To spray or not to spray with DDT to control malaria : a case study in environmental ethics

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This assignment is devoted to an in depth analysis of the pro- and the contra-positionsin the long-standing and costly debate about the question whether to spray with DDTor not in the fight against malaria. I argue that the dilemma whether or not to spraywith DDT is born out of a political agenda, hype, exaggeration and misinformation ofthe first order.Radical environmentalists appear to insist that DDT is a principal contributor ofenvironmental degradation, and the major cause of death amongst wildlife andhumans. Worse still, many Western people seem to be under the impression thatmosquitoes cannot cause so much human misery as purported, and that malaria iscaused by some kind of plant form of life, or even a virus.The proponents of DDT, on the other hand, appear to be convinced that DDT is asaviour of humankind, and argue that the horrors associated with DDT areexaggerated and baseless, as they are not backed by scientific inquiry. Proponents ofDDT also believe that anything that is overused may kill, even ordinary table salt.Inthis assignment, both of these positions are scrutinized. On the basis of an historicaloverview in Chapter I of the history of the use of DDT, and the emergence of thedebate about DDT in the wake of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), Chapter 2 isdevoted to an evaluation of seven basic arguments against the use of DDT, while inChapter 3 six arguments for the use of DDT are weighed. In Chapter 4 a resolution ofthe dilemma is proposed in which a case is made for a limited use of DDT only forindoor spraying of huts and houses against malaria mosquitoes until such time as aless dangerous alternative for DDT is found that can be used as effectively in the fightagainst malaria. As such, this case is informed by the strong moral conviction that wecannot allow poor people of colour to die because of a general ban on the use of DDT.Further research on this ethical debate is encouraged.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University