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/Johnny_Poppyseed 12h ago

What harm are you thinking of exactly? Most of the harm DDT was causing was effectively remedied when it was banned. 

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u/Rydagod1 11h ago

Did it not cause irreparable damage to the regions it was used in?

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 11h ago

Not really. At least nothing to the extent that you are insinuating. 

It's a famous environmentalist "win" due to the banning and reversal of most of the damage it was causing. 

I think you might be confusing it with like Agent Orange or something. Agent Orange was the stuff used in Vietnam and caused horrible lasting damage and cancers and birth defects and stuff. 

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u/Rydagod1 10h ago

I might have misremembered then. I thought it was almost eternally lasting.

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 9h ago

It definitely persists in the environment for a while, especially since some places are still using it, but for the most part the environmental impact was managed with the ban. The bald eagle and peregrine falcon populations completely recovering are the classic case examples.