Scientist: Malaria Rising as DDT Use Falls

W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 22 -- Malaria rates are climbingin poor countries that have stopped using the pesticide DDT tocontrol the deadly disease, a tropical diseases expert warnedTuesday.

Donald Roberts, speaking for a coalition that is promotingDDT as a means of controlling malaria in developing countries,said the chemical was safe if sprayed in small amounts insidehomes to repel mosquitoes that carry the parasite which causesmalaria.

DDT Banned in Many Nations

For many poor nations, DDT is the only affordable way totry to reduce the 500 million malaria infections each year,Roberts said. About 2.5 million people die from malariaannually.

Roberts said malaria was on the rise in Brazil, throughoutAfrica and elsewhere. For example, malaria rates increased 12times in Guyana from 1984 to 1991 after DDT spraying wasreduced, he said.

But industrialized nations and environmental groups havepressured developing countries to stop using DDT. Manycountries banned it in the 1970s after it was linked toenvironmental harm, including danger to birds and otherwildlife.

A pollution reduction treaty expected to be finalized nextmonth may effectively end DDT production, said Roberts, aprofessor of tropical public health at the Uniformed ServicesUniversity of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

Roberts is part of a group called the Save Children fromMalaria Campaign, which includes the Competitive EnterpriseInstitute, a think tank, and other groups in Africa, India andEngland.

Environmental groups denied they were trying to immediatelyban DDT.

“There is broad agreement that DDT should not be bannedglobally until we are absolutely convinced that the countriesthat are using it have affordable, effective alternatives,”said Richard Liroff, director of the World Wildlife Fund’sAlternatives to DDT Project.