Parachuting cats and crushed eggs: The Controversy over the use of DDT to control malaria

American Journal of Public Health

Volumn 98, Issue 11, 2008, Pages 1940-1948

  O'Shaughnessy, Patrick T ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF IOWA   (United States)

^b Oakdale Campus ^*  (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

1,1 DICHLORO 2,2 BIS(4 CHLOROPHENYL)ETHYLENE; CHLORINE; CHLORPHENOTANE; DIELDRIN; LINDANE; INSECTICIDE;

AMBIENT AIR; ANOPHELES; AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT; CAT; CATERPILLAR; CLINICAL DECISION MAKING; CONCENTRATION (PARAMETERS); DEATH; DOMESTIC ANIMAL; DUCKS AND GEESE; EGG SHELL; FOOD CHAIN; FOOD INTAKE; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HUMAN; LD 50; MALARIA; MALARIA CONTROL; MORTALITY; MOSQUITO; NONHUMAN; PARASITE VECTOR; PESTICIDE SPRAYING; POLLUTION; PREVALENCE; PROTOZOON; REVIEW; RODENT; WASP; WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION; ANIMAL; ARTICLE; BIRD; BORNEO; CLASSIFICATION; DISEASE CARRIER; DRUG EFFECT; ECOSYSTEM; HISTORY; HOUSING; INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE; METHODOLOGY; PARASITOLOGY; PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE; RAT; SPECIES DIFFERENCE;

ANIMALS; ANOPHELES; BIRDS; BORNEO; CATS; DDT; DIELDRIN; ECOSYSTEM; FOOD CHAIN; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HOUSING; HUMANS; INSECT VECTORS; INSECTICIDE RESISTANCE; INSECTICIDES; LINDANE; MALARIA; MOSQUITO CONTROL; PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATION; RATS; SPECIES SPECIFICITY; WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION;

EID: 55249094570     PISSN: 00900036     EISSN: 15410048     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.122523     Document Type: Review

References (81)

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31. A.W. A. Brown and James Wright, "The Present Place of DDT in World Operations for Public Health," in The Biological Impact of Pesticides in the Environment, ed. James Gillett (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1970), 196-197. This report was written by Brown and presented by Wright.
32. A.W. A. Brown, "The Ecological Implications of Insecticide Usage in Malaria Programs." American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 21 (1972): 829-834, quote from p. 831. In addition to mentioning the effect of DDT spraying on cat mortality, this article also addressed the possibility of ecological harm resulting from DDT spraying by detailing the amount of DDT sprayed and its propensity to escape from dwellings. Brown concludes that "the DDT applied indoors in malaria programs is a minor source with respect to the general world contamination, because of its sequestered nature" (p. 830).
33. Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962), 22.
34. Ibid, 46-49; T. R. Dunlap, "Science as a Guide in Regulating Technology: The Case of DDT in the United States," Social Studies of Science 8 (3) (1978): 265-285.
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38. The most complete review of the scientific literature on the adverse effects of DDT at the time is given in DDT: A Review of Scientific and Economic Aspects of the Decision to Ban Its Use as a Pesticide, publication EPA-540/1-75-022 (Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency, July 1975).
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48. Ibid.
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52. For sources, see endnote 35.
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59. Brown and Wright, "The Present Place of DDT in World Operations for Public Health." The article referred to by Brown and Wright is probably "Pesticide Into Pest," Time, July 11, 1969: 56.
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66. Royal Air Force, "Operations Record Book," report of Beverley Flight of 48th Squadron, March 1960, Changi, Singapore, compiled by Flying Officer Humphrey.
67. The drop also included "4 cartons of stout for a recuperating chieftain"!
68. Heimann, The Most Offending Soul Alive, 328. Heimann also brings up another element of the cat story not reported elsewhere: the decline in cockroach numbers from the insecticide spraying caused a proliferation of bedbugs in the longhouses.
69. Alastair Morrison, Fair Land Sarawak: Some Reflections of an Expatriate Official (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1993). Morrison mentions the antimalaria campaign in the region in a section of his book but then does not connect the increase in rats in Bario with the loss of cats killed via DDT spraying as part of the campaign.
70. Thomas Jukes, "Letters to the Ed: Further Words About DDT," California Medicine 114 (1971): 53-57.
71. In his letter, Jukes was critical of a previously published article that mentioned the cat story: Edgar Wayburn, "Man, Medicine and Ecology - An Overview," California Medicine 113 (1970): 1-6. Wayburn briefly related the cat story as part of an overview of the relationship between medical practices and ecology and cited another article by Audy ("Man-Made Maladies and Medicine") as the (apparent) source of the cat story. Audy also related the basic cat story but only provided the "dead-end" source of a "recently publicized situation in Sarawak" (p. 52).
72. Other oral LD50 values reported for cats in the literature ranged from 250 mg/kg to 300 mg/kg. See, for example, Pesticide Action Network, "PAN Pesticide Database," available at http://www.pesticideinfo.org, accessed March 13, 2007; V.V. St Omer, "Chronic and Acute Toxicity of the Chlorinated Hydrocarbon Insecticides in Mammals and Birds," Canadian Veterinary Journal 11 (November 1970): 215-226.
73. United States Senate, Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources, and the Environment, Effects of Pesticides on Sports and Commercial Fisheries: Hearings, Ninety-first Congress, First Session to Consider the Effects of Pesticides on Sports and Commercial Fisheries, part 1, May 19, 1969, serial no. 91-15 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office). The "cat story" appears in part 2 of this hearing, September 29-30, 1969.
74. Desowitz, The Malaria Capers, 214.
75. Harrison, Mosquitoes, Malaria, and Man.
76. Harrison, "Ecology: The New Great Chain of Being," 8.
77. The WHO never published a report acknowledging their involvement in the cat drop. A short article in the Quarterly News of the Association of Former WHO Staff of April-June 2005 mentions that the WHO library staff receives many queries about the cat story and "library staff wondered whether cats had been really parachuted over Borneo" (p. 6).
78. Brown and Wright, "The Present Place of DDT in World Operations for Public Health," 197.
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81. Heimann, "The Most Offending Soul Alive," 328.