Comments on: DDT vs. Malaria: The Lesser of Two Evils?

By: Skip Tracer

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By: May Berenbaum

May Berenbaum — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:03:50 +0000

Thanks to all who commented on this complex and challenging issue. It’s amazing that, on the 70th anniversary of the discovery of its insecticidal properties in a laboratory in Switzerland, DDT continues to make headlines and create controversy. In closing, I’d just like to make the plea that parties on all sides of this issue remember to take advantage of seven decades of acquired knowledge about DDT’s strengths and weaknesses and make decisions based on data–not only with respect to DDT use in Africa for malaria but for pest management problems around the world.

By: Jerry Giambeluca

Jerry Giambeluca — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:02:48 +0000

I also worked in a DDT manufacturing plant in California called Montrose Chemical Co many years ago. At the time I worked there we were told there was a government study going on at the plant to see if DDT was preventing cancer.
In later years, I read all the stories in the news that DDT was a cause of cancer, how it hurt birds and fish, etc. I assumed that the study the company originally told us was a cover story, to protect themselves and confuse the workers.
For many years I worried that I would surely come down with cancer, or some giant goiter, or some other gruesome defect.
Well, I’m now 70 years old, have no bad effects, and I’ve found out the original study the company told us about was actually done by the government and the study found that no-one who worked there had gotten cancer in at least 20 years. That’s quite an amazing result for a known carcinogen.

By: Paul Saoke

Paul Saoke — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:52:36 +0000

Karl,
It is important to note that the WHO’s international Program on Chemical safely (IPCS) has been reviewing new evidence of DDT toxicity but has kept its release postponed since 2006 to date. Weare not even sure that it will see the light of day. Secondly the landmark Pine river statement should be a popinter of what to expect from the IPCS review. You are right karl that the issue is not DDT versus malaria. People die from malaria because they do not get treated from it.

By: Paul Saoke

Paul Saoke — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:42:16 +0000

Kwabena is not knowlegeable on the matter and talks about kenyan doctors who have done research on the matter. I am a Kenya and have stayed with the issue since 1998 and have never seen any publication by a Kenyan that he could be referring to. There are studies which only documented the DDT chemical body burdens (For example Kahunyo et al. in the East African medical Journal studied organo-chlorine pesticieds in chicken eggs, Leiticia Kanja – another Kenyan studied the dDT concentration in human breast milk in Kenya way down in 1986. I do not think that it is fair to evoke emotions of Africans versus the rest of the world. What i know is that Americans are at the fore front of championing DDT use in Africa and that fit within the neo-conservtive ideology which has changed now even though there are still hangovers. I see elsewhere people quoteing concocted statistics about African children dying every second – basically hperbolic statements that do not have scientific basis. People sjould realize that the people who coined these statements were funded by corporations and we have evidence to that extent. Malaria in Africa is over estimated and misdiagnosed. A recent journal article of research conducted in Kampala uganda indicates that anybiody who presents with fever is treated for malaria – presumptive treatment which in itself poses serious problems. I know many South African scientists who have published on the health effects of DDT. Prof Christian De, Jager and Prof Rianna Bornman have published extensively in peer reviewed journals yet their works are not highlighted since they do not take any political angles. Kwabena do you listen to only Africans or humanity is the same regardles of colour?

By: Paul Saoke

Paul Saoke — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:22:37 +0000

Dear May,
The practical experience with DDTspraying in Africs is that the chemical is widely abused in countries like Ethiopia where farmers use it in Agriculture. We have also seen the buse in Uganda where spray teams dump remains of DDT in ant hills.

By: May Berenbaum

May Berenbaum — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:20:55 +0000

I believe that Maureen Coetzee is South African;; she has been working in South Africa since 1969 and she earned her master’s and PhD degree from University of the Witwatersrand. She currently holds the National Research Foundation Chair in Medical Entomology and Vector Control, Division of Virology and Communicable Disease Surveillance, University of the Witwatersrand is also affiliated with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg, Private Bag X4, Sandringham 2131, South Africa
http://web.wits.ac.za/NewsRoom/NewsItems/COETZEEINUAGURALLECTURE.htm

By: Kwabena Sarfo

Kwabena Sarfo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:07:35 +0000

none of those mentioned is an african. listen research by Kenyan doctors who are Africans and speak for Africans. DDT has no effects on human and should be allowed to be used! period! You cannot tell me birds are important than humans.Stop western government from playing fiddle with policies. United States allow Africa to use DDT to some extent and then collude with EU to ban exports from countries that are using it.
The ‘poor’ African nation has no other means than to stop using DDT so it products will be accepted on EU or US market. If not, then their economy will collapse and the evil effects of poverty spread through out their region.

By: Ellady Muyambi (Uganda)

Ellady Muyambi (Uganda) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:23:41 +0000

Dear David and May,
As indicated in my separate e-mail to David, I work for the Uganda Network on Toxic Free Malaria Control (UNETMAC) as the Secretary General. UNETMAC is a registered non- for profit, non- governmental organization and an umbrella organization which co-ordinates, supports and builds capacity for its partner organizations to engage in malaria control initiatives without using dangerous toxic substances. As regards to previous comment to May Berenbaum, it’s unfortunate if I mistook her for supposedly supporting DDT IRS in Malaria control programmes. I have read some of her publications and am now clear of her position. I just wanted to clear the glitch that DDT in Uganda is opposed due to economic gains. There is a compendium of issues why we are opposed to DDT. For instance, while DDT IRS was used in the formerly Kigezi district during the 1959-1963 in the area of Rwangaminyeto (Kihihi in the presently Kanungu district), it is vital to acknowledge the fact that the metabolites of DDT then used are still present in the bodies of the residents and other environmental specimens in the said areas and even in areas such as Nyarusiza in Kisoro district where DDT was not used and that these residents are suffering from the negative health effects from DDT exposure. This is well indicated in unpublished study done in 2006 by G. S. Bimenya et al, the head of Pathology Dept. Faculty of Medicine, Makerere University, P. O. Box 7072 Kampala.