8 May 2009
Addis Abeba — The United Nations announced a plan on Wednesday to rid the world by around 2020 of DDT, an outlawed toxic crop pesticide still used to spray homes to fight malaria-spreading mosquitoes.
Ten projects would be set up involving 40 nations in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Central Asia to fight malaria without DDT or other chemicals after a pilot project in Mexico and Central America successfully cut malaria rates.
"The aim ... is to achieve a 30 percent cut in the application of DDT worldwide by 2014 and its total phase-out by the early 2020s if not sooner," the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement sent to The Daily Monitor.
They said the goals, in partnership with the Global Environmental Facility with $40 million of funds, would have to be reached while maintaining WHO goals for curbing malaria, which kills 880,000 people a year.
DDT is one of a "Dirty Dozen" chemicals banned by a U.N. 2001 Convention after it was found to be a toxin that can suppress the immune system. It is infamous for threatening bird populations by thinning eggshells.
But exemptions have been allowed in many developing nations because it so effective in killing mosquitoes. DDT's Swiss inventor Paul Hermann Muller won the 1948 Nobel Prize for Medicine -- before its wider toxic effects were known.
Developing countries have had an agonising choice between using a known poison to spray their homes or risk greater exposure to malaria.
The five-year projects in Mexico and Central America found that non-DDT measures such as wider use of mosquito screens in homes or draining stagnant pools where mosquito larvae grow helped cut the number of malaria cases by 63 percent.
Other methods included planting mosquito-repelling trees such as neem or oak, better health care or use of fish and bacteria to control mosquitoes and their larvae.
"The new projects underline the determination of the international community to combat malaria while realising a low, indeed zero DDT world," said Achim Steiner, head of UNEP.
The statement said that there was also growing concern that some mosquitoes were gaining resistance to DDT, formally known as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloromethylmethane.
About 150 nations are meeting in Geneva this week to consider adding nine new chemicals to the "Dirty Dozen" list.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 The Daily Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
BY PEACE SHALL Many Be deceived (Daniel 8:25) .
DOES THE TERM PEACEKEEPERS ring a Bell ?
Ask the people in Rwanda (who survived that Peace-keeping) about the UN PEACEKEEPERS .
President Obama’s UNITED NATIONS AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE cut her teeth on the RWANDA MASSACRE….OOOPs!!! She said.
(Here’s a Search Link To Many Witnesses To THE NEW U.N. RICE MONSTER)
[http://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=Susan+Rice+Rwanda&cat=web&pl=ff& language=english]
[This inspiring poem was featuring in the movie “Coach Carter ”]
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate,
Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure.
It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Won’t Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
It’s Not Just In Some Of Us; It’s In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine
We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
- Marianne Williamson -
[NOTE – BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WON’T STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN’T PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children
God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts
Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea,
Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
WAKE UP !!! STAY UP !!!
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com] / [http://alexjonesringtones.net/]
Life Is A Game. Have Fun . Luke 18:17 - Isaiah 11:6
http://arablerural.blogspot.com/ We have a urge to point out to all concern parties of Agriculture sector that there is a bio-chemical farming or Organic and Eco-friendly Farming that can Feed the World and will halve the use of chemical fertilizers and still increase the yield.
We know that there is a shortage of money available to help farmers with fertilizer loans, and we have written to many governments departments in Africa to offer an interest-free fertilizer Credit Fund of US$20 million or more with an L/C of 12 months.
We are offering all of this with a 12-month interest-free Credit Fund of US$20 million. If this is not enough, we can offer US$50 million.
However, there has been extremely little interest in it. We can't understand why.
It is very frustrating as the whole of Africa could eradicate chemical fertilizers this year while increasing crop yield and lowering costs significantly, and fertilizing the soil with an abundance of micro-organisms and minerals. We created the technology for these bio-fertilizers. But there are few officials listening.
On the one hand the governments profess that they want to get away from chemical farming, but at the same time they continue to support the 100% chemical fertilizer companies so much when there is a well-tried and tested 100% organic alternative that will enable them to transform their food production levels and soil fertility at much lower costs.
Chemical Urea, DAP, NPK, etc., are obsolete technology that are doing a disservice to mankind, and they can be replaced totally or not with two 100% organic liquid microbial bio-fertilizers giving higher yields and lower costs, significantly. http://arablerural.blogspot.com/