We write about DDT altogether too much here, all because once upon a time, all too briefly, it killed bed bugs dead. The mystique naturally persists.
But the LIFE photo archive at Google will not be resisted.
Maybe humans will never die, as long as we are capable of this:
DDT sprayed from a TIFA (Todd Insecticidal Fog Applicator) around model Kay Heffernon, Jones Beach, New York. 1948. George Silk, LIFE photo archive.
Any news on how long this gal lived and what she died of? DDT history has many valuable lessons for us. Misuse of science at the top and misuse of pesticide by farmers right along side it.
I don’t know.
But, for example, when people claim this memory from childhood, the DDT truck, sometimes with a kind of pride, what does it mean? I’m not sure that it works that way, that we can learn something useful. But, I do marvel at it like anyone.