![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.jetpen.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Screenshot_20220521-162129-01.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHere is my childhood story about dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I grew up on a 30 acre vegetable farm north of Toronto. When I was a toddler, my parents would leave me to play by myself as they and my older sisters worked the fields. I’d climb on the mountain of stacked bags of fertilizer and DDT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My family would fill burlap sacks full of DDT and walk among the vegetable fields, shaking the powder into a fog. Womp! Womp! Womp! I don’t remember if they bothered to wear respirators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One day, my mom returned to the DDT mountain to find me digging into a bag with my hands elbow deep. I had smeared the white powder all over my face. I told her I was wearing it as makeup. She tells everyone that is why I grew up to be healthy and strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The moral of the story is: DDT was so safe, farmers used it without any protection and children played among it without being harmed. After DDT was banned, we switched to toxic chemicals like Malathion, Parathion, Captan, Diazinon, and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unlike DDT which harmed no one and nothing, after spraying these potent chemicals, we would return the next day to find a field sometimes littered with dead birds. No one sprays these without wearing respirators. Deadly stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is my childhood story about dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). I grew up on a 30 acre vegetable farm north of Toronto. When I was a toddler, my parents would leave me to play by myself as they and my older sisters worked the fields. I’d climb on the mountain of stacked bags of fertilizer and DDT. … Continue reading DDT – a childhood story<\/span>