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Amid mounting research on the negative effects of DDT on human health, the United Nations plans to end global use of the toxic chemical by 2020.
Three years after endorsing the use of DDT in poor countries to control malaria, the World Health Organization is reversing its policy. The goal is to completely phase out the use of the toxic pesticide by 2020. Brenda Eskenazi, an epidemiologist at UC Berkeley, tells host Steve Curwood that mounting research on DDT’s negative health effects helped convince public health officials to seek non-chemical alternatives to counter malaria.