Environmentalist Ideologues to Blame for Malaria Deaths
By Keith Lockitch (Herald Community Newspapers, December 20, 2007)

Dismissing my arguments concerning Rachel Carson, Scott Brinton suggests that insecticide resistance is the primary reason DDT is no longer used for malaria control ("Rolling Back America's Environmental Legacy," Dec. 6, 2007).

It is certainly true that resistance is a factor that public health experts must take into account, and those who argue for DDT do take it into account. But a glib reference to insect resistance does not change the following facts: (1) DDT is still the most effective agent of mosquito control, (2) many countries that depend on funding from U.S. and European aid agencies do not use DDT because those agencies ideologically oppose its use, and as a result, (3) one in 20 children in sub-Saharan Africa die of malaria each year.

I stand by my argument that the toll of preventable human suffering and death wrought by this disease can be blamed on environmentalist ideologues such as Carson.