Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants

The real bloodsuckers

IPN Opinion article

Author: Kendra Okonski

The Stockholm Convention: Who stands to gain?

IPN Opinion article

Author: Richard Tren

The great success of the global Green movement is in getting all \"right thinking people\" to buy into their ideas and philosophy. It would be hard to find anyone that would question the need to ban dangerous chemicals. And yet few people question the scientific legitimacy of the bans, and even fewer consider the unintended consequences on the health and economic wellbeing of those in the developing world.

DDT still saving lives

IPN Opinion article

The South African Department of Health reintroduced DDT in 2000 and in one year saw an 80 percent reduction in the number of cases. Since then malaria has almost become a rarity for physicians

It is not only in South Africa that DDT is saving lives. Dr. John Goyere from World Health Organization Africa estimates that over 16 million people in seven different African countries, including Ethiopia, Eritrea and Madagascar, are currently protected by the insecticide.

In an exciting example of private provision of public health, the Konkola Copper Mine in Zambia started malaria control in the two towns around its mining operations using DDT. As explained by Dr. Brian Sharp and others in a recent paper in the Journal of Tropical Medicine and International Health, after one spraying round, the number of malaria cases was dramatically reduced.

Deadly Bans

IPN Opinion article

Neo-Malthusian environmentalists pushed for a ban on DDT despite the fact that science didn't support them and that the insecticide saved lives in disease control around the world. Now, the EPA is convinced that the Stockholm Convention will be good for the health of those living in developing countries.

New Study Shows Tragic Consequences of Environmentalists' Campaign to Ban DDT

IPN Opinion article

Press release announcing publication of "Malaria and the DDT Story"