DDT wars : rescuing our national bird, preventing cancer, and creating EDF / Charles F. Wurster.

ISBN:

9780190219420

9780190219437

Title:

DDT wars : rescuing our national bird, preventing cancer, and creating EDF / Charles F. Wurster.

Author:

Wurster, Charles F., author.

Personal Author:

Wurster, Charles F., author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Contents:

1. A New England town sprays its elm trees with DDT : How did I get into this? ; DDT kills birds but doesn't save the trees -- 2. Sue the bastards on Long Island: the power of an idea : DDT goes to trial on Long Island ; Rigging the Audubon Convention: a Wall Street lawyer was unimpressed ; The Environmental Defense Fund is born -- 3. Proceed with caution, then sue the bastards in Michigan : The suit partly unravels: another win while losing ; The cities cave in, forget to kick us out ; Evolving a master plan -- 4. On to Wisconsin, the Dairy State : DDT, goes to trial in Madison, Wisconsin ; Birds die, nests fail ; DDT, thin eggshells, and reduced reproduction in birds ; DDT reduces reproduction in trout and salmon ; Wayland Hayes: "DDT is absolutely safe" ; A toxicologist arrives from Sweden ; The task force for DDT questions the analyses ; confusion with PCBs ; Integrated pest management without any DDT ; Summation: DDT is a pollutant in the Wisconsin ecosystem ; To make an omelet, you will break some eggs ; Mid-1969: where did we stand, what had we accomplished? ; Final verdict from the DDT hearings in Wisconsin -- 5. EDF, barely an organization, getting its act together : Environmental Defense Fund, or fundless environmental defenders? -- 6. EDF diversifies into new environmental arenas : The Environmental Decade: the 1970s ; Environmental Defense Fund: biggest bang for the buck ; The judicial approach is contagious -- 7. Time to go after the Feds : What!? DDT also causes cancer? ; What!? DDT also causes mutations and birth defects? ; Both Federal agencies react to the petitions. Barely! ; The Environmental Defense Fund takes two Federal agencies to court ; The Appeals Court makes an historic decision ; The bruising battle of the briefs -- 8. Escalating the DDT issue with more court cases : Flushing tons of DDT into the Los Angeles sewer system ; What happened to Montrose and its pollution legacy after 1972? ; Bald eagles gone, golden eagles move in -- 9. Changes in Washington affect the DDT battle : EDF begins to expand: new people, new Washington office -- 10. DDT goes to trial, finally, in Washington, DC : DDT: global contamination problem ; Predatory birds pay the price ; Mechanism for DDE-induced thin-shelled eggs ; Dangers of DDT to fish and people who eat them ; Superior insect control without DDT ; Does DDT cause cancer? : In mice? Rats? Humans? ; DDT industry shortage of qualified witnesses -- 11. Ruckelshaus decides : The Ruckelshaus decision: DDT gets canceled! Almost! ; Both sides appeal the ruling to the Court of Appeals ; Passing the test of time ; They are after us again: 40 years later. Why? ; The use of DDT for controlling malaria -- 12. Encores: five more bad actors were dispatched ; Aldrin and Dieldrin on trial: suspension mid-stream ; Heptachlor/chlordane: another suspension mid-stream ; Mirex will "eradicate" the imported fire ant -- 13. The DDT wars: four great victories : DDT ban led to greater cancer prevention ; DDT precedents launched environmental law ; Remove the threat and the birds will recover ; EDF today: brilliant, innovative, optimistic, and effective -- Epilogue : The last word / President Fred Krupp.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Corporate Subject:

Environmental Defense Fund.

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Defense (Organization)

Environmental Defense Fund (2007- )

Geographic Term:

United States

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?url=http://ezproxy.angliss.edu.au/login?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=973789

Publication Date:

2015

Publication Information:

New York, NY :

Oxford University Press,

[2015]

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
632.9517 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

DDT Wars is the untold inside story of the decade-long scientific, legal and strategic campaign that culminated in the national ban of the insecticide DDT in 1972. The widespread misinformation, disinformation and mythology of the DDT issue are corrected in this book. DDT contamination had become worldwide, concentrating up food chains and causing birds to lay thin-shelled eggs that broke in the nests. Populations of many species of predatory and fish-eating birds collapsed, including the American Bald Eagle, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon and Brown Pelican. Their numbers recovered spectacularly in the decades following the ban. During the campaign DDT and five other insecticides were found to cause cancer in laboratory tests, which led to bans of these six pesticides by international treaty in 2001. This campaign produced lasting changes in American pesticide policies. The legal precedents broke down the court "standing" barrier, forming the basis for the development of environmental law as we know it today. This case history represents one of the greatest environmental victories of recent decades. DDT is still "controversial" because it has been deceptively interjected into the "climate wars." This campaign was led by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), founded in 1967 by ten citizens, most of them scientists, volunteers without special political connections or financial resources. Their strategy was to take environmental problems to court. There were many setbacks along the way in this exciting and entertaining story. The group was often kicked out of court, but a few determined citizens made a large difference for environmental protection and public health. Author Charles Wurster was one of the leaders of the campaign. The first six years of EDF history are described as it struggled to survive. Now EDF is one of the world's great environmental advocacy organizations defending our climate, ecosystems, oceans and public health.

Author Notes

Charles F. Wurster is a founding member of the Environmental Defense Fund and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences, State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was a pesticide used during WWII to help block the "transmission of several important insect-borne diseases, especially typhus and malaria," but the chemical is arguably better known for its contentious status among environmental activists. In this vital account, Wurster, an environmental toxicologist at SUNY Stony Brook and a cofounder of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), offers a moderately accessible history of DDT and its detrimental effects while looking behind the scenes at the EDF. The Fund formed in the mid-1960s as a national organization with a mission "to take environmental problems to court using scientific evidence." Studies in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s revealed "an assortment of problems with birds, fish, mammals, human health, and ecological disruptions," all of which could be tied to DDT contamination. Battles against its use, as well as against soil and water contamination, would be the core of the EDF's efforts over the years. Though some details of court hearings and presentations are too nitty-gritty for general readers, descriptions of EDF's early office setups provide an enlightening window on how such organizations functioned, without being overly nostalgic. Wurster's recollections serve to remind readers not only of the progress environmentalists made against DDT, but also of the changes in everyday tools they had at their disposal. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Choice Review

Wurster (emer., environmental sciences, SUNY, Stony Brook), who was a founding member of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), provides a fascinating account of the history of the EDF, which was founded in 1967 and is now a firmly established US entity. Wurster tells of the beginnings of the organization as a ragtag of scientists and environmentalists meeting in various living rooms, with no budget to speak of, bound by the shared hope that science combined with the law could act together and make a larger difference than environmental advocates ever could. All the original members were passionate bird lovers, and their earliest fights focused firmly on the widespread use of DDT, a once-popular chemical that is now a proven biocide and carcinogen. Using DDT as the backbone of this story, Wurster shows how the EDF slowly grew in both membership and stature, learning how to "win while losing" so that they ultimately came out ahead, no matter the court decision. Combining important details about the EDF with intriguing anecdotes, DDT Wars is both a historical walk through the US's environmental past and a rallying cry to those concerned about the world today. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; students in technical programs; graduate students; general readers. --Susan E. Brazer, Salisbury University