A Principled Stand

Fire of Liberty
Well it seems that the Kill Malarial Mosquitoes Now coalition's call for the use of DDT in the fight against malaria in Africa has garnered the support Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS). Just look what the Wall Street Journal had to say today about the good Senator:

Thanks to Senator Sam Brownback, among others, that could change. The Kansas Republican has been fighting to include language in an appropriations bill that would force the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) to spend more money on the spraying of DDT. In 2004, less than 10% of AID's budget was spent on insecticides and drugs in undeveloped countries affected by malaria.

The balance went toward so-called "technical assistance." Some of this assistance -- educating doctors, teaching government officials how to seek more aid -- is certainly legitimate. But mostly it means paying Westerners to drive around in 4x4's to conferences giving advice that's often lousy. In Zambia, a private-sector initiative used DDT spraying to cut malaria incidence in half in several villages, yet AID has been encouraging the country to use less-effective bednets instead.

Before granting the agency another $100 million or so for its 2006 malaria budget, Mr. Brownback wants assurances that AID will spend U.S. tax dollars on what works. We know DDT works because it's how Europe and North America successfully eradicated malaria in the 1940s. And it's how Greece and Sri Lanka and parts of South Africa combated the epidemic in later decades.

The perception -- going back to Rachel Carson -- that DDT spraying is dangerous has long since been debunked. An Environmental Protection Agency hearing as long ago as 1972 concluded that "DDT is not carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic to man" and that "these uses of DDT [to fight malaria] do not have a deleterious effect on fish, birds, wildlife, or estuarine organisms."

Let's just hope that more people in the Senate and House follow the lead of Senator Brownback in his efforts to support a practical solution to one of the greatest kills in Africa.