AFM Bulletin #4: DDT, Malaria Control and Anti-Chemicals Advocacy: A Response to the ‘Pine River Statement’

09 Jun 2023
Africa Fighting Malaria In May 2009, Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) published The Pine River Statement: Human Health Consequences of DDT Use. This Statement, authored by 15 scientists from the US and South Africa, summarizes information on the health risks of DDT use and makes recommendations for public health policy. Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) believes that robust, evidence-based discussion and debate over the role of DDT and other man-made chemicals in malaria control is helpful, especially if such debate could help focus attention on the long-term lack of investment in the search for legitimate replacement chemicals for DDT. However, the Pine River Statement is unlikely to help in this endeavor. History has taught us that the EHP publication will be heavily misused and misinterpreted by UN organizations, public health authorities and by the general public. This paper attempts to put the EHP Statement and the resulting announcements from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) into perspective and calls for a more balanced approach to malaria control that does not embrace the bias of an anti-chemicals agenda.

The full bulletin is available here: https://www.fightingmalaria.org/pdfs/pineriverresponseddt_bulletin4.pdf