WaPo On DDT

Here's the Washington Post article on the decision by the World Health Organization to endorse the residual spraying of DDT indoors in an effort to control mosquitoes - and save about a million lives a year. It has a bit more detail that the article I linked yesterday about this.

"Indoor residual spraying with DDT and other insecticides will again play a major role in [WHO's] efforts to fight the disease." Arata Kochi, director of the organization's malaria department, said at a news conference in Washington. "WHO will use every possible and safe method to control malaria."

The endorsement is only for once- or twice-yearly spraying of the pesticide on the inside walls of dwellings, especially mud and thatched huts. Used that way, DDT functions as both an insect repellent and — when a blood-engorged female mosquito lands on the wall to digest its meal — an insecticide.

One application costs about $5. Most of that cost is labor, as it is sprayed on by professional applicators, and each packet of the pesticide must be strictly accounted for.

About 1 million people die each year of malaria, most of them African children under age 5.

WHO expects opposition to the policy change from some environmental groups. Kochi appealed directly to them in his announcement.

"I am here today to ask you, please help save African babies as you are helping to save the environment. African babies do not have a powerful movement . . . to champion their well-being," he said.

Expect some to persist in screaming about this, no matter what. This decision is 30 years and 30 million deaths too late.