Status Updates From Silent Spring

Arcenic incentives banned in 1950s globally but 1990s in the US.
Planting diversity is a natural way to reduce pests as many of them are highly specialized, for example only attacking corn, if a farm is planted with a diverse crop then these pests will have a harder time spreading. The current practice however is to put as many as one crop in an area as possible which allows pests to thrive

In world war 2 a German scientist was developing a weapon called nerve gas that one of the variations was found to destroy and enzyme found in the liver that break down toxins. This was adopted as an insecticide and makes animals more prone to poisoning.

Annual Parathion use in Cali was equal to 5-7x the lethal dose of entire world population. Banned in 1990s

I’ve had to read this book in very small doses because of how much it’s depressing me. I’m so saddened and angry over how little has seemingly changed in the U.S. since Carson’s time. We’re still battling so much of the same environmental destruction from evil people/companies. It’s a great book so far, just a bummer parade too lol.

Per Google ddt is only used in regions with high quantities of malaria carrying insects.

Also some of them cause hepatitis

These also build up throughout the food chain. A plant is eaten by a cow or chicken, digested, stored, the eaten at a much higher quantity.
People who have lost weight rabidly might feel sick as they are burning these stored poisons.

I wonder how much of this is still relevant today

This means that relatively small amounts of exposure can build up into large and harmful quantities quickly. As much as 2.5 parts per million are harmful to the liver. This is the average amount of ddt that was found in humans whose only exposure was dietary in the 60s. Farmers averages closer to 16 and pesticide plant workers closer to 675/mili

The elixirs of death.

This chapter is a big jump in technical jargon. Definitely harder to read than the first two. It focuses on the major forms of insecticides used today and all the ways they are bad for humans. I won’t try to name them, they have very sciencey names.

A lot of attention in fat solubility and parts per million. Fat soluble molecules can be stored easily in the body

We are hurdling towards a world where winter breaks into a spring without the familiar symphony of birds, for there are none left to sing.
“The obligation to endure gives us the right to know”

Rachel Carson pleaded to the masses that the chemicals used to combat pests is going to be humanities undoing. Meanwhile she herself is battling for her life, passing from cancer less than 1 year following publication