More on the 2-Day Method ...

"A clinical trial that followed 450 women in Guatemala, Peru and the Philippines, for up to thirteen cycles of TwoDay Method use, found that the method is highly effective. First year life-table pregnancy rate for correct use was 3·5. When all cycles and all pregnancies were included in the analysis, the pregnancy rate was 13·7 (Arévalo et al., 2004)."

Natural Family Planning (NFP)

Natural Family Planning (NFP): "The TwoDay Method is a new simple approach to NFP. It relies on a simple algorithm to help women identify when they are fertile, based upon the presence or absence of cervical secretions.
If the woman notices any secretions on the current or previous day, then she is probably fertile and should not have unprotected intercourse to avoid pregnancy.
If she notices no secretions on either day, then she is not fertile. "

If it's this easy to avoid pregnancy...

RxList - Top 300

The most prescribed medications in 2004. Codeine tops the list at more than 92 million scrips. Yeehaw.

Zoloft (for everything ...) comes in at 14th, with almost 30 million prescriptions. Fluoxetine HCl (generic Prozac) gets more than 21 million. Amitriptyline HCl, another mood-med, gets more than 15 million. Celexa has more than 10 million scrips per year. Paxil CR, more than 9 million scrips. Wellbutrin XL, more than 9 million. Wellbutrin SR, more than 4 million. Abilify, more than 2 million.

These are just the ones I can readily identify of the psych meds. That's at least 100 million scrips written in 2004. There were 293.5 million people living in the U.S. in 2004. You mean to tell me that at least 1/3 of the people in the U.S. are some kind of mentally ill? Why, at that point, you would almost have to redefine normal ...

EXTOXNET PIP - DDT

"Carcinogenic Effects: The evidence regarding the carcinogenicity of DDT is equivocal. It has been shown to cause increased tumor production (mainly in the liver and lung) in test animals such as rats, mice and hamsters in some studies but not in others (73) In rats, liver tumors were induced in three separate studies at doses of 12.5 mg/kg/day over periods of 78 weeks to life, and thyroid tumors were induced at doses of 85 mg/kg/day over 78 weeks (73). In mice, lifetime doses of 0.4 mg/kg/day resulted in lung tumors in the second generation and leukemia in the third generation; liver tumors were induced at oral doses of 0.26 mg/kg/day in two separate studies over several generations. In hamsters, significant increases in adrenal gland tumors were seen at doses of 83 mg/kg/day in females (but not males) , and in males (but not females) at doses of 40 mg/kg/day (73). In other studies, however, no carcinogenic activity was observed in rats at doses less than 25 mg/kg/day; no carcinogenic activity was seen in mice with at doses of 3-23 mg/kg/day over an unspecified period, and in other hamster studies there have been no indications of carcinogenic effects (73). The available epidemiological evidence regarding DDT�s carcinogenicity in humans, when taken as a whole, does not suggest that DDT and its metabolites are carcinogenic in humans at likely dose levels (73). In several epimiological studies, no significant associations were seen between DDT exposure and disease, but in one other study, a weak association was observed (73, 80). In this latter study, which found a significant association between long-term, high DDT exposures and pancreatic cancers in chemical workers, there were questions raised as to the reliability of the medical records of a large proportion of the cancer cases (73,80"

Wiki section on DDT

DDT - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "As of 2005, DDT continues to be used in other (primarily tropical) countries where mosquito-borne malaria and typhus are greater health problems than DDT's potential toxicity. Use of DDT in public health to control mosquitoes is primarily done inside buildings and through inclusion in household products and selective spraying; this greatly reduces environmental impact compared to the earlier widespread use of DDT in agriculture. It also reduces the risk of resistance to DDT."

What the EPA has to say about DDT

EPA History - DDT Ban Takes Effect: "DDT was developed as the first of the modern insecticides early in World War II. It was initially used with great effect to combat malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human diseases among both military and civilian populations.
A persistent, broad-spectrum compound often termed the 'miracle' pesticide, DDT came into wide agricultural and commercial usage in this country in the late 1940s. During the past 30 years, approximately 675,000 tons have been applied domestically. The peak year for use in the United States was 1959 when nearly 80 million pounds were applied. From that high point, usage declined steadily to about 13 million pounds in 1971, most of it applied to cotton.
The decline was attributed to a number of factors including increased insect resistance, development of more effective alternative pesticides, growing public and user concern over adverse environmental side effects--and governmental restriction on DDT use since 1969."

What is DDT?

ATSDR - ToxFAQs�: DDT, DDE, and DDD: "What are DDT, DDE, and DDD?
DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is a pesticide once widely used to control insects in agriculture and insects that carry diseases such as malaria. DDT is a white, crystalline solid with no odor or taste. Its use in the U.S. was banned in 1972 because of damage to wildlife, but is still used in some countries."

On DDT and malaria

Junkscience.com -- Main Page: "In May 1955 the Eighth World Health Assembly adopted a Global Malaria Eradication Campaign based on the widespread use of DDT against mosquitos and of antimalarial drugs to treat malaria and to eliminate the parasite in humans. As a result of the Campaign, malaria was eradicated by 1967 from all developed countries where the disease was endemic and large areas of tropical Asia and Latin America were freed from the risk of infection. The Malaria Eradication Campaign was only launched in three countries of tropical Africa since it was not considered feasible in the others. Despite these achievements, improvements in the malaria situation could not be maintained indefinitely by time-limited, highly prescriptive and centralized programmes"