RACHEL CARSON'S DEAD, BUT THERE'S NO REASON FOR MILLIONS OF AFRICANS TO BE:

U.S. takes new view on DDT in Africa (Joyce Howard Price, May 3, 2006, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

U.S. government officials are enthusiastically endorsing and funding the use of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa after years of resisting calls from scientists who said the insecticide would be the best weapon for fighting malaria, despite lingering objections by some environmentalists.

"We're really pretty aggressive" about supporting DDT use against the mosquitoes that spread malaria, said Michael Miller, deputy assistant administrator of the Bureau of Global Health for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Added Richard Green, director of the Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition in USAID's global health bureau: "We think DDT is an excellent insecticide and that, in some circumstances, it has some advantages over some other insecticides that are available."

The insecticide credited with eliminating malaria in the Western world years ago was outlawed in the United States in 1972 and is banned in most countries because of environmental concerns and unsubstantiated fears it can harm humans.

Who gets to break it to Captain Ozone.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2006 12:00 AM