It is a shame that one of safest and most effective pesticides used to control mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects, DDT, is no longer permitted in most countries.
That's correct, and moreover, DDT is not even banned if used for things like stopping disease-carrying mosquitos. The Stockholm Convention explicitly allows for that use[1].
This is usually brought up as a weird rallying point for people with an ax to grind with Silent Spring, nevermind the very real effects of DDT and nevermind the exemptions explicitly dealing with the objections raised.
From what I recall reading on earlier HN threads mentioning DDT, it was linked to reproductive harm in birds (softer/weaker shells), and insects started building up a resistance anyway.
