep an open mind, if new evidence challenges your previous decision. That sort of flexibility and critical thinking is what’s needed to lead a judicious life in the 21st century.

Reid: A Critical Thinker in the 21st Century

Reid - I hope this answers your questions and concerns. Thank you again for bringing this up. This was an excellent question (triggered by your own critical mind!), and I will be expecting more of these from you and others in the future!!! :)