Word: ddt
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...efforts to control anopheles mosquitoes have been more or less abandoned. Part of the problem was the realization that malaria could never be completely eradicated from tropical regions the way it had been in the U.S. and other countries in temperate zones. There was also a growing backlash against DDT, a pesticide that is highly effective at attacking mosquitoes but whose indiscriminate use in agriculture killed many fish, beneficial insects and birds. Although only small amounts of DDT are needed to control malaria--usually in indoor-spraying campaigns--its toxic reputation made cash-strapped governments in Africa, which often must...
...more controversial but nonetheless effective method of reducing transmission is to spray DDT inside huts and other buildings. Intriguingly, DDT is often better at repelling mosquitoes than killing them. This requires much less pesticide than was once sprayed on crops and swamps. Indeed, if DDT had been used only for medicinal purposes, it might never have acquired its toxic reputation. An international antipesticide treaty that took effect last May makes an exception for the use of DDT in malarial areas, but some health experts are worried that the bureaucratic headache of applying for an exemption will limit the effectiveness...
Recent experience in South Africa shows just how well DDT can work. In 1996 the South African government, under pressure from international and domestic environmental groups, decided to phase out its use of DDT in residential spraying and rely instead on pesticides containing pyrethroid chemicals. Unfortunately, it turned out that many anopheles mosquitoes in South Africa were resistant to pyrethroids. The number of cases of malaria, which had been hovering between 8,000 and 13,000 a year, grew steadily worse, and by the year 2000 it had reached 64,000 cases, with 423 deaths. When the government reintroduced DDT...
Even environmentalists had to admit that DDT was necessary. "I wasn't very happy about it, but we are what you'd call pragmatic conservationists," says Gerhard Verdoorn, chairman of South Africa's Endangered Wildlife Trust, which had earlier lobbied the South African government to drop the pesticide and now helps train the 350 or so DDT sprayers who are employed each year. "We can't just look after animals and not care if people...
Sales of fish-oil supplements have boomed as evidence of the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids has mounted. But how safe are those supplements? The same pollutants that contaminate fish--including mercury, dioxins, DDT and PCBs--can also contaminate the fish oils made from them. The latest troubling news: a study finding that levels of a flame retardant are rising in samples of cod-liver...