The health department has dismissed the shock results of medical research linking DDT insecticide to male fertility problems, apparently on the basis that no population decreases have been noticed in South Africa.
National health department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi was commenting on Wednesday on the recent publication of an internationally peer-reviewed medical health study in the Journal of Andrology, which analysed the sperm and blood of more than 300 young men in Limpopo Province.
The study, led by Professor Tiaan de Jager of the University of Pretoria's school of public health, found "very high levels" of DDT and its breakdown product, DDE, in most of the Limpopo men tested in the two-year sampling study that was still continuing.
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Laboratory analysis showed abnormally low sperm counts, lower semen volumes, slower-moving sperm and fewer viable sperm. The researchers concluded that there was now an "urgent need" for more research on fertility and other types of far-reaching health damage in the South African population.
'It is difficult to believe the outcome' Mngadi's official response, however, was: "It is difficult to believe the outcome of this study as there has been no recorded decrease in populations of various areas in SA and abroad where DDT has been used."
He also cited a statement from the World Health Organisation on September 16 last year which said: "Extensive research has demonstrated that well-managed indoor residual spraying programmes using DDT pose no harm to wildlife or to humans."
Mngadi offered no substantive comment on the methodology or recommendations from the new research, which was published after last year's WHO policy statement.
De Jager declined to comment on Wednesday, but when the findings of his joint study were released two weeks ago, he had said that there was now sufficient evidence for the department of health to be concerned about the health impacts of DDT and to consider moving towards safer methods for malaria control.
'These findings are not only applicable to Limpopo Province'
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