Latest DDT Stories

Contrary to a widespread assumption, global warming is unlikely to expand the range of malaria because of malaria control, development and other factors that are at work to corral the disease.So concludes a team of scientists including two University of Florida researchers in a paper appearing in the May 20 issue of the journal Nature.Scientists and public policy makers have been concerned that warming temperatures would create conditions that would either push malaria into new areas or make...

Twitter, Online Video Stream Helping More Fans Worldwide Follow Mating Progress HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Although the Peregrine falcons that have nested atop Harrisburg's Rachel Carson State Office Building for most of the past decade aren't known for "tweeting," fans of the pair will be able to follow their story this year on Twitter. Use of the popular social networking site is in addition to the annual online video stream that went live today on the Department...

Babies born 5-9 years after official records showed mothers exposed to DDT sprayingWomen who lived in villages sprayed with DDT to reduce malaria gave birth to 33 per cent more baby boys with urogenital birth defects (UGBD) between 2004 and 2006 than women in unsprayed villages, according to research published online by the UK-based urology journal BJUI.And women who stayed at home in sprayed villages, rather than being a student or working, had 41 per cent more baby boys with UGBDs, such as...

Researchers have reported that the melting Alpine glaciers are letting off harmful pollutants once captured by the ice, which could result in a "dire environmental impact" for the region.In a study of sediment from an Alpine lake, Swiss researchers found trace amounts of now banned chemicals such as dioxins and pesticides like DDT."We can confirm with the help of these layers that, in the 1960s and 1970s, POPs (Persistant Organic Pollutants) were produced in great quantities...

Pollutant plumes observed in the United States can be attributed unambiguously to Asian sources based on meteorological and chemical analyses, researchers say. Charles Kolb -- president of Aerodyne Research Inc. and chairman of the committee that wrote the report on air pollution by the National Research Council -- said the report examines four types of air pollutants: ozone; particulate matter such as dust, sulfates, or soot; mercury; and persistent organic pollutants such as DDT. The...

A U.S. study has found the use of insecticide-treated bed nets can substantially reduce the number of malaria-caused infant deaths. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said such treated bed nets were given to nearly 18,000 mothers at prenatal clinics in Democratic Republic of Congo. The study determined the nets prevented an estimated 414 infant deaths from malaria. In addition, the researchers said, the intervention prevented an estimated 587 low birth weight...

Native plant life is growing in a wetland reclamation near Los Angeles that organizers say they hope will also attract invertebrates, rare birds and fishes. For the first time in a century, salt water from the Pacific Ocean is pouring into 67-acre Brookhurst marsh in coastal Huntington Beach, Calif., replenishing an area that was barren much of the 20th century due to a levee that was recently breached. Opening Huntington Beach wetlands to full tidal flow is the single most critical step in...

 People with Parkinson's disease have significantly higher blood levels of a particular pesticide than healthy people or those with Alzheimer's disease, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.In a study appearing in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, researchers found the pesticide beta-HCH (hexachlorocyclohexane) in 76 percent of people with Parkinson's, compared with 40 percent of healthy controls and 30 percent of those with Alzheimer's.The finding might...

U.S. scientists say they have discovered marine mammals are being exposed to a cocktail of pesticides, as well as new contaminants. In what's called the most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals' brains, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute scientists found the animals are exposed pesticides such as DDT and PCBs, as well as contaminants such as brominated flame retardants. Eric Montie, lead author of the study, performed the research in collaboration with Mark Hahn and Chris Reddy...

 A panel of experts and citizens convened to review recent studies on the link between DDT and human health expressed concern that the current practice of spraying the pesticide indoors to fight malaria is leading to unprecedented - and insufficiently monitored - levels of exposure to it.Although DDT has been largely abandoned as an agricultural pesticide worldwide, its use to combat malaria was endorsed in 2006 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and by officials in the President's...