British American Tobacco sparks malaria row

CIGARETTE giant British American Tobacco is leading a campaign to stop Uganda from joining one of Africa’s most lauded efforts to date to control the blight of malaria.

Uganda has more than 12 million cases of malaria every year, killing 110,000 people, mostly children and pregnant women, and, encouraged by the success of other African countries in controlling malaria, the Ugandan government is preparing to spray the walls of homes with a weak solution of DDT to kill the disease-carrying anopheles mosquitoes.
Yet BAT, in a coalition with many other corporations in Uganda, has called for a delay to the spraying programme, warning that the use of DDT could threaten lucrative exports of tobacco, coffee, cut flowers and other agricultural products.
The group says exports worth more than $400 million and 600,000 Ugandan jobs could be lost if DDT is found to contaminate the export crops. The companies have urged the Kampala government to carry out further studies on the use of DDT and to use of alternative methods, although they have been found to be ineffective against malaria in other African countries.
The controversial DDT has recently been endorsed by the World Health Organisation and other major public health groups as an effective and safe chemical to use against malaria.
Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, called BAT “hypocritical and callous” for its stand in Uganda. “It is unbelievable that a company like BAT, which sells products known to cause cancer, would oppose DDT. Decades of evidence have proved it can save millions of lives.”
Malaria kills one African child every 30 seconds.

Andrew Meldrum