419 



book and the reactions to it." *^ Another speaker at the same symposium 

 presented an inventory of State pesticide haws. He said that 47 States 

 regulate the marketing of pesticides, and 29 regulate their use. Many 

 of these licensing acts, he noted, "* * * were either passed or amended 

 during the past two years,'' '^^ Many of the presentations at the session 

 were implicitly in refutation of one or another of Miss Carson's 

 assertions. 



Thus, some 15 years after the Congress had adojited without opposi- 

 tion or controversy a substantial piece of legislation to control com- 

 merce in new potent pesticides, a very vociferous protest arose over the 

 assertedly indiscriminate use of these poisons. Why was the protest so 

 widespread and intense in 1962, while in 1947 it was almost non- 

 existent? Admittedly, the accomplished prose of Miss Carson was 

 more powerful a stimulus than the modest demurrer of Mr. Hecken- 

 dorn. It was also true that numerous indications had accumulated 

 concerning the use and effects of the more potent new chemicals, and 

 many additional formulations, dangerous to man as well as to pests, 

 had to come on the market after 1947. 



In the case of agricultural poisons, their effectiveness in wiping out 

 pests was accompanied by the danger of their toxicity to humans ; in 

 the case of poisons used to control forest pests, their effectiveness for 

 this use was accompanied by the disadvantages resulting from their 

 toxicity against fish, birds, wild mammals, and sometimes against man. 



Other factors that may have intensified the public response to the 

 Carson book were : (a) The fact that the gi'owing congestion of Amer- 

 ican society had heightened the value of remaining wilderness areas and 

 made any impairment of nature in such areas more salient; (h) the 

 fact that the growing concern over the hazard of radioactive fallout 

 from nuclear tests may have provided an instructive analog of chemi- 

 cal poisons disseminated widely; (c) the sensational disclosures con- 

 cerning the drug, thalidomide, that dramatized the difficulty of estab- 

 lishing without qualification, the safety of a new chemical formula- 

 tions; (<^) various well-publicized episodes, such as a national warning 

 concerning pesticide-contaminated cranberries and a notable "fish 

 kill" on the Mississippi, had brought the subject to public attention. 



IV. Conversion of Pesticide Issue Into the Issue of Total 

 Environmental Preservation 



Even before the appearance of "Silent Spring," the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences had established a Committee on Pest Control and 

 Wildlife Relationships. At the annual meeting of the National Re- 

 search Council, associated with the Academy, this Committee was 

 invited to present a symposium on "the present status of the pest con- 

 trol and wildlife situation." ^* During 1962 and 1963, the Committee 

 prepared for issuance by the Academy three reports on various aspects 



^ W. E. McQuilkin. Economic and Science Problems in Maintenance of Rijrhts-of-way. 

 In New York (State). Joint Le^slatlve Committee on Natural Resources. Pesticides — 

 Tlieir Use and Effect. Proceedings of a symposium. Albany, N.Y., Sept. 23, 1963. Sponsored 

 by * • * . (Albany, N.Y.. 1963), p. 100. 



*3 D. L. Collins. An Analysis and Comparison of Federal and State Le^slatlon on Pesti- 

 cides. In Ibid., pp. 83. 98. 



^* The Committee had been appointed in May, 1960; its first meeting -was .Tune 14, 1960. 

 Its objectives were to provide technical advice and guidance on its subject to government 

 and others, to provide critical evaluation of information on pest control effects, to stimulate 

 research, to foster cooperation, and to provide a forum for the discussion of problems 

 in its field. 



