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One of the scourges of the XXI century, malaria is listed among the diseases that are the hardest to fight against. Despite all the concerns regarding the negative effects of DDT on people’s health (Effects of DDT, n. d.), it admittedly helps prevent malaria, which poses a very complicated dilemma for healthcare specialists. On the one hand, as a doubtlessly effective and comparatively cheap pesticide, it should be promoted as one of the key means to prevent malaria in patients. On the other hand, the effects of DDT on most patients are nearly as destructive as malaria itself. Hence the question regarding the legitimacy of the use of DDT as a means to prevent malaria arises (DDT: An introduction, n. d.). Although the powerful impact that DDT has on reducing the number of patients with malaria and the death toll among them is doubtless, it is much more reasonable to rely on traditional prevention methods, which involves the use of pyrethroids, and other insecticides of similar type, as well as long-lasting insecticidal nets (Malaria prevention: Insecticides, 2011). DDT in its turn should not be banned, yet its use should be restricted to the cases when urgent treatment must be provided.
While every single negative effect that DDT has on the people in the vicinity is to be taken into account and considered a separate legitimate statement against the use of DDT, the fact that the insecticide increases the chances for developing breast cancer must be named first. As the recent researches show, “High levels of serum p,p’-DDT predicted a statistically significant 5-fold increased risk of breast cancer among women who were born after 1931” (Cohn, B., Wolff, M., Cirillo, P., & Sholtz, R. (2007), 1406). Though the direct link between DDT and breast cancer has not been found yet, the evidence is rather graphic.
The negative effects of DDT on the human body are not restricted to creating the environment for developing malignant tumors, however. As Salazar-García, Gallardo-Díaz, Cerón-Mireles & Borja-Aburto (2004) explain, reproductive system is also affected greatly. After analyzing the medical record of 2,033 men employed in the antimalaria campaign in Mexico, the researchers came to the conclusion that “of the 9,187 pregnancies evaluated, 8,650 (94.2%) were live births and 118 were stillbirths” (Salazar-García, Gallardo-Díaz, Cerón-Mireles & Borja-Aburto, 2004, p. 545). Moreover, the study mentioned above has also shown rapid growth in the number of spontaneous abortions, which were triggered by a surge of toxicity rates within the area under study.
Therefore, with the application of DDT and DDT-based pesticides for preventing mosquito attacks, not only people’s fecundity but also their heredity is jeopardized. DDT-based insecticides affect people on genetic and biochemical levels, altering their genes and leading to changes in the process of fetal development, as well as affecting the process of delivery. The given feature of DDT and DDT-based pesticides raises a few questions regarding the reasonability of its use as a repellent. Though clearly the superior method of fighting mosquitoes, it causes serious health problems.
When listing the positive effects of DDT, people often mention the fact that most of the arguments against it come as a result of misuse of the given substance. Because of its power, it is provided along with a list of instructions on how to utilize it properly and do one’s best to avoid the damage. Hence, one might make a very slim argument that, with proper precautions taken, people can use DDT as a mosquito repellent and avoid being affected by it. However, when taking a closer look at the way in which DDT works, one will realize that it affects not only insects, but also every single element of both organic and non-organic life. For instance, when sprayed into the air, it finally lands onto the ground and penetrates the soil. Then, DDT reaches the groundwater and, thus, dissolves in the tap water consumed by the people living in the vicinity. Moreover, groundwater being one of the key resources for a number of plants, including both wild and farm-grown ones, DDT alters the quality of food consumed by people on a daily basis. Thus, it is practically impossible to avoid the damage – once the effects of DDT come into force, the latter spread literally everywhere, ruining the delicate balance of elements in the human body and leading to the development of the diseases mentioned above.
More to the point, the harmful effect of DDT on fauna has been detected as well. As the List of actions between 1969–2002 (n. d., p. 3) shows, in 2002, the environmental threats posed by DDT to nature were defined, and yet no actions to solve the issue were taken. DDT affects plants, microorganisms, aquatic invertebrates, terrestrial invertebrates, birds and mammals in a most deplorable way: “Some species, e.g., heron, barn owl, and kingfisher, showed a decline in DDE residues with time” (International programme on chemical safety, n. d., para. 3.2.6).
It should be admitted, though, that the proponents of the use of DDT as the means to fight malaria provides a range of valid arguments in defense of their choice, the primary one being that DDT is, in fact, amazingly efficient. Indeed, according to the latest research conducted on the topic, DDT is efficient in preventing a mosquito attack with P being equal to 0.56 in the houses with metal roofs and 0.045 in the houses with thatched roofs (Tangena, Adiamoh, D’Alessandro, Jarju, Jawara, Jeffries, Malik… Pinder, 2013, Table 1).
According to the history of malaria prevention and treatment, as well as the history of use of DDT for the given purpose, serious concerns regarding the effect that DDT had on people’s health were raised in mid-70s, yet the solution to the given issue has not been found yet. The control over the use of pesticides switched from allowing the use of DDT-containing pesticides to banning anything with the least bit of chlorophenyl chloroethane in it, and these switches were pretty inconsistent. True, the improvement of people’s health status is a noble goal, but when it comes to the cost of increasing the risks of malaria contraction, the situation needs to be taken under control.
Picking one of the two sides of the argument to agree with, one must mention that the idea of prohibiting the use of DDT as mosquito repellent seems to be a legitimate step in solving the problem. Despite its doubtless effects in the fight with mosquitoes, it still brings nearly as much harm as the insects, if not more harm than the threat of malaria does. Comparing the effects of malaria and the ones of DDT on people’s health, one will be able to spot that, in contrast to the disease, DDT affects people genetically, whereas malaria strikes a particular person. Therefore, in some way, DDT is more threatening to people than malaria, no matter how weird it might sound.
Seeing how the need to prohibit DDT from use seems like the next logical step, one must come up with the solution regarding the mosquito repellant problem and the malaria issue. Without DDT, the fight against the disease will take much longer, which means that malaria will take even more human lives. Sadly enough, recent researches show that DDT remains the only insecticide powerful enough to prevent instances of malaria.
As the latest researches say, even nowadays, the solution to the problem is in the process of development, though DDT remains the most powerful insecticide and an extremely hazardous substance. According to the latest research, more attention should be paid to such options as the use of bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (The International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP), 2006, p. 2). At present, though, a sharp control over the areas where DDT is used must be provided together with the application of all possible safety measures to ensure the safety of the people in the area.
Despite its obvious flaws and the threat that it poses to people’s health and the environment, DDT remains the only efficient method of combating malaria. Therefore, it must be used to prevent instances of malaria in the areas where people are endangered. However, to make sure that DDT will not have even more harmful effects on people’s health, it is crucial to supervise the process closely to ensure that all possible precaution measures are being taken. It is also imperative to reconsider the location of crops since groundwater creates the environment in which DDT is spread fast across the area, which adds new chemical constituents to the crops and, thus, alters the food consumed by the local people. Meanwhile, the research on other methods of malaria prevention must be funded so that the substitute for DDT should be found within the shortest amount of time.
Reference List
Cohn, B., Wolff, M., Cirillo, P., & Sholtz, R. (2007). DDT and breast cancer in young women: New data on the significance of age at exposure. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(10), 1406–1414.
DDT: An introduction (n. d.). Web.
Effects of DDT (n. d.). Web.
International programme on chemical safety (n. d.). Web.
List of actions between 1969–2002 (n. d.). Web.
Malaria prevention: Insecticides(2011). Web.
Salazar-García, F., Gallardo-Díaz, E., Cerón-Mireles, P., & Borja-Aburto, V. (2004). Reproductive effects of occupational DDT exposure among male malaria control workers. Environmental Health Perspectives, 112(5), 542-547.
Tangena, J. A. A., Adiamoh, M., D’Alessandro, U., Jarju, L., Jawara, M., Jeffries, D., Malik, N…. Pinder, M. (2013). Alternative treatments for indoor residual spraying for malaria control in a village with pyrethroid- and DDT-resistant vectors in the Gambia.PLoS ONE, 8(9), para. 1–37. Web.
The International POPs Elimination Project (IPEP) (2006). Approaches to effective malaria control that avoid DDT in Kenya: Use of bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTi). Web.
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