On Tuesday, the EPA proposed a $36 million plan to cap a deposit of the pesticide DDT on the ocean floor off the coast of Southern California by covering the seventeen-square-mile area declared a Superfund site in 1996 with sand and silt. According to Mark Gold, executive director of the watchdog group Heal the Bay, the cap won't clean the site, but it could reduce the health risks for people who eat fish caught off the Palos Verdes coast.
This would be laughable if it wasn t so sad, says Dr. Ross. What health risk are they going to reduce? DDT is possibly the most studied chemical known to man. It is as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow that DDT poses no harm to humans in any concentration. The only way it can be dangerous to you is if you are a mosquito carrying malaria or typhus. This whole spectacle is just a holdover from the era of Rachel Carson. At this critical juncture, doesn t California have anything more serious to worry about?
For more information, see ACSH s publication on DDT.