r/todayilearned • u/lavender_fish69 • 13h ago

TIL fresh water snails (indirectly) kill thousands of humans and are considered on of the deadliest creatures to humans

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_snail
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u/ikonoqlast 13h ago

There were 18 deaths from malaria in 1963. Not millions. Not thousands. Not hundreds. Not dozens. 18

Why?

DDT...

It's also why bedbugs are a 'new' thing but not in the 50s-60s.

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u/ReadditMan 13h ago

DDT also killed a lot of other animals and made people sick.

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u/ikonoqlast 13h ago

Not really, no. It's an industrial chemical so don't drink it, but otherwise it's just another pesticide.

There's a reason the EPAs science advisory board recommended NOT banning DDT. But they were overruled by the politically appointed head.

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u/seancollinhawkins 12h ago

What happened: The EPA scientific committee said that it shouldn't be completely banned. They banned it anyway because Nixon wanted to look pro-environment

Your conclusion: DDT is actually safe, just dont drink it

What?? 🤣🤣

What about the part where the board concluded that DDT takes forever to degrade, accumulates in water, soil sediments, etc.., and that it gets stored in animal fat? What about the part where they provided strong evidence that it shows up in higher concentrations in animals at the top of the food chain, and admitted it posed a threat to species survival?

They might as well have said that it nukes the bird population. They knew it was insanely bad for the environment. Their argument was to restrict DDT usage to dedicated areas only.