DDT debate resumes as Rachel Carson centennial approaches
Posted on May 25th, 2007By Katherine Boyle
This story first appeared in yesterday’s edition of Greenwire.
E&E News: DDT no longer blankets crops and wetlands, but the dustup over the legacy of the biologist who played a leading role in banning the powerful pesticide continues.
More than 40 years after Rachel Carson’s death, the author of “Silent Spring” — a 1962 book credited with launching the modern environmental movement — still stirs passions.
This week, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn blocked a Senate resolution honoring Carson for the centennial of her birth on May 27, 1907, describing “Silent Spring” as “the catalyst in the deadly worldwide stigmatization against insecticides.” He indicated on his Web site he would use Senate rules to block any resolution honoring Carson for what he calls her “junk science.”
Coburn also provides a link to Rachelwaswrong.org, a Competitive Enterprise Institute Web site blaming Carson for malaria deaths of “millions of people around the world.” The free-market think tank’s site displays photographs of 50 children from a school for orphans in Kampala, Uganda, who died of malaria in 2005.
CEI’s director of risk and environmental policy, Angela Logomasini, said Carson’s book “created a state of fear that led to the banning of different chemicals.” She called on environmentalists to make an effort to save babies in Africa as they work to
save natural resources.
DDT use in Africa declined in the decade before publication of “Silent Spring” because mosquitoes began becoming resistant to the pesticide, but Logomasini said Carson was the catalyst for bans on the substance in the 1970s and 1980s by most countries. She said the resistance of insects to DDT demonstrated the need to manage the pesticide rather than eliminate it entirely.
“A lot of things have resistance issues,” Logomasini said. “There are resistance issues with drugs for malaria. They don’t get rid of them. They try to find ways to manage them.”
‘Toxic Band-Aid’
But Jay Feldman, executive director of Washington-based Beyond Pesticides, said DDT is not the answer to Africa’s malaria problem.
“Rachel Carson taught us that DDT shouldn’t be used as a toxic Band-Aid when the underlying cause of the disease is not adequately addressed by the world community,” Feldman said. “The problem is associated with poverty, poor water quality and poor living conditions.”
Feldman added that the health effects of DDT are “well-documented in terms of cancer impact and there is new data on endocrine disruption.” He also said studies show that exposing children to DDT will cause long-term developmental problems.
“It undoes the intent of those who are promoting the safety of Africans and other populations in developing countries,” Feldman said. “If Sen. Coburn really wants to help people in the developing world and create a sustainable living environment, then he should be promoting development programs that enable people to live a decent, healthful life.”
Logomasini, who advocates using DDT for public health purposes, said she opposed the use of the pesticide for agriculture but acknowledged that there was debate about that issue at CEI.
In “Silent Spring,” Carson wrote there were public health instances where pesticide use was unavoidable, but Logomasini said that despite Carson’s caveat her overall “dramatic approach” to DDT “drove it over the ledge.”
Feldman said his organization agrees with Carson’s philosophy, saying that problems like standing water and poor farming techniques that lead to increased numbers of mosquitoes must be addressed before pesticides are applied.
Logomasini opposed such regulations, claiming only through a free-market economy could Africa become more developed. Until Africans have the freedom to use DDT and other chemicals, they are not going to have a better life, she added.
Carson on Capitol Hill
The resolution blocked by Coburn was crafted by Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), who planned to honor Carson, who spent most of her adult life in Silver Spring, Md., for a “legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility.”
Sens. Barbara Mikulski, (D-Md.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Robert Casey (D-Pa.) were going to cosponsor the Carson resolution, a Cardin spokeswoman said. Cardin held off on submitting the resolution because of Coburn’s opposition. The Pennsylvania delegation joined the Maryland senators because Carson was born in Springdale, Pa., near Pittsburgh.
In late April, the House voted 334-53 to approve H.R. 1434, sponsored by Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.), that would name the Springdale post office for Carson. All nay votes were cast by Republicans, many of whom expressed concern about Carson’s opposition to DDT.
Coburn vows to oppose the Altmire bill in the Senate, where it has been referred to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.