THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 214, September 28, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
EUROPEAN UNION & BAYER KILLING AFRICAN CHILDREN:
A NEWS RELEASE FROM AFRICA FIGHTING MALARIA
By Richard Tren, Roger Bate, & Paul K. Driessen
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM & ECONOMIC SELF-INTEREST VERSUS USE OF DDT TO FIGHT MALARIA & SAVE LIVES:
POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION BUREAUCRACY COALESCE WITH BAYER CROP SCIENCES, A GERMAN
MANUFACTURES OF PESTICIDES WHICH ARE FAR MORE EXPENSIVE & FAR LESS EFFECTIVE THAN DDT, TO BAR AFRICAN
COUNTRIES FROM USING DDT AS A MEANS TO CONTROL MALARIA & PREVENT WIDESPREAD LOSS OF LIFE -- EU & BAYER'S
OPPOSITION TO DDT USE CAUSING MALARIA TO INCREASE, RESULTING IN GREATER LOSS OF AFRICAN LIVES
FULL STORY:
Earlier this year, the European Union’s charge d’affairs for Uganda blatantly threatened that country over its stated intention to begin
using DDT again to control the continuing malaria epidemic that kills up to 100,000 Ugandans every year – half of them children. He
warned that, if Uganda used DDT to save lives, the EU would ban the import of any flowers, food, or other agricultural products
grown in this sub-Saharan country.
Now a leading manufacturer of other insecticides, which are far more expensive and far less effective than DDT, has issued his
own hostile and unconscionable statements, proclaiming that his company proudly supports the EU position. Anyone who thought
Europe’s colonialist past was bad enough should read the September 28, 2005, news release from Africa Fighting Malaria, a news
release which tells the world about what the EU and Bayer are doing to some of the most diseased and impoverished people on our
planet.
European countries and companies must get the message that these immoral threats will no longer go unchallenged or be tolerated.
They violate the most fundamental human rights of all -- the right to health and to life. Paul K. Driessen
NEWS RELEASE
The European Union and German commercial interests are killing African children. EU and Bayer's opposition to use of DDT is
causing malaria to increase in Uganda.
Ninety-three percent of Uganda’s population is at risk from malaria, with millions of cases and thousands of deaths annually.
But Senior Management within the German chemical giant, Bayer Crop Sciences, is putting commercial profit above the lives of
Uganda’s children, by denying them use of the life-saving insecticide DDT.
“It’s utterly disgraceful for a powerful company like Bayer not only to put commercial interests above human life, but also to lie in
the process,” says Richard Tren, South African Director of Africa Fighting Malaria, a health advocacy group. Tren testifies on
DDT to the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) hearing today.
Many poor countries with malaria use DDT to control the mosquitoes that carry the parasites. DDT is sprayed in tiny amounts on
the inside walls of dwellings, in carefully controlled programs that save countless thousands of lives, mainly children, every year.
But Bayer sees things differently. “We fully support [the EU’s decision] to ban imports of agricultural products coming from
countries using DDT,” Bayer Vector Control Manager Gerhard Hesse proudly proclaimed in an email exchange with malaria
scientists. Admitting that “DDT use is, for us, a commercial threat,” Dr. Hesse went on to expound a series of half-truths and
outright falsehoods, mostly denigrating the use of DDT.
Bayer Crop Sciences reported sales of over US$7 billion in 2004, and Bayer’s Dr. Hesse sits on the board of the World Health
Organization’s Roll Back Malaria (RBM) coalition, as do other commercial contractors to the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID). It has been rumored that these potentially conflicting interests are undermining RBM, which was charged
in 1998 with halving malaria rates by 2010. Instead, RBM has overseen an increase in disease and death rates, due to in part to
policies that shun DDT. RBM has been characterized as “a failing public health program” by the leading British Medical
Journal.
Until now, Uganda has bowed to outside pressure. However, Ugandan Health Minister, Jim Muhwezi, is determined to use DDT.
Speaking at a World Malaria Day commemoration in April, 2005, Muhwezi noted that “DDT has been proven, over and over again,
to be the most effective and least expensive method of fighting malaria."
Many malarial countries rely on international aid to fund their programs and are therefore forced to adopt policies that aid agencies
and the European Union prefer, but which are not necessarily what the countries need.
Britain’s leading malaria specialist, Professor Chris Curtis of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says of the
threatened EU ban:
“We are now informed that the ban is supported by a multi-national insecticide
manufacturer. Such a ban would presumably be in the interests of the
manufacturer, who could expect increased sales of its insecticides. However, it
would not be in the interests of Ugandans, who wish to protect as many people
as possible from malaria with the limited funding available for vector control.”
Don Roberts, Professor of Tropical Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, said:
“... there is overwhelming evidence that malarious countries are being pressed by
rich countries not to use DDT. It is a chilling thought that rich and powerful
countries are willing to trade the lives of poor rural people for reasons that have
no basis in science.”
Richard Tren & Roger Bate
Africa Fighting Malaria
P.O. Box 782492
Sandton, 2146, South Africa
rtren@fightingmalaria.org
www.fightingmalaria.org
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Paul K. Driessen is Senior Policy Advisor for the Congress of Racial Equality, the Committee for A Constructive Tomorrow, and the
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise. Driessen is author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power, Black Death, which can be
obtained at www.Eco-Imperialism.com. Email: pdriessen@cox.net --- Telephone:
(703) 698-6171
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