{"id":526,"date":"2004-01-12T02:03:36","date_gmt":"2004-01-12T10:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2004\/01\/12\/lets-fund-ddt\/"},"modified":"2004-01-12T02:03:36","modified_gmt":"2004-01-12T10:03:36","slug":"lets-fund-ddt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"Let's fund DDT"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m pretty much used to right-wingers and libertarians being wrong about, well, almost everything. So when I read this over-the-top editorial at Tech Central <\/a>about DDT, I was pretty confident that a little research would show me that environmental groups are right to oppose DDT use in Africa.<\/p>\n

But in this case the Tech Central op-ed is right. DDT is far, far more effective than any of the alternatives for preventing the spread of malaria, especially to children.<\/p>\n

Of course, Tech Central wouldn’t be Tech Central if the piece didn’t get significant facts wrong. For instance, many of the groups it claims oppose DDT use are actually neutral on the subject, or even support DDT use to combat maleria (the World Health Organization supports DDT use, for example). As usual, right-wingers feel free to simply make up lies about groups they dislike, knowing that no other right-winger will call them on it.<\/p>\n

But on the main point they’re correct; DDT is essential. From The Christian Science Monitor<\/i>:<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1995, the last year South Africa had a comprehensive DDT program, there were only 6,000 malaria cases in the country. According to South Africa’s Department of Health, by 2000, resistance had developed to the compound that had replaced DDT and that number had risen to 60,000. Worried by these figures, South Africa again began using DDT in 2001. By 2002, cases had again fallen to 15,000. In Zambia, spraying by mining companies has been even more successful, reducing malaria cases by as much as 90 percent.<\/div>\n

The US Agency for International Development is pushing bed nets <\/a>as an alternative to DDT spraying. Are they insane? Let’s say it was your child, and you’re offered two alternatives to prevent the child from catching this often-fatal disease. One solution works by spraying the walls, which keeps the disease-carrying mosquitoes out of the house. The other solution works by depending on your child to stay obediantly in bed all night and hoping no mosquitos bite during the day.<\/p>\n

No American parent would find bed nets an acceptable alternative in that circumstance – not even for a moment. USAID should be ashamed for suggesting it. (Some of USAID’s other anti-malaria programs are more worthwhile).<\/p>\n

Like environmentalists, I’m disturbed by all the unknowns about DDT’s effects on humans. But fighting the theoretical harms of DDT should take a back seat to fighting the very real harms of malaria.<\/p>\n

Someday, an alternative to DDT that’s as effective may be developed. Until that time, household DDT use in areas facing malaria should not only be “not forbidden,” it should be encouraged and generously funded.<\/p>\n

Link to the Tech Central article via The Fifty-Minute Hour<\/a>. Also, this BBC article has a decent summary of the DDT\/malaria issue<\/a>..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m pretty much used to right-wingers and libertarians being wrong about, well, almost everything. So when I read this over-the-top editorial at Tech Central about DDT, I was pretty confident that a little research would show me that environmental groups … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-site-and-admin-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}