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Mexico Puts Down DDT Sprayers MONTREAL, Canada, March 26, 2002 (ENS) - Mexico has been successful in reducing use of the persistent organic pollutant DDT by 80 percent under a side agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Janine Ferretti, executive director of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), told a meeting of the health and environment ministers of the Americas in Ottawa earlier this month that Mexico's success has encouraged expansion of the program to include Central and South American countries. Created by Canada, Mexico and the United States as part of the environmental side agreement to NAFTA, the Montreal based Commission for Environmental Cooperation promotes the enforcement of environmental law in the NAFTA region. The results achieved by the Mexican government have allowed it to meet its commitment to reduce DDT usage by 80 percent, two years ahead of schedule, Ferretti said. An additional 80 percent reduction in DDT use will be achieved in five years, the CEC estimates. DDT has been of special concern to the United States, Canada and Mexico. The pesticide is highly mobile and tends to travel northward toward colder climates through repeated cycles of evaporation, migration with the winds, condensation and precipitation. DDT is classified as a persistent compound with an acute toxicity that is low for humans and but high for animals. Chronic effects in humans, though, are a serious consideration, due to its possible link to breast cancer and reproductive abnormalities. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is a white, crystalline, tasteless, and almost odorless synthetic pesticide belonging to the family of organic halogen compounds. It was originally produced in 1873, but it was not used until 1939 when Paul Muller of Geigy Pharmaceutical in Switzerland discovered the effectiveness of DDT as an insecticide. Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 1948 for this discovery.
Though DDT was banned in Canada and the U.S. years ago, Mexico continued its use to combat the mosquitoes that carry malaria. Currently DDT use is severely restricted in Mexico and has been registered and approved only for anti-malarial control programs. Working together through the CEC, the three NAFTA countries launched a North American Regional Action Plan in 1997 aimed at phasing out Mexico's use of DDT by 80 percent by 2002. That objective has been met, Ferretti said. Sixty percent of Mexico's territory from sea level up to 1,800 meters, presents favorable conditions for malaria transmission. This includes the Pacific coast, the Gulf of Mexico slopes, the Yucatán peninsula and interior basins of the high plateau. Some 45 million people live in these areas. In the 1940s and 1950s, malaria was one of the main causes of mortality, responsible for an average of 24,000 deaths annually and afflicting an estimated 2.4 million others. In recent years, the incidences of malaria have declined significantly, to less than 5,000 cases, indicating the success of Mexico's malaria control program. Since 1982 there have been no deaths from malaria. The success of the regional action plan against DDT "was due in large measure to Mexico's bold yet prudent leadership in the face of malaria, a major killer in many tropical regions," the commission said. In 1995, Mexico decided that an integrated pest management approach for malaria could substitute for the heavy dependence on pesticides. Improved sanitation, surveillance and minimum use of pesticides to control mosquitoes and larvae are key elements in this new approach. In 1996, the government agency responsible for pesticides implemented a new initiative to control the chemicals throughout their life cycle, and a new Health Law, published in 1997, formalized that approach. The Mexican DDT initiative brought together two communities - the health policy community and the environment community - who share similar concerns but rarely come together to address them, said Ferretti. One objective of the DDT Action Plan is share experiences with other countries in the Americas. The regional perspective arises from the region wide interest in malaria control. North American cooperation has been fundamental for the initiative's success. It was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Canada's International Development Research Centre from the start. The CEC and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) have promoted the establishment of a Regional DDT Program for Mexico and Central America. The Global Environment Facility, the environmental financing branch of the World Bank Group, funded the proposal development phase in 1999 with a US$330,000 grant. Seven countries in the Central American isthmus participated in crafting the three-year cooperative program - Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Belize and Panama - in addition to Mexico, the CEC and PAHO. The objective of this project is to demonstrate that malaria vectors in Mexico and Central America can be cost effectively controlled in an environmentally sound way without the use of DDT. The partnership of the CEC, PAHO, Mexico and the seven Central American countries amounting to US$4 million would leverage another US$7.5 million from GEF, providing the initiative with US$11 million dollars in resources, Ferretti said. This is the first project the GEF has considered to implement the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants signed last year. A decision is expected shortly. Ferretti said this DDT initiative provides valuable lessons about collaboration among international agencies. It is the first time the CEC, PAHO and the United Nations Environment Programme have worked together, pooling expertise and resources to leverage support from GEF. In today's world of limited resources, maximizing the synergies among international agencies is essential to making concrete progress. Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2002. All rights reserved. |
Mexican worker sprays DDT on a ditch where mosquitoes breed. Now DDT has been replaced by improvements in sanitation, increased disease surveillance, and integrated pest management.