DDT Not Harmful to Humans, Government Should Promote Its Use To Control Malaria, Study Says

The pesticide DDT is harmless to humans at low levels, and the Ugandan government should promote the use and benefits of the pesticide to control malaria and facilitate more research into the chemical, according to a study released this week by Ugandan researchers, Xinhua/People's Daily reports. The study, led by Gabriel Bimenya -- a lecturer at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda -- found no link between DDT and such conditions as impotence, infertility, neurological damage, congenital abnormalities and cancer. Instead, the study found high levels of productivity in parts of the Kisoro and Kanungu districts where a World Health Organization malaria control team conducted DDT spraying about 45 years ago. The study also found that malaria kills about 400 Ugandans, primarily children and pregnant women, daily. The study was conducted from May 2005 to August 2005 (Xinhua/People's Daily, 11/4). Ugandan Agriculture Minister Janat Mukwaya last month told a parliamentary committee on agriculture that the country is facing a dilemma about whether to refrain from using DDT to control malaria -- thereby losing more lives to the disease -- or continue using the pesticide and potentially lose its international market for agricultural products (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 10/17). The European Union earlier this year issued a warning to Uganda that its produce and flora exports to EU nations might suffer if the country implements a malaria control strategy employing DDT (GlobalHealthReporting.org, 9/29).