Here is a pretty good start on info about DDT:

[link|http://www.junkscience.com/ddtfaq.htm|JunkScience.com]

By the way, while you're over at altgreen, you may want to look at this:

[link|http://www.altgreen.com.au/chemicals/malaria_toll.html|The Malaria Toll]

The local school district named a middle school for Rachel Carson a few years ago. They were recently soliciting recommendations for naming a new middle school to be built in the next couple of years. I sent in a recommendation that they name it "Stalin, Hitler, Hirohito, Mao, and Pol Pot Middle School." I explained that combined, they may edge-out Rachel Carson in the number of deaths for which they are responsible, but this group may not be "good enough" since they did not target pregnant women and children to the extent that Rachel Carson did.

I never heard back.

{my edit added the below}

I forgot to mention the reason I titled this post "Ancient History." The first I ever heard of the controversy surrounding DDT was from my fourth grade teacher. She was a little old lady who had just come back from a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East that she had taken with her husband. The class spent a little time viewing slides from her trip almost every day. It was great preparation for the King Tut exhibit that was touring the country about that time.

I believe her husband was either a farmer or somehow tied-in to farming, and she discussed the junk science wielded by the political factions surrounding DDT in class one day. Of course, this was done in terms that our little minds could [almost] grasp. Unless I am adding to it in my head, I remember that her point was that there are many sides to things you may hear on the TV or see in newspapers, and that it is not such a good idea to always accept ideas as presented since there may be differing opinions or facts.

Running a teaching session that far from the eco-fanatic line would probably be enough to get a teacher fired nowadays.