DEBUNKED DDT "EXPERT" ATTEMPTS DEBUNKING

Apparently thinking he could prompt Tim Lambert to address at least some of his numerous DDT misrepresentations, John Baltutis poses the following question:

Any comment on DDT "Expert" Debunked?

Rather than justify or correct his past DDT postings Lambert instead goes on the offensive by attacking the source of information for my debunking, Nature Medicine's senior news editor Apoorva Mandavilli:

The [DDT ban] myth just will not die. Apoorva Mandavilli even manages to contradict herself in the article, with this:

On 2 May, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), arguably the most powerful donor agency in the world, endorsed the indoor spraying of DDT for malaria control. The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to follow. In its new guidelines, a final version of which is expected to be released later this summer, the WHO is unequivocal in its recommendation of DDT for indoor residual spraying.

and this:

The WHO recommends 12 insecticides including DDT--which is an organochlorine--six pyrethroids, three organophosphates and two carbamates.

Oh look, the WHO already recommends DDT.

This is, of course, another Lambert misrepresentation. He has isolated the excerpts from context, stitching them together to make it seem there's a contradiction where none exists. He has done that because he know's it impossible for readers to view the excerpts in context: the link he provides is to Nature's subscription page, not to Mandavilli's article.

To put things in perspective here's more from Mandavilli's article (subscription required, no link):

The WHO supported the use of bednets dipped in insecticide over indoor spraying, even though malaria rates continued to increase. DDT was "further ignored and intentionally or unintentionally suppressed," by these agencies, says Kochi.

"People are very emotional about DDT, even within the WHO," Kochi says, adding that much of the reaction to DDT was a response to political pressure. Since his arrival at the agency in late 2005, he has pushed for the return of indoor spraying not just to Africa, but wherever malaria continues to be a problem.

Sure DDT is on the list of insecticides recommended for indoor residual spraying; that doesn't mean the WHO recommended or encouraged DDT use. Hell, even Dr. Arata Kochi, the new chief of the World Health Organization's anti-malaria program, says DDT use was suppressed.

A lot of the political pressure Kochi mentions came from supposedly knowledgable people like Lambert – he is hosted by Scienceblogs.com – who have continually manipulated the truth about DDT and its use. Lambert's DDT posts are about political points scoring, not about the truth – so what if a few million Africans die as a result?

Despite the importance of DDT to the anti-malaria effort there's little chance Lambert will respond to any of this; at the moment he's too busy attacking Glenn Reynolds in hope of generating an Instalanche. And Patterico is also still giving him grief.