Silent Spring

Silent Spring was written by Rachel Carson and published in the spring of 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 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 environment. Silent Spring is credited with the ultimate banning of the pesticide DDT in the United States.

Many blame the banning of DDT throughout the world for a resurgence in malaria, causing the deaths of an estimated 88 million people--90% of whom were pregnant mothers and small children.

A symposium on the book and the topics it raises was held in Philadelphia in August 1984, Silent Spring Revisited , a compilation of papers from the symposium was published in 1987.

The Book's Claims Examined

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 controversial claims was that DDT is a carcinogen. Studies have failed to corraborate a link between DDT and cancer.[1] 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

What else

See also

• Bioaccumulation

External links

• Silent spring studyguide: summary, analysis, historical context
• Gary Kroll, "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring: A Brief History of Ecology as a Subversive Subject"
• New York Times report of chemical industry's campaign July 22, 1962
• Jim Norton, "Silencing Silent Spring