University of Delaware ITUE

It's Not Easy Being Green (contd.)

Part 3.
On Sunday, 10 December 2000 diplomats and delegates of 120 countries approved a treaty allowing for the continued use of DDT in disease vector control. The delegates decided that DDT is a unique case, and whereas the other eleven environmental pollutants dealt with by the treaty were put on a list to be "prohibited or eliminated", DDT was relegated to a list to be "restricted". Countries wanting to use DDT would need to be listed on a DDT registry, and would be encouraged to develop and implement a plan for future action related to disease control and limiting use of DDT. The treaty also made provisions for an evaluation of the continued need for DDT for disease vector control (on the basis of available scientific, technical, environmental and economic information) at three year intervals.

Use the following questions to guide your preparation for tomorrow:

  1. If you were the minister of public health in a malaria endemic country, what would you recommend for your country's plan for the control and/or eradication of the disease, looking 10 years into the future?

  2. If you were the Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health & Human Services (or his equivalent in another industrialized country), what do you see as your fiscal or moral obligation, if any, to countries in which malaria is endemic?

  3. If you were the Director-General of the World Health Organization, what malaria control strategy would your agency develop and endorse looking ahead 10 years?

  4. If you were in a leadership role of an international environmental group, what action and/or recommendations would you make to the UNEP for future plans with respect to DDT?

  5. If you were a parent of small children in a malaria-endemic country, what recommendations would you make to your country's decision makers?

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"http://www.udel.edu/inst/jun2001/problem1.html"
Last updated June 14, 2001.
© Deb Allen, Univ. of Delaware, 2001; revised by Barb Duch.