why haven't we banned ddt as yet. There are reasons enough to do so. Therefore, it is indeed surprising that the 115 nations that sat down to negotiate a ban on pesticides failed to ban ddt (dichloro diphynel trichloroethane). Perhaps, it is because ddt is used to fight malaria, a poor man's disease. Does this reflect a lack of concern on the part of the rich for the poor? Should the poor be only given cheap, but dangerous, alternatives in life?

Health, as stated by the World Health Organisation ( who ), is "not merely an absence of disease but a complete physical, social and political well-being'. It is the physical and social well-being which ddt is directly going to affect, the reason why it has fallen out of favour in many countries across the world.

Classified as a "solid organochlorine insecticide' and a persistent organic pollutant because of its non-biodegradable properties, ddt concentrates in the fat tissues of the body from where it is slowly metabolised. Although the body slowly detoxifies and excretes them to the intestines, it gets reabsorbed because through enterohepatic circulation