Posted by
Always To The Right on Sunday, December 04, 2011 9:14:02 PM
In April 1972, after seven months of testimony, EPA Administrative
Law Judge Edmund Sweeney stated that “DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard
to man. … The uses of DDT under the regulations involved here do not
have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild
birds, or other wildlife. … The evidence in this proceeding supports the
conclusion that there is a present need for the essential uses of DDT.”
Two months later, EPA head [and Environmental Defense Fund
member/fundraiser] William Ruckelshaus – who had never attended a single
day’s session in the seven months of EPA hearings, and who admittedly
had not even read the transcript of the hearings – overturned Judge
Sweeney’s decision. Ruckelshaus declared that DDT was a “potential human
carcinogen” and banned it for virtually all uses.