Mid-Week Rant

Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa.

Each year, there are approximately 515 million cases of malaria, killing between one and three million people, the majority of whom are young children in Sub-Saharan Africa.[1] Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, but is also a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development.
Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public health problem. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Only four types of the plasmodium parasite can infect humans; the most serious forms of the disease are caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, but other related species (Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae) can also affect humans. This group of human-pathogenic Plasmodium species is usually referred to as malaria parasites.

Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is the practice of spraying insecticides on the interior walls of homes in malaria effected areas. After feeding, many mosquito species rest on a nearby surface while digesting the bloodmeal, so if the walls of dwellings have been coated with insecticides, the resting mosquitos will be killed before they can bite another victim, transferring the malaria parasite.
The first and historically the most popular insecticide used for IRS is DDT. And that's where the rant comes in. DDT was first synthesized in 1874 and rediscovered in 1939. DDT kills the insects that carry infectious disease, such as, the plague, typhus, yellow fever, and malaria. With the use of DDT malaria was eradicated from developed countries by 1967. Asia and Latin America was also all but freed from the disease.

But the book "Silent Spring" published in 1962 started a turning point in the war agianst malaria. It was an elarmist book that started the age of extreme environmentalism. Eventually DDT was banned by the EPA in 1972. Although not banned in other countries the US does not finance the global use of DDT, in effect instituting a world wide ban. This continuing ban is responsible for between 1-3 million deaths every year and infects up to 500,000,000 people every year.

How can environmentalists claim they are helping people by helping the environment when they are responsible for tens of millions of deaths since the ban of DDT? The science behind the ban of DDT by environmentalists is junk science and deserves a quick death.