John Tierney wrote an excellent article in the New York Times about the centennial of the birth of famed environmental writer Rachel Carlson. Carlson’s Silent Spring, written in 1962, grossly over estimated the dangers of DDT. Tierney argues that the legacy of the book is that millions of people are afraid of minute doses of synthetic chemicals and spend too much time and effort avoiding relatively harmless chemicals while ignoring more serious dangers.

The human costs have been horrific in the poor countries where malaria returned after DDT spraying was abandoned. Malariologists have made a little headway recently in restoring this weapon against the disease, but they’ve had to fight against Ms. Carson’s disciples who still divide the world into good and bad chemicals, with DDT in their fearsome “dirty dozen.”

Indeed, while spraying huge amounts of DDT on agricultural fields definitely led to serious declines in raptors and other birds due to eggshell thinning, DDT and other synthetic chemicals should have a place in sensible pest management and especially in malaria control. Using a chemical by the ton on a cotton field is going to have very different effects than applying to mosquito netting or on the walls of hut. These applications are very targeted and use small amounts of the chemical. We must always remember to use reason and critical thinking, and not just jump on the environmental bandwagon because someone wrote a scary book.

I’ve got a copy of Silent Spring sitting on my bookshelf from a college environmental literature class. Perhaps I should move it from the science shelf to my literature shelf. It’s a well-written book, but it’s science is poor, misleading, and biased. It’s a reminder to me to keep my mind open and to be skeptical of everything I read.