By Janet Raloff
Rachel Carson turned the pest-control world upside down in 1962. In Silent Spring (Mariner), she documented how long-lived organochlorine pesticides, most notoriously DDT, were not only ridding croplands of insects, streets of mosquitoes, and homes of spiders but also exacting a high toll on songbirds and other nontargeted species. The chemicals’ broad-spectrum potency and resistance to breakdown, advantages in their use against pests, emerged as hazards.
Shortly after the publication of Carson’s book, industrialized countries began phasing out such persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. There’s now a United Nations treaty aiming at their global elimination (SN: 11/8/03, p. 301: Available to subscribers at POPs treaty enacted).