WHO IS PREVENTING DDT USE?
Despite the cost in human lives, many groups stubbornly defend the ban. While the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, and UNICEF have recommended continued DDT use, influential organizations such as the Norwegian Development Agency, the Swedish International Development Agency, the Swedish Aid Agency, and USAID — the sorts of groups from whom some poor nations such as Belize, Mozambique, and Madagascar receive the majority of their public health money — continue to insist that DDT be left out of malaria-control efforts. Countries have found themselves faced with malaria upsurges due to pressure from such international aid organizations to avoid DDT use, according to a report in the March 11, 2000 British Medical Journal. The use of DDT in Mozambique, noted the Journal, “was stopped several decades ago, because 80% of the country’s health budget came from donor funds, and donors refused to allow the use of DDT.” The WHO estimates that malathion, the cheapest alt
