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We were well on our way to wiping out malaria until DDT was banned. Millions of people have died due to that decision.


The argument is that DDT causes at least as many deaths as malaria and loads of collateral damage in the ecosystem. There are significant advances on the horizon that look to be the solution to malaria.


malaria is particularly widespread, so some pretty strong evidence would be required to establish that DDT killed more people than malaria.


DDT is still used for mosquito control.


> We were well on our way to wiping out malaria until DDT was banned.

Wrong:

1. Mosquitoes were becoming DDT-resistant. A lot of them still are.

2. DDT is still used in some places, most notably the ones where malaria is still a problem.

3. Mosquito netting is still a big lifesaver in the regions DDT is still used. Why, if DDT works so well, would we need the massive mosquito netting drives?

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3186

http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2005/01/24/ddt/

> DDT is banned from agricultural use (and rightly so because of environmental damage) but can still be used for disease prevention. JTFCSS pretends that there is a ban so they can hang malaria deaths around the neck of environmentalists.

[snip]

> Yes, the mosquitoes in Sri Lanka have evolved resistance to DDT. It doesn’t work any more. In fact, that is the reason why they stopped using DDT in Sri Lanka. It wasn’t because of any ban—it was because it stopped being effective.




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