Noisy Winter: The DDT Controversy in the Years before Silent Spring

Abstract

In this paper, we examine three unanticipated findings from a social constructionist analysis of popular media coverage of the pesticide DDT from the years 1944 to 1961. The first unanticipated finding was the early (1945) appearance of negative or cautionary claims in the media source examined, the New York Times. Second, while negative or cautionary claims about the pesticide did constitute a minority voice during this time period, it was nonetheless a persistent voice. The third unanticipated finding was the predominance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the State Agricultural Experiment Stations among those claimsmakers initially cautioning potential users about unintended and potentially deleterious impacts. The concept of "routine monitoring mechanisms" is introduced to explain this third finding. We conclude by considering the potential impact of this coverage on the subsequent development of the controversy.

The Culture of Nature and the Rise of Modern Environmentalism: The View Through General Audience Magazines, 1945–1980

“…Roderick Nash (1982) for example documents how efforts by Preservationists like David Brower of the Sierra Club before the 1960s ultimately led to the Wilderness Act (1964). Similarly, Valerie Gunter and Craig Harris (1998) …”

“…Industrialization during and after World War II, combined with rapid postwar suburbanization and the expansion of the use of cars had taken their toll on the U.S. air, waters, and countryside, things people were noticing in the 1940s and 1950s (Rothman 2000). There was also considerable ''cautionary'' media attention given to new petrochemicals like DichloroDiphenyl-Trichloroethane (hereafter DDT) before the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 (see Gunter and Harris 1998). Similarly, Donald Worster (1977) argued that nuclear weapons testing in the Southwestern United States during the 1940s and 1950s began the ''Age of Ecology'' because attention was given to the movement of radioactive fallout through the environment (and even across the continental U.S.), revealing the interconnectedness of things as Carson later did.…”

Socio-psychological determinants of public acceptance of technologies: A review

“…In this context, it is important to note that on one hand a new technology may bring about radical changes in society, while on the other hand the fate of that technology rests with the society in which it is being applied. A negative societal response may be caused by the fact that, while many technologies deliver benefits to society, they may also introduce new risks (Gunter and Harris, 1998). As a consequence, such developments are often shaped by public controversies and concerns (Horst, 2005).…”

Toxicity and Complicity: Explaining Consensual Community Response to a Chronic Technological Disaster

“…In this sense, the discovery of contamination may be better explained by what Valerie J. Gunter and Craig K. Harris (1998) call "routinized monitoring mechanisms''-the activities of government agencies who engage in ongoing monitoring as a means of carrying out their responsibilities of implementing policies in particular domains.…”