Environmental Issues - Essay Example

Roberts who believes that the hazards of DDT are misrepresented by the activists while in fact it proves to have saved the lives of many. Three Main areas of Disagreement between Anne Platt McGinn and Donald R. Roberts are as follows - McGinn states that the toxic DDT should only be used in an emergency to treat diseases while more environmentally friendly methods such as bed-nets, anti-malarial drugs, improving living conditions and eradication of insect breeding sites should be used. Roberts claims that the steps to eradicate Malaria by proper drains and larviciding only happen in principal cities, while the mainly affected rural areas remain vulnerable.

McGinn claims that insects became resistant to DDT when ingested while Roberts claims that DDT acts only as a repellant. McGinn says ‘In order to control a disease, why should we poison our soils, our waters and ourselves?’ (Pg.289) Donald reacts by stating Science Magazine that species did not go extinct and DDT levels had declined after its use was stopped. DDT only reaches a concentration in water of 1.2 parts per billion, so the claim that it causes the death of algae is false. Birds and sea lions have not declined due to DDT as claimed, while in reality statistics have proven their increase during the use of DDT. c) After a lot of research done on the subject, I comply with the Donald’s ideology and therefore prefer the use of DDT to save humans because all other claims against DDT have no solid proof of its dangers.

ISSUE 17 – Environmental Hormone Mimics a) Environmental Hormone Mimics are ‘Xenobiotic’ chemicals that have been found to mimic or disrupt the reproductive hormones such as estrogen. These chemicals are known to alter the reproduction of wildlife along with creating severe health problems like cancer in humans. The controversy is whether these claims are true or are magnified falsifications. b) According to Professor of Biological Sciences, Michele Trankina, ‘hormone mimics’ disrupt ‘everything from fish gender to human fertility’ (World & I Journal, 2001) (Easton, 2011, Pg.319) while Michael Gough, a biologist argues that these claims are only supported by “junk science”.

 (Endocrine Disrupters,Politics,Pesticides, the Cost of Food and Health, " , 1997) Michele Trankina states that there has been a radical decrease in ‘sperm count’, an increase in testicular cancer and defective genetalia in men due to this. Gough states that these claims ‘fell apart’ when scientists found large geographical variations in sperm counts that did not change over time. Trankina points out to the increase in breast cancer in women as a result of exposure to the hormone mimics, while Michael Gough dismisses these claims by stating that there was no proven evidence to any of these claims even though many researches had been carried out.

Puberty in girls has decreased from the age 12 and 13 to 7 years of age due to exposure to xenoestrogens in water, food, creams and plastics according to Trankina. But Gough states that results of the Tulane paper researched by Dr. McLachlan himself on the toxicity levels of pesticides came back as negative. c) Due to lack of evidence and proof on the role of hormone mimics in the environment, I support Gough’