Santo Domingo.- It’s difficult to believe that for the last 20 years 20 tons of DDT is still under illegal storage in cardboard boxes, some even scattered and in plastic bags, right in the heart of the capital. The agent causes acute and chronic toxicity so lethal to humans that its use has long been banned.

The 20.4 tons of  Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is stored in the Tropical Disease Transmission and Contagion Control Center (Cencet), located on Duarte avenue, a highly populated zone.

The DDT doesn’t decompose and its incorrect usage “causes the chemical to disperse with pollution hazards and impact on the health of persons and community surroundings,” states the National Plan to Implement the Stockholm Agreement on Persistent Organic Pollutants (COPs), drafted by the Environment Ministry with the United Nations support  .

This Public Health Ministry imported the toxin from Indonesia in 1989 and was stored since, as its use was banned by decree in 1991, for its confirmed damages to humans such as tongue, lips and hip paralysis, irritability, tremors and convulsions, as well as its dangerous accumulation in breast milk.

A few months ago the environmental authorities established that its safe storage would cost RD$63,000, but has yet to take place, despite its known peril for underground water sources, humans and birds.

SOURCE: hoy.com.do