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Even though Silent
Spring is one of those handful of books that I think should be read by everyone who cares
about preserving our environment for future generations of all species of
creatures, I did not have its publication anniversary stored in my internal
clock, waiting to notify me in a nightmarish dream about a world with no
birds. I simply saw a recent on-line article from the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/rachel-carson-killer-of-africans-652507/)
with a catchy headline about Rachel Carson killing Africans. Sounds like international intrigue worthy of a cheesy, film noir black & white movie. More on what that headline is about in a
minute.
The biography section of this post
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| Rachel Carson (photo from Lear/Carson Archive, posted on PADEP website) |
If you aren’t familiar with Carson or her 1962 environmental
best-seller, Carson was born outside of Pittsburgh in 1907 (thus Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette’s interest in her in the 21st century). She completed her Master of Science degree
in zoology at Johns Hopkins University in 1932. After doing some work toward a PhD, she eventually began working at a temporary position in 1935 for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which later became the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. In 1936, she was hired full time as only the second female field biologist for the Bureau of Fisheries. While writing technical reports
for the Bureau of Fisheries, Carson also became a published writer with frequent contributions to
Atlantic Monthly, Sun magazine, Nature, and Collier’s magazine. By the time
Carson had become chief editor of publications for the Fish and Wildlife
Service in 1949, she had already decided to leave the FWS to focus full time on
her writing career.
Her first book, Under
the Sea Wind (1941) was well reviewed but commercially unsuccessful. In 1952, however, she was finally able to
leave the FWS with the publication of the best-selling The Sea Around Us. A third
book, The Edge of the Sea, followed
in 1955. But it would be her final book,
released in September 1962, that would be credited with starting the
environmental movement in the United States.
Although Silent Spring was an
eye-opening call to action for many, not everyone was inspired by its message. Silent Spring was a pretty scathing
indictment of society’s inclination from the mid-1940s until it was banned in
1972, to try to solve all insect-related problems using the pesticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane. You’ve probably heard this
chemical compound called by its initials, DDT. With
one of their most popular chemical products being knocked off of its pedestal
by the case Carson made against it in Silent Spring,
and fearing the potential loss of its U.S. DDT market, you can imagine that DDT manufacturers were pretty pissed off at Miss Carson.
In 1963, President Kennedy ordered a review of DDT and
pesticide use in the U.S., and Carson and other scientists were asked to
testify before a Congressional committee.
Although Rachel Carson died from breast cancer in 1964, the momentum
initiated by Silent Spring to protect
the environment from the harmful effects of DDT culminated with the newly
formed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banning use of DDT in 1972.
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| Rachel Carson (photo from Lear/Carson Archive, posted on PADEP website) |
Silent Spring rained down a firestorm of criticism and attacks
on Carson’s professional integrity. Not
surprisingly, the pesticide industry launched a significant campaign to
discredit Carson and her popular book.
Ironically, however, not in Silent
Spring nor in any public interviews, statements, or testimonies had Carson
ever recommended completely banning pesticides.
Rather, she urged that appropriate research be conducted to ensure
pesticides were being used safely and to develop alternative products that
would be safer to the non-target organisms than DDT.
So where does the alleged genocide scandal come into play?
Chemical industry spin doctors, though, would never let the truth
get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.
Some critics back in the day suggested that Carson was trying to
intentionally undermine American agriculture in order to give the Soviet Union
an advantage over the U.S. – a pretty venomous accusation during the Cold War. Some anti-environmental folks have continued
to suggest even into the 21st century that Silent Spring, because the book's cautions about indiscriminately using DDT lead to a sharp drop in its use world-side, has killed more people than Hitler. Those individuals, who likely are global warming
doubters, are referring to the estimated millions of Africans who have died
from mosquito-borne diseases after spraying of DDT was curtailed in Africa over
toxicity concerns. There is a major
difference, however, in banning DDT in a developed country over concerns about
unwanted environmental side-effects and restricting its use for control of
disease vectors in developing countries (which Carson never intended). It is estimated that 90 percent of the world's malaria victims live in Africa, and most are children and pregnant women. DDT is starting to make a comeback in some African countries, however, as their governments seek to gain control of their malaria crisis by eliminating the mosquitos that carry the disease.
What’s the harm in just a little bit of DDT?
If you already know about bioaccumulation, you can skip to
the next paragraph. One of the
unintended effects of the insecticide DDT was its adverse effect on birds of
prey. From the advent of heavy DDT use
in the mid-1940s through the 1960s, populations of eagles, ospreys, falcons,
and other birds of prey had crashed.
Many of these birds were on the verge of being eliminated from their
natural habitats throughout the U.S.
Research discovered that residual concentrations of DDT resulting from
broad applications such as crop-dusting the chemical on agricultural fields
were running off the land and into surface water. Fish in the lakes and rivers were absorbing
the excess DDT, which then was stored in their fat cells and not metabolized and
eliminated from their bodies. As birds of prey ate more and more fish or other prey that ate fish, the DDT then accumulated in
the birds’ own fat cells. After
successive generations of birds had come and gone, the latter generations of
birds had significant concentrations of DDT accumulated in their body fat and
organs. DDT was found to affect the birds’ ability to manufacture eggshells that are strong enough to withstand
the weight of the female birds as they sit on the eggs to incubate them. The result was that fewer and fewer birds
were successfully hatched because their well-intentioned mothers were crushing so
many of their siblings’ eggs.
It’s still there
Despite the 1972 ban on DDT in the U.S., it’s still out
there. It has a half-life of
approximately 15 years, so at the high concentrations at which it used to be indiscriminately
applied (think crop dusting) it could take anywhere from decades to centuries
to break down to non-detectable concentrations.
In some of my previous work investigating former industrial properties,
I've seen DDT reported in soil samples below its cleanup standard, but I don't think I ever saw it reported above its cleanup standard at any of the numerous sites where I've done characterization
work. However, I have seen DDT's breakdown products, DDD and DDE, show up
in soil analytical results from time to time, sometimes over their regulatory
cleanup standards. In my mind, the detections of
these toxins that are below cleanup standards are just as worrisome as the
exceedances of cleanup standards. I'll explain.
Presumably, the soils in which DDT or
its daughter products was detected above cleanup standards will be dug up at
some point and properly disposed. But there is no driver compelling a
property owner to clean up contaminants that are detected at concentrations
below cleanup standards. So those relatively low concentrations will
remain in soil or sediment where they can enter the food chain and begin to
bioaccumulate. Bioaccumulation is not typically factored into the risk
equation when regulators develop cleanup standards for environmental
contaminants. Standards are developed based acute exposure concentrations
or chronic exposure concentrations over an organism's lifetime, but the variable toxin concentrations inherent with the bioaccumulation process do not fit in the standard risk assessment models that calculate safe cleanup standards for environmental contaminants.
Fast-forward …
Rachel Carson was awarded a Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 1980 by President Carter. In
a clever play on words that acknowledges her final book and its impact, the
following paragraph accompanied her posthumous Medal of Freedom:
“Never silent
herself in the face of destructive trends, Rachel Carson fed a spring of awareness across America and
beyond. A biologist with a gentle, clear voice, she welcomed her audiences to
her love of the sea, while with an equally clear voice she warned Americans of
the dangers human beings themselves pose for their own environment. Always
concerned, always eloquent, she created a tide of environmental consciousness
that has not ebbed.”
Here is the fun part of this post
The state office building that houses both the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources was named in honor of Rachel Carson. Therefore, it seems fitting that a nesting
pair of peregrine falcons decided to make their nest on a ledge on the 15th
floor of the building (see inset on photo below). The DEP maintains
a Falcon Cam so that visitors to their website can keep tabs on activity in the
nest (http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/falcon/).
The female laid four eggs in March of this year, and in April two of the
eggs successfully hatched. Both hatchlings
have since “left the nest.”
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| The Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, completed in 1992, was retrofitted with energy conservation measures in 2005 to achieve the Energy Star Labeled Building designation (PADEP photo). |
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| Still photo from PADEP's Falcon Cam on the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, PA |
Regardless of scandals, real or imagined, surrounding the
1972 DDT ban in the U.S., here in Pennsylvania, Rachel Carson is still celebrated as a native daughter turned accomplished biologist and world-changing environmental writer. And on those
special occasions when I’ve been fortunate enough to glimpse a majestic bald
eagle soaring in the wild, I’m pretty grateful that the quiet girl from western PA
sounded the alarm so loudly, yet eloquently, about the cumulative effects of
synthetic chemicals in our environment.
So, there you have it.
A bit long winded (just over 1,600 words), though probably not as long as my scuttled stormwater
post would have been. But hopefully more
entertaining than talking about storm drains (how cool is the Falcon Cam?).
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