Aquamarine
Oct1-04, 02:02 AM
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/august_2001/greens_create_tragedy_of_ddt.htm
http://www.fightingmalaria.org/
Despite the weak evidence relating DDT
to negative human and environmental
impacts, the public pressure that resulted
from Silent Spring and the anti-DDT movement
prompted the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to hold scientific hearings
in 1972 on the validity of the claims made
against DDT.
DDT eradication was first and foremost
on the EPA’s agenda because it was important
for the newly formed agency to demonstrate
that it could take bold and decisive
steps. Thus, it should come as no surprise
that from the outset the EPA process was
more political than scientific in nature. The
EPA held seven months of hearings, with scientists
giving evidence both for and against
the use of DDT. At the end of the hearings,
the hearing examiner, Edmund Sweeney,
ruled that the scientific evidence provided no
basis for banning DDT. The head of the EPA,
William Ruckelshaus, overturned that ruling,
even though he didn’t attend a single hour of
the proceedings.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-513es.html
http://www.fightingmalaria.org/
Despite the weak evidence relating DDT
to negative human and environmental
impacts, the public pressure that resulted
from Silent Spring and the anti-DDT movement
prompted the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to hold scientific hearings
in 1972 on the validity of the claims made
against DDT.
DDT eradication was first and foremost
on the EPA’s agenda because it was important
for the newly formed agency to demonstrate
that it could take bold and decisive
steps. Thus, it should come as no surprise
that from the outset the EPA process was
more political than scientific in nature. The
EPA held seven months of hearings, with scientists
giving evidence both for and against
the use of DDT. At the end of the hearings,
the hearing examiner, Edmund Sweeney,
ruled that the scientific evidence provided no
basis for banning DDT. The head of the EPA,
William Ruckelshaus, overturned that ruling,
even though he didn’t attend a single hour of
the proceedings.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-513es.html