[sixtus]

Folks in my country and I believe in the US as well we used heavy pesticides willy nilly back in the day, here even utlising termicides to paint onto woodwork structures in dwellings.

Some of the older dwellings here probably still have stuff like Dieldrin and DDT on wooden rafters, supports or floorboards from the 60's. Some of this stuff has very long half life, volatalizes( which I assume means releases itself into the atmosphere were it can be breathed) and was banned for a vareity of safety reasons in the 80's, even speculating it is also responsible for long term nervous system disorders.

I was wondering if anyone had the chemical knowledge to address a few questions.

If rafters or barn supports that had been sprayed with such chemicals a long time ago, were to be completely painted with a couple of coats of housepaint, would this 'seal the bad stuff in' and make volatalising(sp) less likely or even stop it altogether?

For houses on raised foundations, like short stumps, theoretically having chemically treated bare treated soil a few feet below the floorboards, is there anything that could cover it? More soil, plastic sheeting, concrete it?

Might sound like strange questions and for the record these dwellings are not considered unsafe by our EPA . Just with all the chronic diseases flaring up these days it becomes an area my survival instinct is starting to trigger on....

 

[curt mini14]

i believe it has more to do with your own body composition then anything else.back east in the farm belt theres a lot of folks who made it to there 90s with no cancer or major problems.and most used all those chemicals like my father in law he used all that stuff even still had a bottle of ddt in his garage when he passed at 93.the epa has know knowlage of anything they do so there word is BS.i turned in the bottle of ddt to the fire station was told they will burn it with the rest of the bad stuff they get.so back into the atmosvere it goes WTF.

 

[ManyFeathers]

Yes, if you seal the wood, it well help considerably

I would say most if not all has either evaporated or become a lot less volatile. The thing about most of the old, good pesticides is that they would leach all the way down to the ground water and contaminate it

FWIW.....I'd worry more about creosote!


When I was a kid, we'd jump on our stingray bikes and fall in behind the skeeter trucks fogging for skeeters. They used DDT

Used to smell so good.

 

[Observer]

My very recently deceased parents (Both cancer victims, yet never had any vice every!) (Didn't even drink coffee), yet Dad's garden shed reeks of chemicals (He was a master carpenter and this building has an exceptional seal). I just want to spend my twilight years smoking liberals, their children, and their grandchildren. Great grandchildren if that applies!

 

[da_wanderer]

Those chemicals were applied 20 or 30 years ago at least, unless there was a personal stash like my Dad still has. Any volatile organic compounds are long gone and not worth worrying about.

 

[Justme11]

No remaining danger in my opinion. Especially if the rafters have been at hot attic temps.

DDT (and most pesticides) were actually developed because they were not terribly toxic to people, while still killing the target pests. It was vilified by Rachel Carson in her book "Silent Spring" along with Dieldrin and whatever else was in use at the time (1962)
I read her book in grade school a long time ago.

DDT was theorized to be harming endangered birds by softening their eggs, and was banned. Then people started dying by the millions from mosquito borne parasites and pathogens, so the world authorities allowed its production to resume for use in tropical countries having mosquito problems.

Rachel Carson elevated the welfare of the birds above that of humans.
While she might have done some good in generally raising public awareness, a lot of what she claimed was the result of her inadequate research and ignorance. Certainly there should be some oversight of pesticide development, production and use.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring

She also talked about DES for cattle if I remember. DiethylStilbestrol.

The WHO Gives DDT a clean bill of health for indoor use.
https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/

"Each year, more than 500 million people suffer from acute malaria, resulting in more than 1 million deaths. At least 86 percent of these deaths are in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally an estimated 3,000 children and infants die from malaria every day and 10,000 pregnant women die from malaria in Africa every year."

"Environmental Defense, which launched the anti-DDT campaign in the 1960s, now endorses the indoor use of DDT for malaria control, as does the Sierra Club and the Endangered Wildlife Trust. The recently-launched President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) announced last year that it would also fund DDT spraying on the inside walls of households to prevent the disease."