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Dominic Lawson spreads DDT ban myth

By tlambert on March 8, 2007.

Alex catches Dominic Lawson spreading the DDT ban myth. Lawson is the brother-in-law of Christopher Monckton who also spead the myth.

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DDT

The WHO themselves say they went through a period from the early 1980s when they did not promote the use of DDT because of mistaken environmental concerns.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/
Monckton may be wrong on climate change but he's in general right on DDT promotion.

In the media release from WHO of 15 Sept 2006 they very clearly state that
'WHO actively promoted indoor residual spraying for malaria control until the early 1980s when increased health and environmental concerns surrounding DDT caused the organization to stop promoting its use and to focus instead on other means of prevention. Extensive research and testing has since demonstrated that well-managed indoor residual spraying programmes using DDT pose no harm to wildlife or to humans'. There are a number of other statements on the who website (which I am having trouble pasting in) where WHO recognises its mistake in this area in not promoting DDT for indoor residual spraying.
Monckton was rather inflammatory in his language on this matter, but the point remains that although DDT was not banned from indoor spraying for mosquitos, its use was so discouraged by WHO and others, that we lost many more lives to malaria than we should have.

"The WHO themselves say they went through a period from the early 1980s when they did not promote the use of DDT because of mistaken environmental concerns."

What do elderly rock groups have to do with it?