New York Times: Rachel Carson, DDT, and the Fight Against Malaria
“…[I]n a new offering from Retro Report, [the New York Times presents] a series of video documentaries examining major news events of the past and their continued resonance. Several interwoven threads shape this installment: the global battle against malaria; the nationwide ban on almost all uses of DDT that the EPA imposed in 1972; and the work of Rachel Carson, who became a guiding spirit of the modern environmental movement with her groundbreaking 1962 best seller ‘Silent Spring.’ … The reality is that the American ban on DDT did not extend to other nations, although some later enacted their own prohibitions. For that matter, the pesticide was not completely banished in the United States or elsewhere; the EPA declared it acceptable if public health was at risk. And despite a decline in its effectiveness because of overuse, it remains a valued anti-malaria tool in many countries, principally for spraying indoors, where its potency is enhanced and its impact on nature is kept low…” (Haberman, 1/22).