December 16, 2004
WELL, THAT DIDN'T TAKE LONG:
Viktory Over Alarmism (Michael Fumento, 12/16/2004, Tech Central Station)
It's perhaps fitting that dioxin was used in the attempted political murder of Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. That's because dioxin is the most politicized chemical in history. It's notorious for its role at New York's Love Canal and Missouri's Times Beach, but primarily as an ingredient in the defoliant Agent Orange. Yet Yushchenko is alive because what's been called "the most deadly chemical known" is essentially a myth.Posted by Orrin Judd at December 16, 2004 2:52 PM
HAH! Everybody knows plutonium is the most deadly substance known to man. Er, despite the fact most of us have more than a few atoms of it in our bodies...
Posted by: Bruce Cleaver at December 16, 2004 3:02 PMIt's been quite a few years since the AP routinely described dioxin as 'the most deadly poison,' and while they do lapse now and then, I take credit for that.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at December 16, 2004 3:11 PMLike I said, they should have named it Oil of Olay
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at December 16, 2004 5:48 PMThe most deadly chemical known is DDT. Just ask Rachel Carson.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at December 17, 2004 10:20 AMSilly me. I thought it was botox, or that Japanese blowfish, or sweat from those South American tree frogs.
Posted by: ratbert at December 17, 2004 11:06 AMThanks for the mention. I see your readers pretty much didn't need to see the piece, though. They're right in that every agent they named (DDT aside, of course) is far deadlier to man than dioxin.
Michael Fumento
Posted by: Michael Fumento at December 17, 2004 1:22 PMMichael, you are technically correct but not actually correct. DDT has killed more people than any of the substances mentioned and it is still killing people.
But, of course, that is the point of people who revere Carson, to kill people.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at December 17, 2004 2:34 PMLack of DDT.
Posted by: oj at December 17, 2004 2:48 PM