 "Photo:")
Rachel Carson's book "Silent Spring" generated awareness of the effects an insecticide, DDT, had on the environment when it was widely used around 1943, a biology instructor said March 6 in the visual arts center.
"Intoxicated with a sense of his own power, (mankind) seems to be going farther and farther into more experiments for the destruction of himself and his world," Carson wrote.
A handful of people attended Dr. Robyn McGilloway's presentation as she explained the reasons for Carson's opposition to the "elixir of death," referring to the poisonous insecticide.
The speech was part of Women's History Week observation.
McGilloway explained repercussions of DDT such as the thinning of eggshells and the threat of extinction of the bald eagle and the brown pelican.
She also presented Carson's claim of DDT's effect on humans, which she believed caused breast cancer, liver cancer and lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.
When showing an unpleasant picture of a typhus-spreading louse, a tick-like insect that can be found in hair or fur, she jokingly advised parents to show this picture to their teenagers when discussing sex education because of its similar characteristics to pubic lice.
McGilloway also spoke of arguments against Carson and her book claiming that she had no scientific proof or credited sources that confirmed DDT was a carcinogen or caused the decline of birds and other animals.
Critics held her responsible for the millions of deaths, even going so far as to call her a murderer when DDT was no longer being used to kill mosquitoes and other disease-carrying insects after it was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972 after "Silent Spring" was released.
A documentary, "Rachel's Daughters: Searching for the Causes of Breast Cancer" followed the speech.
"Rachel's Daughter's" followed six women who joined together in hopes of finding the causes of breast cancer.
It was based upon Carson's belief that pesticides and other factors, such as X-rays, electromagnetic fields and hormone replacement, may have caused breast cancer.
The film also allowed each woman to tell of her experience with breast cancer and the physical and emotional impact it had on her. One of the women died from the disease.
The film is available through this college's online catalog at http://www.accd.edu/sac/library.
Be the first to comment on this article!