Silent Spring

Silent Spring was written by Rachel Carson and published in September, 1962. The book claimed detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically. She proposed instead an alternative biotic approach to pest control.

Many credit the book with launching the environmentalist movement. Prof. Gary Kroll commented, Rachel Carson s Silent Spring played a large role in articulating ecology as a subversive subject — as a perspective that cut against the grain of Economic materialism, scientism, and the technologically engineered control of nature.

When Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read, spending several weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the natural environment. Silent Spring is credited with the ultimate banning of the DDT in the United States.

=Critique of Silent Spring=

The book attracted hostile attention from scientists, commentators and the chemical industry. Opposition began even before Houghton Mifflin published the book. One of Carson s claims cited as controversial was that DDT is a carcinogen. Studies have failed to demonstrate a link between DDT and cancer. On the contrary:

In one study, primates were fed 33,000 times more DDT than the estimated exposure of adult humans in 1969. No conclusive link with cancer was detected. Source: Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology 1999; 125(3-4):219-25

A study of 692 women, half of them control subjects, over a period of twenty years, established no correlation between serum DDE and breast cancer. DDE is a matabolite of DDT, and correlates with DDT exposure. Source: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 1999 June; 8(6):525-32

A study examined 35 workers exposed to 600 times the average DDT exposure levels over a period of 9 to 19 years. No elevated cancer risk was observed. Source: ER Laws, 1967. Archives of Environmental Health 15:766-775

In another study, humans voluntarily ingested 35 mg of DDT daily for about two years, and were then tracked for several years afterward. No elevated risk was observed. Source: Hayes, W. 1956. JAMA 162:890-897

=See also=

Bioaccumulation

DDT

=External links=

*[http://www.bookrags.com/guides/silentspring/ Silent spring studyguide]: summary, analysis, historical context *[http://onlineethics.org/moral/carson/kroll.html Gary Kroll, Rachel Carson s Silent Spring : A Brief History of Ecology as a Subversive Subject ] *[http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Rachel-Carson-Silent-Spring.htm New York Times report of chemical industry s campaign] July 22, 1962 *[http://info-pollution.com/spring.htm Jim Norton, Silencing Silent Spring ] *[http://www.nrdc.org/health/pesticides/hcarson.asp Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): The Story of Silent Spring] — NRDC

=References=

*Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962) *Graham, Frank. Since Silent Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1970)

Lear, Linda. Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997.

*[http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/pbt/ddt.htm United States Environmental Protection Agency. DDT , Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) Chemical Program (May 28 2004)] Retrieved May 30 2005 *[http://www.nsc.org/library/chemical/ddt.htm DDT Chemical Backgrounder , National Safety Council ] Retrieved May 30 2005

Report on Carcinogens , Fifth Edition; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program (1999).