Who Approves Ddt Spraying For Malaria.

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Last Update: Saturday, September 16, 2006. 6:48am (AEST)

WHO approves DDT spraying for malaria

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved the insecticide DDT for use indoors to fight malaria.

WHO malaria department director Arata Kochi says indoor residual house spraying is one of the best tools for fighting malaria, and DDT is the most effective of the 12 pesticides WHO has approved as safe for house spraying.

Indoor spraying with DDT costs about $5 per house.

Malaria kills about one million people annually, mostly children under five.

At a news conference, global health officials have said that in parts of Africa and Asia where malaria-carrying mosquitoes spread the disease, 85 per cent of people approached by health workers allow their houses to be sprayed.

DDT came into common use in the 1930s as an agricultural insecticide.

It became notorious after biologist and ecologist Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring exposed how DDT entered the food chain, killing wildlife and threatening humans.

In 1969, the National Cancer Institute announced findings that DDT could cause cancer, and a United States federal ban was imposed in 1972.

'Negligible' danger

Africa Fighting Malaria director Richard Tren has stressed the difference between agricultural DDT sprayed outdoors and the residual spraying, which is meant to act like a giant mosquito net over individual houses.

"The environmental impact associated with spraying insecticides - whether it's DDT or other insecticides - indoors is minimal, it's negligible," he said.

"This is as unrelated to Silent Spring as anything.

"The science is very clear that there are no harmful human effects."

He says environmental groups in Africa support its use.

In Washington, the director of the Sierra Club's environmental quality program, Ed Hopkins, has given muted backing to the plan.

"Reluctantly, we do support it," he said.

"Malaria kills millions of people and when there are no other alternatives to indoor use of DDT, and where that use will be well-monitored and controlled, we support it."

Mr Hopkins says there is a need for safer alternatives to DDT, "because DDT is not a silver bullet to solve this problem".

- Reuters