John Tierney’s piece on Rachel Carson in yesterday’s New York Times is under attack in the comments section of Tierney’s blog. The critiques go to show that Carson’s supporters are in a state of denial about her legacy. All they can offer is speculation about public health risks and rationalizations about DDT bans. One suggests that DDT is too dangerous to use for malaria control because it is classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). This is crazy. IARC also gives that classification to coffee! Such classifications mean that evidence is lacking for a real cancer classification. In fact, the IARC monograph on DDT notes: “there is inadequate evidence in humans for the carcinogenicity of DDT.” Enough with the shameful rationalizations. The very low health risks of DDT must be weighed against its substantial and well-documented benefits for malaria control.
