Heralded as a scientific miracle, the pesticide Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) was used to control malaria during World War II. By the mid 1950s, Americans were duped into allowing over 31 million acres of land to be sprayed with this “harmless” poison. Years later congressional reports tell a totally different story.
Yet scientists of the day knew DDT stored in fatty tissue “…at least as early as 1945 that DDT presents a potential residue problem.” [1] Stammers, et al. noted in 1947, “The possibilities of cumulative effects from storage of DDT in milk and tissues of sheep and cattle require further investigation.” [2] In the late 1940’s, Schechter and colleagues developed methods to detect contamination, “of such products as milk, butter, eggs, meat, and fats when farm animals consume DDT-treated feed,” and show that DDT, “can be excreted in milk.” [3]
Remember those dates, folks, because claiming ignorance that “we didn’t know back then” doesn’t quite work anymore. Moreover, it was hoped the DDT contamination problem would “just go away” and those provisions were inserted in section 331(c) of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.
“Until recently there was reasonable prospect that the problem [pesticide residues] would have diminished to a point by June 30, 1967, that further extension of the authority would not be necessary. However, in recent months, severl large producers in the Rio Grande Valley have had their milk removed from the market because of DDT residue. The local dairymen, Texas and New Mexico State agencies, dairy and cotton associations, and our Agricultural Research Service, have undertaken to determine the causes by tests in Arizona.”
SOURCE: Dairy Indemnity Payments. 90th Congress, 1st Session. Senate Report 476. August 3, 1967
It’s pretty apparent the public never was supposed to know about that happening.
Got DDT?
When it was obvious pesticide residue levels weren’t dropping as hoped, the Dairy Indemnity Payment Program, or DIPP, officially was created through public law in 1968 to reimburse farmers whose milk was contaminated with pesticides. However, in reading the congressional Dairy Indemnity Payments reports that talk candidly about the widespread contamination, it is then that we see the full extent of the cavalier agricultural practices promoted by the U.S. Government.
“The problem which our dairy farmers are facing has been brought about by the use of chemicals approved by the Federal Government to dust crops. Some of these chemicals have been found to contaminate feeds. The contamination passes on into the milk and when the residues of pesticides is [sic] found to be of too high a level, the farmers are forced to dump their milk, taking it out of commercial channels. The result has been disastrous to the dairy farmers involved, some of which have had to go into bankruptcy.”
“There had been at that time, reasonable prospect that the problem would have diminished to a point that further extension of the authority would not have been necessary. However, as the Department testified then, several large producers had their milk removed from the market because of DDT residue. The problem had in fact not been solved. The local dairymen, the State governments involved, dairy and cotton associations, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have been cooperating in an effort to rid us of this problem. The problem, however, still continues and it appears that it will continue for the forseeable (sic) years to come.”
SOURCE: Dairy Indemnity Payments. 90th Congress, 2nd Session. Senate Report 1363. July 8, 1968
What does DDT have to do with vaccines? Well, I’m glad you asked.
A Spoonful of MediSIN…
To prove the safety of DDT, apologists often point anecdotally to Merck Chemist, Joseph J. Jacobs, slurping spoonfuls of the white stuff before public speeches. This act, to them, apparently validates the chemical’s safety across the board for all persons. Fortunately, Joseph wasn’t lactating at the time.
Wait a minute! Did I just say Merck? Who do you think was a producer of DDT?
Not only did Merck mass-produce DDT for controlling malaria in Italy during WWII, Merck also formulated and manufactured a polio vaccine in response to the 1952 polio epidemic. The detection of the cancer-causing virus (SV40) in polio vaccine by Merck scientist, Maurice Hilleman, will be the focus of a future article.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Hilleman)
Enter Henry Kumm.
Henry Kumm worked at the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation for Medical Research in 1928. During World War II, Kumm experimented with larvicides containing DDT to control the spread of malaria in Italy. [4]
Additionally, according to the Medical Archives at John Hopkins,
“In 1951 [a year before the polio outbreak], he resigned from the Rockefeller Foundation to accept a position as assistant director of research at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. He conducted field trials in the study of gamma globulin and the Salk vaccine and became the director of research in 1954. Rejoining the Rockefeller Foundation in 1959, Kumm retired as an associate professor in 1964.” [5]
To tie up a few loose ends, you should know the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) was supposed to investigate the cause of polio. That foundation also had invested millions of dollars into researching a possible polio vaccine prior to the 1952 polio epidemic.
Years after the polio epidemic in 1979, researchers Gabliks and Utz reported, “Studies in cell cultures with insecticides…indicated increased replication of poliovirus in human cells exposed to Kelthane, Karathane, and DDT. Furthermore an activation of a latent virus was also observed in primary rabbit kidney cells grown in the presence of DDT.” [6]
Do you think it would be a cold day in hell before Good Old Henry Kumm would make a possible correlation between a polio outbreak and the spraying of pesticides? However, there were more profits to be made from polio vaccines than recommending people stop drinking DDT-contaminated milk, wasn’t there?
“The phenomenal growth in production and use of chemical control agents is illustrated by the fact that in 1940 these products had a wholesale value of about $40 million. Today (August 12th, 1959) it is $290 million and is estimated to reach $1 billion by 1975. One-sixth of all croplands and millions of acres of forests, rangelands, and marshlands are treated annually with these chemicals…”
“…Before 1940, relatively small amounts of such chemicals as nicotine, rotenone, pyrethrum, and the aresenicals (sic) were used for insect control. During and following World War II a rapid changeover to DDT, heptachlor, dieldrin, TEPP, malathion, and related compounds occurred.”
SOURCE: Authorizing Research on Insecticides, Herbicides, Fungicides, and Other Pesticides by the Secretary of the Interior. 85th Congress, 2nd Session. House of Representatives Report No. 2181. July 16, 1958.
In Conclusion
In order to keep the American people hoodwinked about the toxicity of DDT, attempts are still made by corporate interests to dispel the dangers. Yet, each new piece of information brings us shockingly closer to the truth. At the end of the line, the core message still remains stubbornly in-line with the corporate sickness care agenda: take more vaccines, consume more pills, and wind up getting sicker!
As a result of DDT application, can we just be imagining more cancer, more autism, and more chronic illnesses? Despite superficial attempts by government agencies to ‘get to the bottom’ of a problem, taxpayers shouldn’t be suckered into waiting twenty years to get answers. I certainly don’t want to wait at all, since toxic products should not be permitted into the food chain at any phase of production. P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” and that’s what they apparently are relying on.
References:
1. Wayland, J. Present Status of Our Knowledge of DDT Intoxication. Am. J. of Public Health, (1955) 45: 478-485. 2. Stammers, F.M.G., and Whitefield, F.G.S. The Toxicity of DDT to Men and Animals. Bull. Ent. Res., (1947) 38:1-73.
3. Schechter, M.S., Pogerelskin, M.A., and Haller, H.L. Colorimetric Determination of DDT in Milk and Fatty Materials. U.S. Dept. of Ag. (1947) 19:1.
4. Snowden, F.M. (2006). The Conquest of Malaria: Italy, 1900-1962, (pp. 200). Frederick W. Hilles Publication Fund of Yale University.
5. Medical Archives of The John Hopkins Medical Institutions. Henry W. Kumm Collection. Retrieved March 25th , 2011 from http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/papers/kumm.html
6. Gabliks, J., and Utz, C. DDT and Inflammatory Responses; 1. Influenza Infection in Mice Fed DDT. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology (1979) 12, 257-263.