Replies from Dr. Jack

John King writes:

I loved Michael Crichton’s article, as I do all your articles, on the environment. Would it be possible to obtain some references for some of his statements, e.g. DDT is not carcinogenic, etc?

Thanks. Keep up the good work.

John —

The definitive research studying a possible connection between DDT exposure and women’s breast cancer was conducted by Harvard University in the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study of 121,700 women in 11 states. After extensive analysis, the researchers found that women with high levels of DDT and its metabolite DDE were not at higher risk than women with the lowest levels. The findings were reported in the October 30, 1997 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

Commenting on the findings, Clark Heath, Jr., MD, vice president of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research for the American Cancer Society, observed: “Several well-done epidemiologic studies have now been reported which find no appreciable increase in risk of breast cancer in relation to past exposure to organochlorine chemicals, notably DDT and PCB. This new study reaffirms that conclusion.”

This statement is posted on the American Cancer Society’s website at:
www.cancer.org/docroot/MED/content/MED_2_1X_Study_Finds_Exposure_to_DDT_and_PCBs_Does_Not_Increase_Breast_Cancer_Risk.asp

Yet DDT remains banned. The DDT ban is the greatest health disaster in history, responsible for the deaths by malaria of over 50 million human beings — more than the Black Plague, the Spanish Flu, or any other epidemic. Prior to its ban, DDT was lauded as the most life-saving chemical ever, more than penicillin. The ban was sparked by the hysteria caused by Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring. In terms of consequences, Rachel Carson is history’s greatest mass murderer. Malaria continues to kill upwards of 2 million people a year, the majority of them children.

We can blame anti-human environmentalists for this holocaust. Yet the fault is widespread. How, for example, can the anti-abortion movement claim to be truly “pro-life” when it devotes so little effort to repealing the DDT ban which could save the lives of so many millions of babies and children? There are few more noble causes than preventing the slaughter of babies — born and unborn. The Pro-Life Movement should rethink its priorities and start working to prevent the slaughter of babies due to the ban on DDT.