Today’s chemical pesticides are environmentally friendly and safe to use in a home with no adverse side effects to the humans and pets that live there. But you may not realize that the chemicals used in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s did not have the same kind of positive effect.

If you’re old enough to remember DDT, you’ll remember the controversy surrounding the pesticide. If you’ve read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, you’ll understand the danger that DDT posed to humans, animals, and our environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned DDT, a synthetic insecticide, in 1972. This was an unusual step taken by the agency in response to the widespread environmental impact of the chemical. This article looks at the impact of DDT and how today’s pesticides have benefited from the groundbreaking research to create a world with safer pesticides that do what they’re supposed to – harm insects without harming our families.

The History of DDT

In 1962 Rachel Carson released Silent Spring, a novel that illustrated the widespread harm DDT, or dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane, was posing to our planet. DDT was very beneficial for killing mosquitos, which caused malaria, typhus, and other terrible diseases. The problem with DDT was that it stayed in the environment long-term by accumulating in fatty tissue as well as traveling across the upper atmosphere.
Unfortunately, DDT also potentially caused cancer and was very harmful to the liver and nervous system in humans who were exposed to the chemical. DDT’s effects were cumulative; the chemical would collect in the fatty tissue of lower level mammals. As animals higher up the food chain consumer those animals, more DDT accumulated until it reached the human species at the highest concentration.

Silent Spring helped illustrate the need for insect and pest control without harming the planet; it spawned today’s environmental movement.

Today’s Pest Control Chemicals

Today pest control is a fine science that is thoroughly regulated by the federal government. The chemicals we use to eradicate pests from a home are carefully handled and rigorously tested by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the EPA. The EPA has a rigorous risk assessment program that carefully evaluates:

  • The impact on the environment.
  • Potential human health concerns.
  • Reviewing the cumulative long-term effects of these chemicals.

 
Preventive Pest uses treatments that are approved in all of these areas. We only provide licensed and certified pest technicians trained in the safe applications of these tools. The EPA has designated minimum risk pesticides that have more natural ingredients such as citronella or lemongrass oil.

Our goal is to keep you and your family safe while we carefully eradicated the pests that are putting your loved ones at risk. Call us to talk about the pesticides we use most frequently; you have a right to know what is being used in and around your home. The simple truth is that living with pests in the home is potentially more dangerous than the cautiously applied chemicals we use to eradicate them. Contact us today to find out how we can help keep your family safer and your home cleaner and more secure from pests.