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Strategies & Market Trends : Africa and its Issues- Why Have We Ignored Africa? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (487)	12/17/2005 6:44:42 PM
From: S. maltophilia	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1267

There are several dozen countries in Africa. Each makes its own laws and can use or not use any insecticide they please. DDT is cheap and there are plenty of places they can buy it from (mostly U.S. sources) if they don't want to make it themselves.They've told the World Bank to f*** off before and they can do it again. Or maybe this is why: Anti-androgenic effects One of the most significant new findings to have been published in the field of oestrogenic toxicity published in June 1995 (Kelce et al., 1995). This work revealed that the DDT metabolite p, p'-DDE was capable of blocking the action of androgens (the male hormones) in male rats. As the authors report: "the major and persistent DDT metabolite, p, p'-DDE, has little ability to bind the oestrogen receptor, but inhibits androgen binding to the androgen receptor, androgen-induced transcriptional activity, and androgen action in developing, pubertal and adult male rats. The results suggest that abnormalities in male sex development induced by p, p'-DDE and related environmental chemicals may be mediated at the level of the androgen receptor" (Kelce et al., 1995) - or in other words, the p, p'-DDE switches off all the 'maleness' signals in these rats A significant point about these results is that oestradiol normally has the same effect - this is just another way in which this chemical, and potentially other oestrogens, is imitating oestradiol. The concentrations of DDE at which effects were observed were as low as 0.2 micromolar, or 63.6 ppb, which is lower than the 140 ppb found in people living in DDT-treated dwellings (Kelce et al., 1995). Male alligators in Lake Apopka in Florida contain high levels of p, p'-DDE and have abnormally small penises and other reproductive disorders (Sharpe, 1995). It is also known that p, p'-DDE can cross the placenta to the developing foetus, leading the authors to conclude: "The above reports suggest that p, p'-DDE crosses the placenta to the developing human foetus and can reach levels known to inhibit human androgen receptor transcriptional activity in vitro and to induce antiandrogenic effects in rats in vivo. Taken together, these results suggest that the reported increased incidence of developmental male reproductive system abnormalities in wildlife and humans may reflect antiandrogenic activity of the persistent DDT metabolite, p, p'-DDE " (Kelce et al., 1995) For more information on the effects of organochlorine pesticides on male reproductive health, there is a large review by Toppari et al (1996). website.lineone.net