THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VIII, Issue # 200, October 16, 2006
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
KILLING OUR BABIES: ANTI-PESTICIDE ACTIVISTS
ARE PERPETUATING MALARIA & KILLING AFRICANS
By Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes
INSECTICIDES & MALARIA CONTROL IN AFRICA: ANTI-INSECTICIDE ACTIVISTS & POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTALISTS
USE EXAGGERATED & EVEN ILLUSORY "RISKS" TO PROMOTE CAMPAIGNS AGAINST USING DDT & OTHER INSECTICIDES TO
CONTROL MALARIA -- THE ANTI-INSECTICIDE RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT IMPEDES EFFORTS TO
IMPLEMENT COMPREHENSIVE, EFFECTIVE DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAMS, RESULTING IN THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE DYING
EVERY DAY FROM A READILY PREVENTABLE DISEASE
FULL STORY:
Finally, the World Health Organization and Uganda’s Health Ministry are again emphasizing DDT and other insecticides to
control a disease that kills 110,000 Ugandans every year.
But, instead of applauding the decision, anti-pesticide activists are attacking it with scare stories and lies. Every day that
Paul Saoke, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Pesticide Action Network, and their allies keep our health officials from
ending malaria, another 300 Ugandan babies and mothers go to their graves. It’s like sending a jetliner filled with children
and mothers crashing into the Rwenzori Mountains every day.
Even Environmental Defense, which started the anti-DDT war four decades ago, now says this chemical keeps mosquitoes
out of homes and should be used for malaria control. But attacking insecticides is the reason PSR and PAN exist. It’s their
key to fund raising and job security. So they haven’t budged, and poor Africans are paying the price.
Africans need to know the truth, and activists need to stop lying and killing our babies.
DDT does things no other weapon, at any price, can do. Sprayed in tiny amounts once or twice a year on inside walls of
homes, it keeps 90% of mosquitoes from even entering, prevents those that do come in from biting, and slashes malaria
rates by 75 percent. Since DDT is no longer used in agriculture, mosquitoes are unlikely to become resistant to it, and even
those that are immune to its killing properties are kept away by its repellant effects.
Malaria, a deadly but preventable disease, infects over 400 million Africans annually, and kills nearly 2 million. In Kenya
alone. Malaria costs 170 million lost working days annually. It enslaves our continent, prevents people from working,
keeps tourists and investors from coming to Africa, and reduces the continent’s economic productivity by billions of
dollars a year.
Any responsible organization would support doing everything possible to reduce malaria. Instead, these activist groups
worry about imaginary risks from the best weapon in our arsenal. They tell us we should be more concerned about
supposed dangers of DDT that are microscopic, compared to dangers inflicted on Africa by mosquitoes.
Their claims about reduced lactation in nursing mothers, low birth weights in babies, and impaired immune systems in
children are pure speculation. No scientific study ever proved any of them. Malaria, however, absolutely does cause
these problems.
Mr. Saoke says a new study shows DDT causes “massive IQ loss in children.” That is false. Professor Brenda Eskenazi
claims test scores were a few points below normal in young children whose mothers had been exposed to huge amounts
of DDT during pregnancy, but the problem may disappear by the time the children enter school. Other researchers have
found no such harm from DDT.
Moreover, Professor Eskenazi's findings are based on DDT use in agriculture. They are irrelevant to disease control
programs that spray tiny amounts of DDT on walls. And the permanent brain damage caused by malaria is far worse than
the problems Eskenazi found.
PSR and PAN claim DDT causes cancer. But millions of soldiers and civilians were sprayed with DDT during and after
World War II to prevent malaria and typhus. Millions of Americans were exposed to large amounts of DDT, when the
U.S.A. used it for malaria control and crop spraying. No study ever found that any of the Americans got cancer as a result.
Claims that DDT causes fertility problems have one goal: generating fear. Hundreds of millions of homes have been
sprayed with DDT to control disease. There has been no documented increase of Parkinson’s disease, lower sperm
counts, drops in fertility or reduced male sexual performance, says Professor Donald Roberts, one of the world’s foremost
authorities on DDT and malaria.
Claims of environmental harm stem from widespread DDT use in agriculture, but even most of those claims were later
refuted. Bird eggshell thinning, for instance, was due to studies that gave birds calcium-deficient diets. U.S. bald eagle
populations were reduced not by DDT, but by illegal hunting.
The European Union will not impose trade sanctions on countries that use DDT for disease control in accord with the
Stockholm Convention, EU Commission President Barroso recently said. Moreover, only individual shipments with DDT
levels above prescribed tolerance levels would be affected. Carefully conducted indoor spraying programs will ensure that
this doesn’t happen.
The Stockholm Convention specifically allows DDT for disease control, and will continue to do so until an effective
alternative is found. So far, no other chemical comes close to DDT for keeping mosquitoes out of homes and preventing
them from biting. And neither PAN nor PSR has ever contributed even one shilling toward finding a substitute, even
though they spend millions a year attacking DDT and other insecticides, and perpetuating disease and death.
Africans can worry about make-believe risks cited by insecticide-hating activist groups, and continue enduring disease,
death, and poverty from malaria. Or we can embrace DDT as a vital weapon, and begin controlling this Killer Disease.
We are wise enough to know what to do. We need to be allowed to make our own decisions, and not be bullied or lied to
by irresponsible organizations like Physicians for “Social Responsibility” and Pesticide Action Network.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Africa South of the Sahara -- Black Africa
Science, Ethics, & Human Health
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Fiona Kobusingye-Boynes is Coordinator of Congress of Racial Equality Uganda, and a malaria survivor who has lost
many friends and family members to the disease. She recently testified before the Ugandan Parliament on the need to
control malaria.
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