Aug. 30, 2003 - 19:42 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Shouldn't It ?

Once in a while I see this man's articles, it is Dave Kopel -- On The Media. He usually has a way of seeing things that a lot of us don't know and saying something about it, letting the chips fall where they may.

His column today (8/30/03) in the Rocky Mountain News is headed, "West Nile fails to stir DDT debate," sub headed, "Mosquito-borne illness kills Coloradans but merits of banned pesticide ignored."

His approach is much like mine. What has been left out, what kind of half truths were published this time ? and things like that.

He starts off, "People in Colorado are dropping dead from West Nile virus, and many Coloradoans have been forced to curtail outdoor activities. The papers have been paying plenty of attention to the problem. But the most effecive solution has been completely ignored. No pesticide is as effective at killing mosquitos as DDT." Then Mr Kopel gives examples of messed up news items. He says, 'In a generally well-balanced story about current mosquito control programs, the Rocky Mountain News (August 25) said, 'DDT, billed as harmless in the 1950's and 1960's, is a proven carcinogen and has been taken off the market.' The Denver Post hasn't breathed a word about the notion that DDT could control the West Nile Virus."

He then goes on, "The News was correct that DDT 'has been taken off the market,' since the EPA banned DDT in 1972." Then Mr. Kopel brings in a point about DDT that I think applies to many other things, "As to whether DDT is a 'proven' carcinogen, it has been proven that force-feeding rodents gigantic doses of DDT gives them cancer; whether tiny doses causes cancer in humans has not been proven. Human studies have failed to find a link between DDT and breast cancer."

He then quotes Bjorn Lomborg explaining in The Skeptical Environmentalist, "That even if the rodent studies can be extrapolated to humans, your risk of getting cancer from DDT (before the 1972 ban), was about 1/50th the risk of getting cancer from drinking three cups of coffee a day. The DDT risk was also smaller than the cancer risk from drinking a glass of orange juice, or eating apples, mushrooms, white bread, or potatoes. Many foods contain their own natural pesticides (which help the plants resist pests), and which can cause cancer. Lomborg estimates that artificial pesticides cause about 20 cancer deaths annually in the United States -- compared to about 197,000 cancer deaths caused by the natural carcinogens in food."

So Mr. Kopel quotes another team, "As Roger Meiners and Andrew P. Morriss explain in Property Rights and Pesticides, the ban on DDT has literally caused the death of millions of people in the Third World -- most of them African children -- due to the resurgence of malaria (http://www.perc.org/pdf/ps22.pdf).

Mr. Kopel then makes his point, "Except for spectacular catastrophes, Third World deaths usually don't garner much American media attention, buit now that people in Colorado are dying, the media ought to be discussing the pros and cons of prohibiting the most effective weapon against a deadly disease vector."

Mr. Dave Kopel is research director at the Independence Institute, an attorney and author of 10 books. He can be reached at [email protected].

In the same column on another subject he says, "Last Monday, KWGN-Channel 2 News announced that 'researchers say' that a chemical in red wine promotes longevity. Unfortunately, the Channel 2 story did not say what the chemical was, nor did the story say anything about who the researchers were, or where they had published their study. Thus interested viewers had no clue about where to find additional information." He mentions other half passed things coming out in the ?News? all too frequently.

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My point exactly, if they say something it is not enough, or misguided - misinterpreted balderdash many times. How often I read an article and can see the holes that don't complete the story. One shouldn't have to read between the lines in a news article. One common scare type media blast will come out saying something like, "Every year there have been 1,000 deaths in America from (you fill it in), never mentioning that compared to the millions of people in our country the percentage is quite low actually. Then they should bring up figures to use as comparison, such as deaths in motor vehicle accidents, drug overdoses and things like that.

I have always felt that the drug and pesticide tests on animals used parameters that were truly unreal, but who am I to say ? I have no PhD or other expert status, just sayin'.

Before the poobah mounts his horse and rides rapidly in all directions I think it needs a bit of further thought, Shouldn't It ? . . . . . . . . . . . .

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