Homeland security.This photograph, taken on July 8, 1945, shows an insecticide-spraying machine being tested publicly for the first time. The figure on this beach on Long Island, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , has been enveloped en·vel·op tr.v. en·vel·oped, en·vel·op·ing, en·vel·ops 1. To enclose or encase completely with or as if with a covering: "Accompanying the darkness, a stillness envelops the city" in a fog of dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane tri·chlo·ro·eth·ane n. Either of two colorless, nonflammable, isomeric compounds, C2H3Cl3, having a sweet odor, used as solvents for adhesives, pesticides, and lubricants, and in industrial cleaning solutions. , or DDT DDT or 2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)-1,1,1,-trichloroethane, chlorinated hydrocarbon compound used as an insecticide. First introduced during the 1940s, it killed insects that spread disease and feed on crops. . In the postwar era, chemistry seemed to be on the verge On the Verge (or The Geography of Yearning) is a play written by Eric Overmyer. It makes extensive use of esoteric language and pop culture references from the late nineteenth century to 1955. of overcoming some of our oldest enemies: the insects that destroy our crops and infect us with diseases like malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Ten years after this photo was taken, DDT became the principal tool of the WHO Global Malaria Eradication Program. In the late 1960s, after the spraying of untold tons of DDT, the program was abandoned as unworkable. Today, malaria infects between 300 million and 500 million people every year, and kills between 1 and 3 million, most of them pregnant women and children. The program failed because the mosquitoes became resistant to DDT, which is now known to be highly persistent in the environment and in the human body, and toxic even in trace amounts. DDT has been banned from agriculture in at least 86 countries, but many countries still use it in the fight against malaria. In 19 countries, it remains a routine option--despite abundant evidence that this tactic does not work. But blunt force security measures are often like that. You begin in the belief that their power will make the world a safer place; you end up too frightened to stop using them. |
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