Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 17, 2010
November 16, 2010
November 18, 2010
Transcript:
Kim: But if we do warn our guests, no one will come! Mike: Sure they will! People won't stop going out just because of bedbugs. I doubt they'll hold our bad luck against us. Granny D: It's not bad luck... it's a scientific fact that bedbugs are attracted by clutter and grime! Kim: Excuse me? Mike: You know, Mom, you're becoming a lot less adorable. Granny D: What's the point? I'm dying.
Washing off DDT is not the issue. It was not only ON our food for years, it started to appear IN it. That is, animals that ate plants took in the DDT that was on and in the plants, and stored it in their bodies.
Then the animals that ate those animals took in the DDT that had accumulated, and stored it in their own bodies. So even though DDT has not been in use in much of the world for decades, it continues to appear in ever greater concentrations in new organisms, including people.
This is called “bioaccumulation” and here are the web definitions: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGLLenUS395US397&defl=en&q=define:Bioaccumulation&sa=X&ei=LamTNvTAsiBnAe1i9naDQ&ved=0CBMQkAE
So animals – including birds and people – that are many generations away from the use of DDT nevertheless have DDT continuing to accumulate in their bodies.
The anti-environment gang tries to sell the story the way it originally appeared decades ago: shells on certain birds’ eggs were found to be so thin that those bird populations were dying out. But that was only the canary in the coal mine – now we know that we all have DDT in our own bodies, and DDT has been linked to many reproductive disorders in both sexes.