World Health Organization endorses controlled use of DDT to fight malaria

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Malaria?

Reversing a 30-year-old policy, the World Health Organization on Friday announced that the pesticide DDT, used indoors in moderation, is critical to fighting malaria, and argued that such use won't harm people or the environment. Applied to the inside walls of dwellings once or twice a year, DDT will join with medications and pesticide-treated bed nets in what officials hope will be an effective malaria-fighting trifecta, particularly in Africa. Widely sprayed on farm fields in the mid-20th century, DDT was banned in much of the world starting in the 1970s after it was found to enter the food chain, killing birds and wildlife and posing a cancer threat to humans. Environmental groups are conflicted about the WHO's announcement -- the Sierra Club voiced "reluctant" support, the Pesticide Action Network expressed concern but said it wouldn't try to block the move, and Beyond Pesticides said it was opposed. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) had no such reservations: "Finally ... we can put to rest the junk science and myths that have provided aid and comfort to the real enemy -- mosquitoes."

straight to the source: USA Today, Associated Press, 15 Sep 2006

straight to the source: The Guardian, Sarah Boseley, 16 Sep 2006

straight to the source: Reuters, Deborah Zabarenko, 15 Sep 2006

straight to the source: BBC News, 15 Sep 2006

straight to the source: The New York Times, Celia W. Dugger, 16 Sep 2006

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Comments: (2 comments)

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new sharks!

The polar bear story fits into a pattern that we are becoming familiar with, regarding the melting of Arctic ice.

But the marine biodiversity story, from waters off western New Guinea, is really exciting.

The new "walking shark," which pushes along the ocean floor on its pectoral fins, first the left, next the right, is a truly beautiful beast.

But no, it is quite undesirable, and would be irresponsible, for anyone to get a salt-water aquarium in order to preserve any of these marvelous critters as their personal captives.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 3:38 PM on 18 Sep 2006

Yes, but..

Caniscandida,

The waters off the Bird's Head Peninsula of West Papua and the Raja Empat islands are truly exciting.

And you're right, the so-called 'walking shark' depicted in the photograph accompanying the BBC and Washington Post stories is a truly beautiful creature as well.

But the shark in the photo is not the new species. Hemiscyllium freycineti, AKA the Raja Epaulette - the ID is helpfully placed right in the photo caption - was actually first discovered in 1824. It's endemic in West Papua region, and it is endangered - it's on the IUCN Red List. See here .

(You know how some journalists are - "Hey, isn't a photo of one epaulette shark just as good as another." And in the greater scheme of things, of course, this may be quite correct.)

The box drawn on the map provided with the BBC story actually shows just the Raja Empat(which means Four Kings) area. R4 consists of four large islands (and many smaller ones) west of the Birdshead Peninsula of West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya). If I'm not mistaken, however, the new epaulette shark and the other new discoveries that are the main subject of this story were actually discovered during a recent CI Rapid Environmental Assessment mission to the Teluk Cendrawasih area, which is northeast of the Birds Head Peninsula.

The MSNBC item, on the other hand, does has a video of the unnamed new shark. It looks a lot like a common H. ocellatum, but its "walking" behavior (shown on the clip) is very odd indeed.

The MSNBC item also includes an excellent, accurate map.

These waters off West Papua, along with a few other locations in East Indonesia, have become the most interesting spots on the planet for me. I'm headed back over October-November.

From a conservationist point of view, it's not just the fact that this area is the global epicentre of marine biodiversity (actually we're talking about the larger Indo-Pacific Coral Triangle as a whole here, not just the waters of West Papua), but the fact that this area may be the the most important evolutionary centre of origin for marine genera and species - where new forms of marine life first step onto the evolutionary stage to radiate outward through oceans all over the world.

Robert Delfs

by Robert Delfs at 8:36 PM on 18 Sep 2006

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