Talk:Joseph Jacobs (scientist)

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I know one of the scientists responsible for creating DDT. His name is Dr. Joseph Jacobs. In his 80s, he is still active, working every day and of sound mind. He has related stories to me about falling into a vat of DDT and emerging unscathed with no after-effects. [1]

In 1939, Swiss chemist Paul Muller found his perfect pesticide – DDT was fast and deadly to many insects but had little or no impact on other organisms. Highly stable, it needed few repeat sprayings - it was persistent - and, unlike the alternatives, it was cheap. Three years later, the Swiss secretly shipped a small amount to America. Synthesising it for the Allies, Dr. Joseph Jacobs got drenched in the stuff. Six decades later, he shrugs it off. “In science and life, everything is a balance between pluses and minuses. We shipped 500 pounds to Italy, where Allied troops were suffering from typhus. 5000 lives were saved. I've always been rather proud of that. If you consider the good DDT’s done, compared with the relatively innocuous side-effects, there’s no contest.” Winston Churchill praised “the excellent DDT powder”. [2]