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View Full Version : Africans cheer the return of lifesaving DDT!



Damocles
10-04-2006, 12:43 PM
Who says there's never any good news? After more than 30 years and tens of millions dead -- mostly children -- the World Health Organization (WHO) has ended its ban on DDT. DDT is the most effective anti-mosquito, anti-malaria pesticide known. But thanks to the worldwide environmental movement and politically correct bureaucrats in the United States and at the United Nations, the use of this benign chemical has been discouraged in Africa and elsewhere, permitting killer mosquitoes to spread death.

I don't expect any apologies from the people who permitted this to happen. But I am thankful this nightmare is ending.

DDT was banned by President Richard Nixon's Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s, after Rachel Carson's book, "Silent Spring," claimed to show that DDT threatened human health as well as bird populations. But some scientists found no evidence for her claims. Even if there was danger to bird eggs, the problem was the amount of DDT used, not the chemical itself.


Link... (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2006/10/04/hooray_for_ddts_life-saving_comeback)

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:02 PM
Damo, this column from the rightwing blog Townhall, by noted crazy person John Stossel, is so riddled with factual errors, its hard to know where to begin.

First, WHO has no regulatory authority to ban any chemicals. Stossel is flat out lying. WHO is merely a scientific organzation clearing-house, to provide the latest medical scientific knowledge. Every single country on the planet has the soveriegn right to decide for themselves, the best approaches on healthcare.

Second, since DDT was never banned, countries in africa can and HAVE been using DDT over the years, in residential settings.

Third, Stossel's lying by saying DDT is benign. Its not. But, it is safe when used in residual amounts sprayed on the walls and floors of homes, effectively creating a chemical misquito barrier. That's what the WHO adivsory said. DDT is still banned by most countries for agricultural applications, because of known environmental affects.

Fourth, Stossel acts like this is something new: its not. Since at least 2000, WHO has said that residual spraying of DDT on floors and ceilings, when done responsibly, is effective at misquito abatement.



http://www.who.int/mediacentre/en/

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:06 PM
WHO Note for the Press No 15
28 November 2000


DDT USE IN MALARIA PREVENTION AND CONTROL

DDT still has an important role to play in saving lives and reducing the burden of malaria in some of the world's poorest countries, states the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the international community considers phasing it out.

More than 120 governments, inter-governmental and non-government agencies are meeting next week (December 4-9) in Johannesburg, South Africa, to finalize an international treaty to reduce and/or eliminate the production and use of 12 persistent organic pollutants, including DDT.

WHO has been working in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide treaty negotiators with information on the health and environmental issues associated with DDT as well as the current use of DDT in malaria control.

Although DDT has been banned from agricultural use in most countries since the 1970s due to its damaging effects on the environment, it continues to be used in limited quantities for public health purposes. For many malaria-affected countries, responsible DDT use is a vital strategy for preventing malaria transmission and controlling epidemics. Countries continue to use DDT primarily because they cannot afford reliable alternatives or do not have the capacity to develop them


see WHO link above

Damocles
10-04-2006, 01:22 PM
If you notice the link that you provided it talks about on Sept. 16th WHO backing indoor use of DDT, just as Stossel's article states. It seems that somebody didn't actually read his article just assumed "factual statements" to be wrong....

Damocles
10-04-2006, 01:23 PM
Here I'll help by providing where he stated accurately what the WHO article stated...



But now this has changed. Last month, the WHO announced that it supports indoor spraying of DDT and other insecticides "not only in epidemic areas but also in areas with constant and high malaria transmission, including throughout Africa."

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:25 PM
If you notice the link that you provided it talks about on Sept. 16th WHO backing indoor use of DDT, just as Stossel's article states. It seems that somebody didn't actually read his article just assumed "factual statements" to be wrong....


Stossel said they "banned" it. That was simply one of the false statements he made, which I outlined abouve.

Anybody like Stossel who makes that many factual mistatements in two paragraphs, I don't consider educated or knowlegable about the chemistry adn regulation of pesticides.

Damocles
10-04-2006, 01:30 PM
Stossel said they "banned" it. That was simply one of the false statements he made, which I outlined abouve.

Anybody like Stossel who makes that many factual mistatements in two paragraphs, I don't consider educated or knowlegable about the chemistry adn regulation of pesticides.
Stossel also said in use in their efforts. Read it rather than assume meaning. Reading one word in a paragraph and assuming incorrectly that factually it is incorrect is wrong. He spoke of their efforts alone, and in those its use was banned except in specific circumstances.

Damocles
10-04-2006, 01:34 PM
You act like I'm in agreement with Stossel or something too. I posted it because it seemed to be something that would generate conversation.... It appears I was right.

I just don't like people who are dismissive before actually reading the article.

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:34 PM
1) Stossel: "the World Health Organization (WHO) has ended its ban on DDT. DDT is the most effective anti-mosquito, anti-malaria pesticide known."

FALSE. See post #2.

2) Stossel: DDT is benign.

FALSE. Or misleading. see post # 2

3)Celebrate! This is a NEW development!

Status- FALSE. I posted directly from the WHO website, dispproving this.

4) Implication: poor africans haven't been allowed to use DDT because of WHO

FALSE. See WHO website. Took me two minutes on the actual WHO website to determine that some african nations have been using DDT in residential applications all along.



Stossels' not credible on this Damo. He's an ideologue. He didn't even do his homework on the facts.

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:43 PM
You act like I'm in agreement with Stossel or something too. I posted it because it seemed to be something that would generate conversation.... It appears I was right.

I just don't like people who are dismissive before actually reading the article.

Well done, damo.

Damocles
10-04-2006, 01:43 PM
1) Stossel: "the World Health Organization (WHO) has ended its ban on DDT. DDT is the most effective anti-mosquito, anti-malaria pesticide known."


Once again, didn't read even the entire paragraph... (remember it is from the SAME paragraph)...

Where it reads:

...the use of this benign chemical has been discouraged in Africa and elsewhere, permitting killer mosquitoes to spread death.

By cutting off the parts that don't fit in with what you want his article to say you can make it appear to be inaccurate, but only by cutting off the parts you want so it appears that way...

Cypress
10-04-2006, 01:57 PM
Banned is not at all the same thing as discouraged. Which one was it? Banned, or discouraged? These are two fundamentally different actions.

Stossel is lazy and doesn't check his fact. This is poor journalism. You can't put contradictory and factually incorrect statements in a credible article, and expect not to get busted on it.

But thanks damo, for getting us off the child predator stuff! I'm gettin kind of sick of it ;)

Damocles
10-04-2006, 02:07 PM
They are in the same paragraph and one expands on the meaning of the first sentence. The assumption that the sentence stands alone is an attempt to discredit without actually reading the article because of opinion...

uscitizen
10-04-2006, 02:15 PM
With the bedbug infestation in this country ......