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"Rachel Carson's Silent Spring played a large role in articulating ecology as a "subversive subject"— as a perspective that cut against the grain of materialism, scientism, and the technologically engineered control of nature," states Prof. Gary Kroll (see link).
The book, by a well-known writer on natural history who had not previously been a social critic, was widely read (weeks on the New York Times best-seller list) and in drawing public attention to this problem, began the widespread public concerns with the more general pollution of the environment. Silent Spring spurred the impetus for the banning of the pesticide DDT in the United States. As described in detail in the article on its author, the book was controversial at the time of its publication. It attracted hostile attention from commentators associated with the chemical industry, which spent more than a quarter of a million doillars to discredit the book and its recently-deceased author.
An important legacy of Silent Spring has been the widespread public skepticism concerning the scientific control of both the individual human body and the environment.
The criticism of the book most commonly cited today is that its suggestion that the increase in the proportion of deaths in childhood caused by cancer (as a consequence of an increase in the background level of carcinogenIn pathology, a carcinogen is any substance or agent that promotes cancer. Carcinogens are also often, but not necessarily, mutagens or teratogens. Carcinogens cause cancer by altering DNA in cells, interfering with normal biological processes. Usually ces) was culpably misleading in ignoring the contribution to the absolute reduction of the childhood death rate of immunizationMedicine See vaccination. Finance Immunization is the matching of the term (life) of an asset to the term (life) of the liability it is intended to pay off. For example, if a financial company is obligated to pay 100 dollars to someone in 10 years, then i and antibioticAn antibiotic is a drug that kills or slows the growth of bacteria. Antibiotics are one class of "antimicrobials", a larger group which also includes anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-parasitic drugs. They are relatively harmless to the host, and therefors.
Rachel Carson appears to have successfully predicted multiple chemical sensitivityMultiple chemical sensitivity (MCS also known as "20th Century Syndrome", "Environmental illness", " Sick Building Syndrome", Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI), and a host of other names, can be defined as a "chronic, recurring disease caused by disorder.
A symposium on the book and the topics it raises was held in Philadelphia in August 1984This page is about the year 1984. For other uses of 1984, see 1984 (disambiguation). 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday (link shows calendar). Events January January 1 Brunei becomes a fully independent state January 1 AT&T is broken up into 22 indepe, Silent Spring Revisited , a compilation of papers from the symposium was published in 1987.