Letter to the Editor: the use of DDT

By PAUL L. YOUNG St. George

Editor,
For quite some time former Vice President Al Gore has been shouting the warning cry of “global warming,” and praising the writings of Rachel Carson who wrote “Silent Spring” and “Courage of Earth.” One of the most difficult aspects of life is watching the radical extreme environmentalists standing at the foot of the altar of Rachel Carson looking up and praising and worshiping her.
It is mind boggling to find such incredible misguided admiration for a woman whose opposition to DDT and other synthetic pesticides that has led to the suffering and death of millions of people around the world. The final phase of her writings shows that Rachel Carson cared greatly for nature’s wildlife and little if at all for mankind. Yet all these animals she claimed were dying because of the use of DDT have been proven wrong by the late G. Gordon Edwards.
Carson’s “Silent Spring” resulted in the passage of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Through her actions of making it illegal to use DDT led to the increase in mosquitoes and bed bugs 10-fold.
In the 1950s, bed bugs and mosquitoes were virtually eliminated in the US. At the removal of DDT, both bed bugs and mosquitoes have increased a 1,000 percent. Bed bugs are now coming in by moving vans, storage units, airplanes, ships, and bus cushions. We now read of popular hotels and motels asking for help in controlling bed bugs.
The number of complaints of these two bug infestations has more than doubled in San Francisco from 2004-2006. Since the year 2000, we have had several deaths caused by West Nile virus brought into Utah by the mosquito. Up to that period of time, we had never heard of the West Nile virus.
Some third world countries are now considering using DDT to control the malaria that is causing the deaths of thousands of lives in their countries. Many furniture stores have in the past, sprayed all mattresses they sold with DDT to control the spreading of the bed bug. Now they do nothing.