VOA慢速英语20060920a

HEALTH REPORT - W.H.O. Calls for Indoor Use of DDT to Control MalariaBy Caty Weaver²

Broadcast: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.


A specialist in protective clothes sprays DDT

The World Health Organization now supports the use of DDT in homes to control malaria¹. The agency supported indoor spraying with DDT and other insect poisons until the early nineteen eighties. It stopped as health and environmental concerns about DDT increased.

But last Friday, an assistant director-general of the United Nations agency announced a policy change. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah said indoor spraying is useful to quickly reduce the number of infections caused by malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Doctor Asamoa-Baah said DDT presents no health risk when used correctly.

The W.H.O. says it supports indoor spraying in areas with high malaria rates, including throughout Africa. But its malaria program director, Arata Kochi, says DDT should be used only inside houses and huts, not outside and not for agriculture use.

In the nineteen forties DDT was found to be an excellent way to control insects. It cost little to produce and was not found to harm humans. So it was widely used for people and crops.

But in the sixties, environmentalist Rachel Carson and her book Silent Spring led to a movement to ban it. The United States did just that in the nineteen seventies.

Rachel Carson warned that DDT stayed in the environment for many years. She also warned that it thinned the shells of unborn birds and caused health problems for other animals.

Yet the rise of malaria has led some environmental groups to change their thinking. The group Environmental Defense³, which led the anti-DDT movement, now supports indoor use to control malaria.

The W.H.O. says malaria sickens five hundred million people and results in more than one million deaths every year. Each day, an estimated three thousand babies and young children die from it. The large majority of deaths are in Africa south of the Sahara.

But many critics of DDT worry it will not be used with great care. University of Illinois scientist May Berenbaum argues that DDT is not as effective as people might think. Writing in the Washington Post, she noted⁴ that some African mosquitoes developed resistance to it. She says DDT should be only one tool among many for insect control.

The W.H.O. supports other interventions⁵ as well. But it says India sharply⁶ cut malaria rates in the past with indoor use of DDT. And ten countries in southern Africa are currently⁷ using it for malaria control.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. For more reports go to www.unsv.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

2 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

3 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

6 sharply   

adj.锐利地，急速；adv.严厉地，鲜明地

参考例句：

• The plane dived sharply and rose again.飞机猛然俯冲而后又拉了起来。
• Demand for personal computers has risen sharply.对个人电脑的需求急剧增长。

7 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。