DDT: To Ban or Not to Ban

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DDT To Ban or Not to Ban?

• Thomas G. Robins, MD, MPH

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DDT Ban Takes Effect

• EPA press release - December 31, 1972 The
  general use of the pesticide DDT will no longer
  be legal in the United States after today, ending
  nearly three decades of application during which
  time the once-popular chemical was used to
  control insect pests on crop and forest lands,
  around homes and gardens, and for industrial and
  commercial purposes.
• Ruckelshaus said he was convinced that the
  continued massive use of DDT posed unacceptable
  risks to the environment and potential harm to
  human health.

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DDT Ban Takes Effect

• An end to the continued domestic usage of the
  pesticide was decreed on June 14, 1972, when
  William D. Ruckelshaus, Administrator of the
  Environmental Protection Agency, issued an order
  finally cancelling nearly all remaining Federal
  registrations of DDT products. Public health,
  quarantine, and a few minor crop uses were
  excepted, as well as export of the material.

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DDT Ban Takes Effect

• DDT was developed as the first of the modern
  insecticides early in World War II. It was
  initially used with great effect to combat
  malaria, typhus, and the other insect-borne human
  diseases among both military and civilian
  populations.

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DDT Ban Takes Effect

• A persistent, broad-spectrum compound often
  termed the "miracle" pesticide, DDT came into
  wide agricultural and commercial usage in this
  country in the late 1940s. During the past 30
  years, approximately 675,000 tons have been
  applied domestically. The peak year for use in
  the United States was 1959 when nearly 80 million
  pounds were applied. From that high point, usage
  declined steadily to about 13 million pounds in
  1971, most of it applied to cotton.

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Wildlife Fund wants world DDT ban

• May 1999 Sufficient scientific evidence exists
  of DDT's danger to humans and animals to justify
  a global ban on the insecticide, according to a
  recent World Wildlife Fund report. The report was
  released to coincide with a week-long gathering
  in Nairobi of delegates from more than 100
  nations to negotiate a treaty banning 12 toxic
  substances, including DDT.

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Wildlife Fund wants world DDT ban

• "The report illustrates the persistence and
  pervasiveness of chemicals such as DDT which can
  be sprayed in a village in Africa and end up in
  the fat of polar bears in the Arctic,'' the
  Washington, D.C.-based organization said.

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Wildlife Fund wants world DDT ban

• The report summarizes current research on DDT and
  its most popular alternative, synthetic
  pyrethroids. The treaty would ban the so-called
  "dirty dozen" toxic chemicals, called persistent
  organic pollutants (POPS), which include DDT,
  dioxin and PCBs. The highly toxic chemicals break
  down extremely slowly.

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Wildlife Fund wants world DDT ban

• "DDT is such a potent chemical that as long as it
  is used anywhere in the world, nobody is safe,''
  Clifton Curtis, director of WWF's Global Toxic
  Initiative, told reporters at the headquarters of
  the U.N. Environment Program outside Nairobi.
• Even though DDT is banned in 34 countries and
  severely restricted in 34 others, it is still
  endorsed by World Health Organization for use in
  the control of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

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Do you need DDT for me?!
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DDT Ban and Malaria

• Monday 19 April 1999 
• Summary An international group of malaria
  researchers oppose the total ban of DDT. They say
  that the ban will cause a huge increase in
  malaria related deaths.
• An international group of eminent malaria
  researchers have come out strongly opposing the
  total ban on DDT which many environmental
  organisations are pushing as quickly as possible
  on governments around the world.
• They say the ban will cause a huge increase in
  malaria related deaths and far outweigh the
  benefits of a complete and premature ban of the
  vilified insecticide.

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Tanzania - Malaria surges after DDT ban

• Thursday, May 16 2002
• Tanzanian EHOs are calling for an end to a ban on
  the use of DDT, one of the worlds most powerful
  pesticides, in a bid to reduce malaria deaths.
  Malaria is one of the highest causes of infant
  mortality in the east African state, killing
  98,000 children a year.