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DDT a danger to exposed communities - study.

Posted May 20 2009 1:20pm
DDT a danger to exposed communities - study

An international panel of health and toxicological experts has said that spraying the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) indoors to fight malaria, as is done in SA's malaria areas, could be leading to increased incidences of cancer, diabetes, foetal and childhood developmental problems and decreased fertility among exposed communities, reports Business Day.

Although the use of DDT as an agricultural pesticide has been largely abandoned worldwide, it has been used since the 1940s to combat malaria in SA and other areas, with its use endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The SA researchers on the international panel, who published their concerns in this month's issue of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, have 'strongly urged' an accelerated drive to look at better, safer ways of controlling malaria without compromising people's health, and that of the environment. The consensus statement emerged from a conference last year jointly organised by the US-based Pine River Superfund Citizen Task Force, a citizen rights organisation, the Alma College's Centre for Responsible Leadership and its Public Affairs Institute, also from the US, which was attended by University of Pretoria professors Tiaan de Jager and Riana Bornman and the North West University's Prof Henk Bornman. The researchers reviewed nearly 500 epidemiological studies.
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20090512092235315

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http://www.stephentvedten.com/23_Mosquitoes.pdf
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