This Clipping From
Washington, D.C.
Post&Times Herald

SEP-1/62

Experts Studying
Pesticide Dangers
To Man, Wildlife

By Nate Haseltine
Staff Reporter

A special panel of experts has been set up to see whether Government agencies are doing all they can to reduce or eliminate human and wildlife dangers of pesticide programs.

The group, an ad hoc committee of the President's Federal Council of Science and Technology, was set up last spring to review the reviewing procedures on pesticide controls that are in effect in the agencies involved.

A Council spokesman said yesterday that the special committee expects to complete its present studies in about a month. Its recommendations would then be made to the Council's life sciences panel for later implementation.

The ad hoc committee reportedly was set up shortly before Rachel Carson's series of three articles called "The Silent Spring" was published in the New Yorker magazine in June.

Miss Carson's book by the same title is scheduled for publication Sept. 27, by the Houghton Mifflin Co. The theme of the articles and the book is that our living world is becoming "widely contaminated with the substances used in the control of insects." A Council spokesman said that though Miss Carson cannot be credited for the creation of the special committee her articles "certainly have helped that committee in its studies."

The committee is headed by Boisfeuillet Jones, special assistant, health and medicine, to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

Government organizations who conduct programs involving use of pesticides include the Departments of Defense, Commerce, Agriculture, Interior and HEW. HEW's programs are conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Public Health Service.

Mr. Kisco, H.J.
Patent Trader
9/2/62

Wixon Pond
Club Reviews
"Silent Spring"

MAHOPAC — The Wixon Pond Garden Club met Tuesday, August 21, at the Mahopac Hotel. Mrs. Allen Swenken presided. Reports were heard on the Garden Fete and committee chairman were thanked for the success of the affair.

It was announced that Mrs. Al Pressman and Miss Mildred Miller exhibited at the Carmel Garden Club flower show and Mrs. Pressman won second prize.

The program chairman, Mrs. Louis Horowitz, introduced the speaker of the day, Mrs. Morris Nadel, one of the members of the Garden Club. Mrs. Nadel presented a thorough and interesting report on the book "Silent Spring" to be published this fall. "The articles published in the New Yorker magazine stress the danger not only to the human race and posterity but also to the animal and bird kingdom. Mankind must be alerted to the problems caused by the increased use of death dealing poisons," she reported. An animated discussion followed.

Two arrangements by Mrs. Louis Horowitz and one by Mrs. Joseph Sage were judged by Mrs. Isidore Sackin and members of the club.

Mrs. Sidney Fried and Mrs. Herman Busch then invited members of the club to a luncheon served in the main dining room of the Mahopac Hotel.

This Clipping From
Cleveland, Ohio
Plain Dealer

SEP-3/62

POISON OR BLESSING?

Controversy Rages
on Pesticide Danger

By ROBERT J. DRAKE

Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, and a few parts per million of DDT.

Jack and Jill are exhibits for the defense of the chemical age in agriculture.

Their life expectancy at birth today is 70 years, a 21-gain in 50 years. They are two to three inches taller and several pounds heavier than their grandparents at the same age. When they reach mature growth, five years earlier than they would have in 1900, they will be setting new track records for speed and endurance all year.

THEY ARE GROWING UP in a land where chemistry and nutrition have eliminated the once common courses of goiter, pellagra, beri-beri and rickets, no longer tabulated as causes of death. With the help of chemicals, yellow fever has been eradicated and malaria, said to be a factor in half the world's mortality, is virtually unknown.

Arrayed against this evidence of physical well-being is a perennial barrage of charges that chemicals in agriculture are poisoning diet, soil and water, destroying beneficial wildlife and producing a race prone to cancer and altered genes.

FIRST OF A SERIES

The role of pesticides is about to be spotlighted dramatically with the publication in book form of Rachel Carson's "The Silent Spring," serialized earlier this summer by the New Yorker magazine.

For the first time in a long history of what they term "scare" literature, the farming industry and the research scientists who serve it are speaking up "to set the record straight." The chemical industry has spoken up before, but generally within the confines of its technical publications.

MISS CARSON's severest critics concede that she has done a thorough job of complying all the deplorable results of a half century of experimental and uncontrolled

use and outright abuse of chemical controls.

They charge her with failure to cite elaborate precautions behind every insecticide label and to give credit to chemistry as a hired hand of the world's most efficient producer of wholesome food.
"Miss Carson is a well-informed woman with a wide following," said Dr. George W. Ware, associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University. "She has searched the literature and come up with facts, most of which cannot be refuted.

"But she has placed them in a conversation of fear, which is easy to do journalistically. She has committed deceit by presenting only the facts she cares to present.
"Coupled with the thalidomide incidents, her articles must certainly have an impact."

IF THALIDOMIDE had been an insecticide instead of a drug for human consumption it never would have reached the American market, observed Dr. Ralph B. Neiswander, Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station entomologist.

"It's good to get articles like the Carson stories," he said. "They help keep us from getting careless. My chief criticism would be she didn't side with restrictions and safeguards."

Before the present furor George C. Decker, chief of economic entomology at the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, wrote in the spring issue of "World Review of Pest Control":

"ONE WONDERS IF present-day pesticide residues can possibly do as much damage to human health and well-being as does the state of hysteria that has been created through ill-advised publicity and sensational journalism.

Speculating on the future of the human race under a chemical fallout, the Carson articles glossed over the legal process under which insecticides are screened, in the opinion of entomologists interviewed by The Plain Dealer.

MEETING the requirements of two federal laws and their amendments takes about three years and an investment of $1.5 million for clearance of every new chemical. The time-consuming phase includes the spray residues, if any, which can remain on marketable crops.

Test animals are fed diminishing doses of the chemical to the point where ill effects can no longer be detected. That minimum level is divided by 100 to establish the maximum allowable residue on food for human consumption.

As for DDT in little girls, the chemical in trace amounts accumulates in the human body. But public health authorities say it vanishes in 90 days without further ingestion.

An Analysis

"Agricultural Chemicals"
February - 1963

# Bias, Misinformation, Half-Truths
## Reduce Usefulness Of 'Silent Spring'

Miss Carson chose an important and timely topic about which to write. But, she seems to have missed the opportunity, if she had the public welfare in mind. If she had really informed, and if she had made a truly analytical study of all the facts, she would have gained the appreciation of the world, scientific stature, and worldwide sales.

by Dr. Harvey L. Sweetman
University of Massachusetts

RACHEL CARSON's "Silent Spring" is one of a number of books and magazine articles published recently dealing with the general subject of modern chemicals in our environment. Similar non-scientific books include Longgood's "The Poisons in Your Food", and Herber's "Our Synthetic Environment". These three are similar in tone, frequently using the same instances to illustrate their points.

A scientific volume composed of papers presented at a symposium in 1960 entitled "Ecological Efforts of Biological and Chemical Control of Undesirable Plants and Animals" by European, American, and Canadian research workers is now available. These papers deal with the broad influences of our control practices on the environment and on plants and animals.

The author of "Silent Spring" is trained in biology and has a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University. She was employed at the University of Maryland for several years, followed by service

with the Marine Fisheries Section of the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service. She has 7 or 8 publications to her credit, including two Fisheries Conservation Bulletins and four books, two of which earlier had wide popular acceptance. All of these publications have one similarity in common. They are largely compilations, summaries, reviews, or analyses of published information. However, she is familiar with marine shore life through personal observations. She does not have a doctorate (ph.D.) degree based on her own research, and none of her publications is based on her own research. Her interest seems to be entirely in the popular, rather than the scientific aspects of biology. Miss Carson has a wide popularity, and is mistakenly considered to be a scientific authority, particularly by laymen.

She credits the stimulus to write the book to correspondence in 1958 from a friend in Massachusetts. Therefore, the manuscript was written within a period of three years or less. However,

she had held the views expressed in "Silent Spring" for at least two years before she undertook the work, and presumably before she had read widely on the subject. She apparently had others do much of the library work for her while preparing the manuscript. "Silent Spring" is based very largely on literature and unpublished expressions by people from 1955 to 1961. The so-called "documentation" reveals that Miss Carson has expressed views from an intentionally selected slant rather than an unbiased broad analytical survey. She seems to place as much emphasis on expressions by laymen and unskilled observers as on broadly informed and analytical researchers. Her sole criterion of selection seems to be one of support of her hypothesis rather than a search for the truth.

### Miss Carson's Thesis

The book is divided into seventeen chapters.

I.—Suggests that birds, insects, fish, and many other organisms, including farm animals, have been killed or no longer reproduce in countless town in America.

II.—Believes that enough is known of the basic principles of ecology, so that if the use of chemicals was under the supervision of ecologists no pesticide hazards would exist. Contends that it is the narrow viewpoint and fanatical zeal of control agencies that has produced our problems. States that she is going to present the facts (presumably for the first time).

III.—A comparison of the good old days of inorganic pesticides with present use of highly potent and long-lasting organic pesticides.

or

to frighten, rather than to inform. Judged on that basis, it is successful. Miss Carson appears to have used all the tricks at her command to "alarm" (attract attention). She has overexaggerated, which tends to reduce her contentsions to absurdity. She is very biased, apparently hoping to lead readers to her point of view, rather than to give them the facts from which they might reach a sound conclusion. She condemns by inference at times without actually so stating, then follows with a discussion as though her point was proven or established fact. She makes very broad generalizations from limited specific data. And, she quotes authorities out of context, apparently for the purpose of giving the reader the impression that her conclusions are concurred with by such authorities and, therefore, scientifically valid, when her usage often misquotes the authority. The above excesses are freely intermixed with correct information, resulting in a book that contains much fantasy as well as fact.

Miss Carson deserves the praise received for two of her former books. However, there is much to be critical in "Silent Spring". One must "sift and strain" the text to separate fact and fantasy. Such reporting is very misleading to the lay reader, which may be the intent. In fact, only the well-informed reader, or one who will take the time to check her "documentation" and analysis can isolate the mass of fantasy from the factual material. She often condemns from

hind sight. Hind sight clarifies and points out errors, but it does not necessarily point out potential errors of the future. Errors have been made in the use of pesticides, and unfortunately will continue to be made, in spite of efforts to avoid them.

Miss Carson believes that the application of known ecological knowledge by ecologists would eliminate pesticide hazards. Certainly, the broad ecological approach would help, and many of us would prefer to see more of that concept in practice, but there is little reason to believe that ecologists know all the answers.

IV.—Alleges that natural waters have almost universal contamination from pesticides.

V.—The persistent and virtually indestructible residues continue to build up and upset the normal function of soil organisms.

VI.—Deals with herbicides and their use along roadsides and on the western Plains.

VII.—Insists on the needlessness of persistent chemicals, placing emphasis on the destruction of animal life during the Japanese beetle campaign in the Midwest which failed against the Japanese beetle.

VIII.—Concentrates on bird destruction, citing such examples as robin kills from Dutch elm disease sprays, bald eagle, seed treatment and kill of birds in England, and destruction of unwanted birds by the Wildlife Service.

IX.—Deals with destruction of fish by pesticides.

X.—Criticizes chemical controls against the gypsy moth, and eradication campaigns against the fire ant, which kill wildlife, contaminate the environment and fail to control or eradicate the pests.

XI.—Criticizes the ease with which pesticides can be purchased. Is highly critical of tolerance, stating that it is possible to hold the residue below a tolerance, a little more care would reduce residues to zero. Considers the lowering of a tolerance as proof that the pesticides had been used without adequate knowledge.

XII.—Pesticides are more hazardous to man than diseases. Particularly condemns the use of chlorinated hydrocarbons and phosphate-containing compounds.

XIII.—Deals with theoretically potential hazards from genetic changes induced by chemicals and radiation.

XIV.—Cancer is induced by radiation and pesticides. States that arsenic sprays, DDT, as well as other organic pesticides are factors.

XV.—Deals with biological control and the balance of nature.

XVI.—Emphasizes resistance and the blind alley that use of chlorinated hydrocarbons and phosphate compounds leads to.

XVII.—Two roads to follow: — the present road which will lead to disaster of the human race, or "Carson's road" which will lead to the preservation of mankind.

"Silent Spring" is extremely difficult to analyze. It is not a novel nor was it written for entertainment. It is neither a truly informative nor a scientific report. The intent appears to be to scare

Alert research workers, and there are many, correct and modify research and practical control programs as knowledge and need become evident.

Samples of the misuse of statement and scientific data of others are prevalent in the book. "More applications or greater quantities of the insecticide are needed for adequate control." As used by Miss Carson out of context, this statement gives a quite different meaning than as originally used.

"Infestations of the scale inspect quickly reappeared and damage exceeded anything that had been seen for fifty years", she says in reference to an insecticide application that had harmed a predatory beetle. She states "in a moment of heedlessness, the benefit" of fifty years "was cancelled out". This conclusion by Miss Carson is contrary to fact, for this predatory beetle has maintained itself in the environment and con-

(OVER)

Miss Carson deserves the praise received for two of her former books. However, there is much to be critical of in "Silent Spring". One must "sift and strain" the text to separate fact and fantasy. Such reporting is very misleading to the lay reader, which may be the intent.

AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS

BOOK REVIEWS
NEW YORK PAPERS

BOOK REVIEWS
OUT OF TOWN

BOOK REVIEWS
MAGAZINES