From May 26, 2006
Remembering
Rachel Carson
(Beyond Pesticides, May 26, 2006)
May 27th marks what would have been Rachel Carson’s 99th birthday.
What Rachel Carson noted 44 years ago in Silent Spring holds true today:
"...we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts." (Silent Spring, 1962)
The pesticide-use
rate continues to rise not only in our own country but all over the
world. When Rachel Carson first called attention to the problem in 1962
the U.S. total of pesticide production and use was 637,666,000 pounds.(active
ingredients only). Most recent market estimates indicate U.S use at
over 1.2 billion pounds (figures do not include wood preservatives,
specialty biocides or chlorine hypochlorites). World pesticide amount
used exceeded 5.0 billion pounds in 2000 and 2001. Herbicides accounted
for the largest portion of total use, followed by other pesticide use,
insecticide use, and fungicide use.
ScottsMiracle-Gro, the world’s largest marketer of branded consumer
products for lawn and garden care, announced $2.3 billion in worldwide
sales.
Reading Silent Spring today is a chilling experience. While she focused
on wildlife impacts, Rachel Carson also raised so many of the human
health concerns and modes of action of pesticides that scientists are
confirming today. Not only did she lay out an eloquent explanation of
the possible connection between pesticides in use then and cancer, she
also described a connection with sterility, leukemia, Hodgkin’s
disease, hormonal imbalances, and reproductive effects. She spoke of
modes of action of chemicals such as chemicals passing the placental
barrier and affecting unborn children. She noted the increase in environmentally-related
diseases, and warned of combined and synergistic effects, and indirect
carcinogenisis. She also made it clear that safer and more effective
nonchemical controls were widely available.
Each decade since Silent Spring has brought a new generation of pesticides
that manufacturers claim are safer only to find newer health and ecological
impacts of concern. The increase in environmentally-related diseases
and impacts on vulnerable populations is alarming.
However the news is not all bad, the total world pesticide amount used
decreased in 2001 for all pesticide types. The increasing abundance
of organic farms, produce and landscaping products, pesticide-free landscapes,
and buildings managed with integrated pest management is testimony to
progress. But we need to be more persistent than ever.
Rachel Carson spoke of another way, “ We stand now where two
roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar
poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling
is deceptively easy, a smooth super highway on which we progress with
great speed, but at the end lies disaster. The other fork of the road
– the one “less traveled by” – offers our last,
our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation
of our earth.
The choice, after all, is ours to make. If, after having endured much, we have at last asserted our 'right to know,' and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us." (Silent Spring, 1962)
On what would have been her 99th birthday, we honor the memory of Rachel Carson and what she stood for. She was a hero who sounded the alarm that awakened the nation and the world to daily pesticide poisoning and contamination. We at Beyond Pesticides are privileged to be working with heroes across the nation, who continue to sound the alarm, and work proactively to reduce senseless pesticide exposures in homes, schools, workplaces, and communities. Sincerely, Beyond Pesticides Staff.