Thursday, May 3, 2007

Issue 16: Should DDT Be Banned Worldwide?

Issue 16

Should DDT be Banned Worldwide?

Authors: Anne Platt McFinn and Donald R. Roberts

1. (2pts) Definitions. List the important new terms and concepts used by the author. Define terms with which you were not familiar. Circle those that you think need clarification and discussion. Minimum 4.

a. malaria – caused by a parasite in the genus Plasmodium. Spread through mosquitoes. No known medical cure to it, so the method has been to kill the mosquitoes. Between one and three million people die of malaria annually, which rivals AIDS (at 3 million per year). It is currently growing in strength and expanding in regions. Destroys blood cells during reproduction within the body, eventually killing the host.

b. DDT – dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane. It is no longer used or made in most of the world as it was banned at the 2001 Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). It remains the most frequently found pesticide in nursing mothers, however.

รง. bioaccumulation – when a pesticide accumulates in the body’s fat deposits. This means that at the top of the food chain, the concentration of DDT is higher than in lower animals.

d. persistent pesticide -

2. (4pts) Summary. In your own words, summarize the themes and key points developed in this chapter, article, or section of an assigned book. Write as if you were the author telling another educated person what you were trying to say in the assigned piece. In this section, do not give your opinion. Present the arguments and themes of the assigned author.

DDT was first created in 1874 by Paul Mueller, who noticed the insecticide properties of the substance. DDT ended up being used during World War II to end a typhus epidemic and was used against mosquitoes to combat malaria, a disease that killed 120,000 in the U.S. in 1934 and only 72 in 1960.

It certainly seemed to be a wonder chemical that would rid us of insect carried diseases. However, Rachel Carson’s famous book, Silent Spring, exposed the fact that DDT accumulated in the food chain higher up, affecting adversely many animals.

Anne Platt McGinn, a research at the Worldwatch Institute, represents the belief that DDT should be banned for worldwide use, although perhaps retained for emergency situations. She believes there are other methods that are more effective and less detrimental to the environment and life forms.

In South Africa in 1996, they switched fm DDT to a less persistent group of pesticides. But then had an outbreak of malaria of proportion not seen in a decade. They had to return to DDT use.

Most of Africa never signed the treaty to ban DDT. For good reason, malaria accounts for 30% of infant mortality. However, the main usage of DDT is for agricultural and insecticide use. As a result, some mosquitoes are resistant to DDT.

By using bednets, malaria cases can be reduced. The species of mosquito commonly linked to malaria, Anopheles, generally feeds in the evening and night. So, McGinn proposes: (1) remove taxes and tariffs from bednets and antimalarial drugs, (2) remove mosquito nesting grounds, (3) utilize the local healthcare program to educate their patients, and (4) assume or accept that malaria is an interconnected issue, crossing through social, economic, environmental, agricultural, and urban planning problem. (p. 289)

McGinn ends with a posed question, “In order to control a disease, why should we poison our soils, our waters, and ourselves?” (p. 289)

Donald R. Roberts, a professor, argues that DDT hazards have been misrepresented and hoaxed up by environmentalists. He believes that the harm caused by malaria outweighs the risks of DDT.

The misleading science, he claims, is just an expression of environmentalist ideology that “seek[s] to stop production and use of specific man-made chemicals.” (p. 293) But science has refuted all these environmentalist claims of DDT harm.

1. Species did not go extinct and DDT levels declined after its use halted.

2. DDT does not cause the death of algae at concentrations of 500 parts per billion, as DDT can only reach a concentration in water of 1.2 parts per billion.

3. DDT has no effect on bird numbers, as the populations have increased before and after DDT was de-listed for use.

4. Despite high concentrations of DDT, there is no evidence linking DDT to the death of any sea lions. In fact, the population of sea lions has increased over the past decades, including the time in which DDT was on the market.

He says that as there is evidence that any of the theoretical models predicting doom from DDT were true, and it has not killed off life forms from bioaccumulation, DDT should be released from the ban. It would also help African countries as well, whose agricultural products are banned by the EU from import, because of their use of DDT.

3. (3pts) Creative Reaction and Integration. Record some of your own ideas that came to you as you were reading and thinking about the issue or issues the author is discussing. Formulate these in well-written sentences, develop them as best you can, and relate them to the author’s discussion and possibly to other readings and course themes.

Dr. Roberts seems to be glossing over the data some in order to get to his goal. But the biggest question this article is asking is, “What is more important? Human lives? Or environmental factors?”

4. (2pts) Opinion – Not graded, 2 points awarded if completed.

We get vaccinated before we go to Africa, I don’t understand why the vaccine is not shared with other countries, or why it is not effective.