Africa Fighting Malaria Apparently we no longer live in a world that values technological advancement. Canadian Environmental Commissioner, Gord Miller, recently stated, “[Neonicotinoids are] the biggest threat to the structure and integrity of the ecosystem that I have encountered in my life… Bigger than DDT”. Neonicotinoids are a remarkable and desperately needed kind of insecticide. Miller bases his mistrust of neonicotinoids on an unfounded fear that they are responsible for the collapse of some bee colonies. In 1948 Paul Muller, the scientist who synthesised DDT, was awarded the Nobel Prize. DDT saved countless millions of lives from malaria, lice-borne typhus, yellow fever and other diseases. In addition to its use in public health programmes, DDT was also used in agriculture to protect crops from pests and increase food production, thereby ensuring millions of people had more to eat at a lower cost. Read more.
