Week 5 Discussion-Environmental - Essay Example

Keep DDT Order No. 308533 No. of pages: 2 6530   Malaria has become a menace in the tropical countries throughout the world. Every year millions of people, mostly children, die of ‘Malignant Malaria’ in these regions. Most of the places where Malaria attacks and spreads easily, are inhabited by that vulnerable group of society, who do not have proper or enough resources to tackle this terrible disease. In this regard, DDT is considered one of the few effective tools that are made use of to fight against the mosquitoes transmitting this disease, and it is quite affordable too.

Although there is a lot of scientific literature “on the need to withdraw “DDT”, they are not persuasive enough to stop its use altogether.  DDT offers much more benefits in saving lives from the Malaria menace which are “well worth the risk”. Amir Attaran, Donald R. Roberts, Chris F. Curtis & Wenceslaus L. Kilama. (2004) The pesticide DDT was touted again as “the most effective way to fight malaria” after being shunned for decades as “an environmentally damaging chemical”.

The World Health Organization announced its support for generally indoor spraying of the pesticide  DDT specifically  to control the menace of mosquitoes in high risk countries. [Nature, Apoorva Mandavilli (2006)     But this was not to be, and earlier this year, May (2009), “the UN agency quietly reverted to promoting less effective methods” to tackle the disease, which is definitely going to affect millions of the world’s poorest sections of society who depend greatly on this effective and affordable material.

The UN officials are actually pushing for a “zero DDT world”, citing a pilot program, that reduced Malaria cases in Mexico and South America by using ‘chloroquine’ pills to unaffected people,”. But the fact is that ‘chloroquine’ is more effective in therapeutic use. In fact, scientists have reservations about the safety of the drug as it has proven to be toxic and can cause heart problems. This drug was effective in the sub-Saharan Africa, where maximum death occurs due to Malaria, but it started failing during 1970’s as the parasite developed resistance against the drug.

Even if these drugs worked, they are very expensive for people to afford them and so impractical to be used especially for some of the poorest regions around the world.  So it shows that spraying of DDT is an integral part of the effort to eradicate Malaria.      Although WHO has not totally banned DDT, yet by revoking its approval, it has made things difficult for the poor countries like Uganda, Tanzania, and Zambia, in their bid to battle effectively against the menace of Malaria. Ironically, there is no evidence that spraying DDT in prescribed dose to kill mosquitoes can “imperil crops, animals or human health”.

The Wall Street Journal (26th May 2009)ReferencesApoorva Mandavilli, (2006) Health Agency Backs Use of DDT Against DDT. International Weekly Journal of Science’, Nature 443, 250-251. Published online 20 September 2006, nature.comAmir Attaran, (2004) Malaria Where Did it all go Wrong? Nature 430, 932-933. Published online 18 August 2004, nature.comHealth, The Wall street Journal. 26th May 2009