What were we thinking?!?

March 10, 2008 9:23 PM

Health and exposure to nasty pesticides in the 1960s and 70s -- anyone have specific information on exactly what was sprayed in my home every six months when I was a kid?

For those of us over 35...I guess we were all exposed to some bad, bad stuff when we were young, including fire retardants in our clothing and bedding, DDT for mosquitos, etc. But I have a distinct memory of The Bug Man coming by our house every few months and spraying the baseboards in every room, hallway and closet.

My sister and I were fascinated by this and would follow the dude around the house, inhaling fumes from the pesticide, sometimes touching it while it was wet.

/shaking head in disbelief

Any ideas on what pesticides were commonly used in the home during the 60s and 70s? ( This was before DDT was banned...) Does anyone have specific information on the health effects of occasional exposure to this crap as a child? All I could find on Google was research on chronic, occupational exposure.

Thanks in advance.

posted by shifafa to health (7 comments total)

If you're talking about California around 1982 you got sprayed with malathion.
posted by rhizome at 9:52 PM on March 10

I was born in 1962, and when I was about four, my parents had the underneath of our house sprayed with Dieldrin to get rid of Argentine ants. They knew at the time that the stuff was toxic (but not, I think, just how toxic) and I don't believe my sister and I were actually in the house when it was sprayed.

The ants came back (I guess they just nested outside the house).
posted by flabdablet at 11:16 PM on March 10

No, rhizome, Malathion was the aerial spraying used for the mediterranean fruit fly. shifafa is talking about a pest control company spraying inside their home.

It was almost surely an organophosphate of some sort. Diazinon perhaps? See here for some background and other info.

From III. Commercial Uses

For home and garden applications (i.e. to control crickets and cockroaches), Diazinon is applied in the form of strips placed near entryways, or is sprayed near certain areas.

This is merely my best guess culled from my (mostly garden-based &) somewhat limited knowledge of pesticides. A more thorough answer would be gotten from a more senior member of a pest control company or an agricultural university.

Oh, and not that it means much, but I've only heard of DDT being used indoors for bedbugs and mosquitos (being a vector for malaria). Spraying the baseboards seems unlikely for bedbugs and I'm suspecting you weren't in an equitorial region, plus the use for mosquitos seems to be through smoke.
posted by a_green_man at 12:39 AM on March 11

I'm going to use this thread as an excuse to link to a great Malcolm Gladwell article on DDT. The short version: DDT saved a lot of lives and has never been conclusively linked to human illness.
posted by roger ackroyd at 1:27 AM on March 11

I remember this from growing up in the 1980s. I also recall my mother cancelling the service at one point and saying something about the fact that the company was in the news, caught simply spraying with water.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 4:27 AM on March 11

Could be diazinon.
posted by dendrite at 6:46 AM on March 11

Thanks everyone. So far all I'm finding is info on agricultural pesticides. I'd really like to know what home pest control companies used "way back when."

BTW, the Gladwell article looks interesting.
posted by shifafa at 7:02 AM on March 11