Wobbelle
most targeted insects (eg mosquitoes) had become resistant to DDT. By that stage, DDT was killing more innocent wildlife than it was malarial mosquitoes.
Not true. Read the link at the end.
I lived in a South West Pacific country, where malaria was endemic. Because of regular fogging with DDT in town and most accessible village areas, as well as spraying of houses internally and externally with the chemical, the rate of malarial infection was declining. The only animal life that I heard of being affected by the chemical were geckos and the odd puss cat, that happened to catch a bit of the spray or had been deliberately sprayed by the locals carrying out the spraying.
In about 1984, just before I left the country after almost fifteen years, WHO banned the use of DDT to control the mosquitoes that transmitted the parasite. WHO personnel in the country told me that the move was utter madness and that over time malaria would again become a major problem in the country. I visited the area in 1992 and was advised by expatriates, who had lived in the country for 30 years and who not used anti malarial medication for most of the time but now were, to take anti-malarial medications as the disease was now running rampant and was a more virulent strain than previously experienced. Incidentally, in 2006 WHO recommended that DDT be reintroduced in countries to control the Anopheles mosquitoes.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2006/pr50/en/
As far as I am aware, DDT was banned only in the USA in 1972. Eventually the product was banned in most countries.
Here is another article you might be interested in Wobblyone.
https://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/articles/summ02/DDT.html
