AFRICA: Anti-Malaria Mosquito Nets
Canadian Plastics
With dramatic stories of the wars, famines and politi-cal instability that plague many African countries getting the lion's share of attention from TV news shows and newspapers, a relatively silent th...
With dramatic stories of the wars, famines and politi-cal instability that plague many African countries getting the lion’s share of attention from TV news shows and newspapers, a relatively silent threat — malaria-transmitting mosquitoes that kill upwards of one mil-lion people per year — tends to get overlooked.
Until now.
BASF is currently in the process of distributing thousands of its Interceptor insecticide-treated mos-quito nets to small villages in malaria-endemic areas throughout the continent.
Hung around beds at night, the nets use a unique textile-finishing product called Fendozin, which blends a proprietary BASF polymer with Fendona, a fast-acting BASF insecticide that impregnates and clings to the polyester fibers of the netting.
The Fendona insecticide is slowly released from the surface of the coating and rapidly knocks down, kills or repels mosquitoes as they come into contact with the net. The net delivers this protection even after 20 washes.
Another requirement: the nets had to show good tensile strength to withstand extremely high pressure during baling — a process necessary to reduce the volume of the nets during shipment. According to BASF, the nets proved to be successful in a series of tests sponsored by the World Health Organization, an agency that recom-mends impregnated mosquito nets as a tool to battle malaria and which anticipates an annual demand for 60 million nets in the next two to five years.
BASF Canada (Mississauga, Ont.); www.basf.ca;1-866-485-2273