Posted: Saturday, September 30, 2000
LETTER
Publication Date: September 30, 2000
Sir—D R Roberts in his viewpoint(1) and your July 22 editorial and commentary(2) made abundantly clear the profoundly harmful effects of the restrictions on and banning of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) on public health in the regions least able to tolerate them. The real tragedy is that there is not, and never was, any valid reason for these measures, which have caused so much human suffering. They are the unfortunate legacy of the self-styled environmentalists, whose bible remains Carson's Silent Spring.
Although the similar controversy in less-developed countries over genetically modified (GM) food was alluded to in the editorial, much more needs to be said. Less-developed countries affected by the DDT ban are now threatened with malnutrition and starvation as their populations increase beyond the capacity of traditional agriculture to sustain them. If prosperous, European-based environmental groups have their way, the technology available to feed the starving billions will be fatally impeded by unscientific restrictions and regulations (and resulting hugely inflated development costs), designed solely to further a hidden agenda involving organic foods and self-promotion.
Who will benefit if the means to avert the suffering of so many impoverished humans is sacrificed on the altar of the precautionary principle? While the dangers trumpeted by adherents of the precautionary principle are theoretical, the people who will starve because of frivolous restrictions on life-saving improvements in GM-food production technology will be all too real.
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1 Roberts DR, Manguin S, Mouchet J. DDT house spraying and re-emerging malaria. Lancet 2000; 356: 330-32.
2 Anon. Caution required with the precautionary principle. Lancet 2000; 356: 265.
3 Smith AG. How toxic is DDT? Lancet 2000; 356: 267-68.
Gilbert Ross, M.D., is Medical Director of the American Council on Science and Health in New York.
Source Notes:
THE LANCET * Vol 356
