DDT: Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane

DDT is a white powder with only a slight odor. It is a nervous system poison that is quite specific to insects. It has low mammalian toxicity, is relatively affordable even for poor countries, and was used successfully to control malaria. But it was also used to control agricultural pests as well as other disease-carrying insects. The World Health Organization credits DDT with saving 50,000,000 lives. Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' began the massive propaganda campaign for banning the use of DDT. This was a major attack on efforts to control and eradicate malaria, which causes or contributes to 3 million deaths and up to 500 million acute clinical cases each year. Malaria is returning to areas from which it had been eradicated, and spreading into new areas. Like with other insecticides, physiologically resistant mosquitos developed, limiting the usefulness of DDT in those areas. And for outdoor malaria control there are now highly effective biological larvicides for larval mosquito control available. But the issue remains: "Certain countries with high morbidity and mortality rates from malaria have trouble affording high-tech medical treatments or the latest insecticides. If DDT is effective for use against vectors in these regions it should be used to prevent premature death and disability."