Pesticides such as DDT may pose a danger to humans and animals, but for developing nations that use it to kill mosquitoes and prevent malaria, the negatives don't always outweigh the good DDT can do by saving millions of lives. Giving financial and technical assistance to countries so they can be weaned from substances like DDT will take center stage starting Monday, as negotiators from more than 100 countries resume talks in Bonn on a global treaty to ban DDT and other of the world's deadliest environmental poisons. The chemicals, known as persistent organic pollutants, have been linked to cancer, birth defects and other genetic abnormalities. A total ban on the chemicals worldwide is the only way to keep them out of the earth's environment, because they are passed on soeasily. The next and last round of negotiations is scheduled for South Africa in December, meaning this six-day session is critical in ensuring work on the treaty can be finished.
Leaders hope to have the text of the treaty in shape before the negotiations endSaturday.
Other nations are also expected to start making their commitments known at this meeting. Environmental groups have suggested alternatives to DDT that are also as cheap and have proven successful in experiments in killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes. However, the chemical is still endorsed by the World Health Organization for that use, despite a ban in 34 countries and severe restrictions in 34 others. Some environmental groups have accused countries led by the United States of trying to weaken the treaty's provisions on these byproducts in order to protect industry. The United States insists it has already taken strong measures against all the chemicals onthe list.