DDT so safe you can eat it 1947

This is clipped from the record of the 1946 campaign to check an epidemic of malaria in the Kipsigis tribal reserve in the Kisumu district of north-west Kenya by spraying village huts with DDT. A team of public health workers are sent into the rural areas to convince villagers that spraying their huts with DDT will help stop the disease. When the skeptical tribal headman, Arap Kipkoi, resists DDT as poisonous, the British officer has DDT sprayed on a bowl of porridge and then eats a mouthful to prove DDT is not dangerous to humans. DDT is not very acutely toxic, so this misleading demonstration was possible. But the hazards from DDT are long term and it is certainly not “safe“. The film, titled DDT Versus Malaria: A Successful Experiment in Malaria Control (1947), by the Kenya Medical Department, is a 25-minute, black-and-white documentary and is a valuable historical artifact, highlighting the role of DDT in fighting malaria, as well as a case study in public health filmmaking. The film outl