J. Gordon Edwards (entomologist and Mountaineer) - DDT and Environmental Issues

DDT and Environmental Issues

Edwards was prominent as a supporter of the use of DDT and critic of Rachel Carson. He was active as a member of, or consultant for, a wide range of lobby groups opposed to environmental regulation, including the American Council on Science and Health. According to Edwards, he was also active as a member of several environmental groups such as the Sierra Club (which published one of his books,) and the Audubon Society. Edwards was a fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He has published his ideas in 21st Century Science and Technology, a publication of the Lyndon LaRouche Movement. He was co-author, with Steven Milloy of 100 things you should know about DDT. Edwards last work entitled, DDT: A Case Study in Scientific Fraud was published in 2004 after his death in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, in which he makes the impassioned plea "The ban on DDT, founded on erroneous or fraudulent reports and imposed by one powerful bureaucrat, has caused millions of deaths, while sapping the strength and productivity of countless human beings in underdeveloped countries. It is time for an honest appraisal and for immediate deployment of the best currently available means to control insect-borne diseases. This means DDT."

Edwards insisted that "no human beings have ever been harmed by DDT." According to 21st Century Science and Technology, a photograph appeared in the September 1971 issue of Esquire magazine showing Edwards eating a teaspoon full of DDT, which he claimed to do on a weekly basis to demonstrate the lack of toxicity of DDT for humans and vertebrate animals. Because of its role in preventing the spread of insect-borne diseases, Edwards asserted that "DDT has saved more millions of lives than any other man-made chemical."