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[etumukutenyak]

DDT -- once used liberally to control external parasites and indirectly also controlled malaria/other internal parasites, it was banned in the US and other countries. However, many African countries continued to use it despite clear indications that mosquitos developed resistance to it rapidly. Now resistance to DDT is wide-spread in mosquito populations around the world, and malaria is still a problem.

Some anonymous idiot posted on matociquala about the poor African and South American children dying of malaria because we banned DDT. She quite rightly suggested paying for some mosquito netting, as that has been shown to be extremely effective in preventing malarial transmission via mosquito bites. It's cheap, it's effective, and it's a charitable contribution. Now you, too, can help prevent forest fires malaria.

Comments

[etumukutenyak.livejournal.com]

Yes, and the Vietnamese study -- although it did not have blood from the time of exposure -- also followed two different populations of women, with historical exposure to DDT. Even though the only testing of DDT was on current blood samples, the patients were from areas of heavy DDT use. There's more to it than age at exposure, although that -- as for any estrogenic compound -- is going to be extremely important. Look at DES, where age at exposure related to the risk of certain types of cancer.

I'm mostly agreeing with you, and only pointing out that a single study where cancer risk is linked to DDT exposure isn't enough to make people think that DDT is carcinogenic after all. Estrogens and estrogenic compounds are funny things -- Asian diets are high in vegetables, which have a lot of phytoestrogens, and they tend to have low rates heart disease, which is strongly correlated to their diet. Once they move to a Western diet, the rates of heart disease in Asian women climbs to that of Americans. The rate of breast cancer in this population (Asian women on traditional Asian diet) is not as high as that of the American population (on a traditional Western diet). Part of this is the presence of soy isoflavones, or so researchers think. I used to do this research, back in my mis-spent yout'.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I thought about the diet, we ate mostly what was common for the native where we lived, but I didn't realize soy had so much influence.