Fifty Years Since Silent Spring

Abstract

Rachel Carson's 1962 Silent Spring exposed both observed and potential environmental and health externalities of the increasing organochlorine and organophosphate insecticide use in the United States post-World War II. Silent Spring was a critical component in a popular movement that resulted in increased regulation and the development of safer pesticides. Most changes in pesticide use in the global north have involved pesticide substitutions, although riskier pesticides remain in use. Many ideas in Silent Spring are compatible with the theory of integrated pest management (IPM), and IPM has been broadly embraced in the United States and internationally as a strategy for achieving least-use and/or least-risk pesticide use in agriculture. IPM is a politically feasible policy that purports to reduce pesticide use and/or risk in agriculture but often does not, except in extreme cases of pesticide overuse that result in negative agricultural/economic consequences for growers.

A network meta‐analysis provides new insight into fungicide scheduling for the control of Botrytis cinerea in vineyards

“…The latter inference is supported by Figure (b), which shows that spraying four times in ABCD did not always provide better disease control than spraying one, two, or three times. Therefore, recommending a routine BBR control strategy based on four sprays is not justified; it is not profitable for the grower and has negative consequences on human health, environmental pollution, and fungicide resistance management …”

“…Second, the phenological method can increase the probability that B. cinerea develops resistance to botryticides . Finally, public concerns about the possible effects of chemicals on human health and environmental pollution require that fungicides not be applied when unnecessary.…”

Developmental neurotoxicity of succeeding generations of insecticides

“…They were widely used over the span from 1940s, until they were largely restricted and banned in most countries during the 1970s and 1980s (Costa 2015), largely because of their persistence in the environment, bioaccumulation and emerging evidence of adverse effects on wildlife off-target species. Rachel Carson’s landmark book “Silent Spring”, published in 1962 (Carson 2002), played a major role in the decision to ban DDT and other OCs for agricultural uses in the US and, subsequently, in many other countries, and led to increased regulation of pesticides (for review: (Epstein 2014). …”

Quantifying Pesticide Exposure Risk for Monarch Caterpillars on Milkweeds Bordering Agricultural Land

“…Since 1960, agricultural intensification and a corresponding rise in pesticide use has been an environmental concern due to contamination of soil-water-air and movement of chemicals through the trophic chain (Carson, 1962;Krupke et al, 2007;Epstein, 2014;. Because broad-spectrum pesticides are, by nature, not specific to focal pests, they can affect non-target beneficial organisms (i.e., pollinators, parasitoids, predators) inhabiting crops, as well as unmanaged habitats neighboring agricultural land (Longley and Sotherton, 1997;Aktar et al, 2009).…”