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DDT wars: rescuing our national bird, preventing cancer, and creating The Environmental Defense Fund PDF

257 Pages·2015·12.105 MB·English
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Preview DDT wars: rescuing our national bird, preventing cancer, and creating The Environmental Defense Fund

DDT Wars DDT Wars Rescuing Our National Bird, Preventing Cancer, and Creating the Environmental Defense Fund CHARLES F. WURSTER 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 © Charles F. Wurster 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wurster, Charles F. DDT wars : rescuing our national bird, preventing cancer, and creating the Environmental Defense Fund / Charles F. Wurster. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–19–021941–3 (alk. paper) 1. DDT (Insecticide)—Toxicology. 2. DDT (Insecticide)—Physiological effect. 3. DDT (Insecticide)—Environmental aspects. 4. Environmental Defense Fund. 5. Health promotion. 6. Environmental health. I. Title. SB952.D2W87 2015 632’.9517—dc23 2014042820 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9780190219413-Wurster.indb 4 05/03/15 4:43 PM Dedicated to Lorrie Otto, who did her best to protect life on Earth, to William D. Ruckelshaus, a public servant who did the right thing, to Marion Lane Rogers who kept this history alive and inspired us all, and to Marie H. Gladwish, who more than anyone else, with endless encouragement, affection and her many talents, helped bring this book to fruition. CONTENTS Preface xi Foreword xv Acknowledgments xix 1. A New England Town Sprays Its Elm Trees with DDT 1 How Did I Get into This? 2 DDT Kills Birds but Doesn’t Save the Trees 7 2. Sue the Bastards on Long Island: The Power of an Idea 13 DDT Goes to Trial on Long Island 18 Rigging the Audubon Convention; A Wall Street Lawyer Was Unimpressed 23 The Environmental Defense Fund Is Born 25 3. Proceed with Caution, then Sue the Bastards in Michigan 29 The Suit Partly Unravels; Another Win While Losing 33 The Cities Cave In, Forget to Kick Us Out 33 Evolving a Master Plan 34 4. On to Wisconsin, the Dairy State 37 DDT Goes to Trial in Madison, Wisconsin 40 Birds Die, Nests Fail 45 DDT, Thin Eggshells, and Reduced Reproduction in Birds 49 DDT Reduces Reproduction in Trout and Salmon 57 Wayland Hayes: “DDT Is Absolutely Safe” 59 A Toxicologist Arrives from Sweden 60 The Task Force for DDT Questions the Analyses; Confusion with PCBs 61 Integrated Pest Management Without any DDT 63 viii CONTENTS Summation: DDT Is a Pollutant in the Wisconsin Ecosystem 65 To Make an Omelet, You will Break Some Eggs 66 Mid-1969: Where Did We Stand, What Had We Accomplished? 69 Final Verdict from the DDT Hearings in Wisconsin 70 5. EDF, Barely an Organization, Getting Its Act Together 73 Environmental Defense Fund, or Fundless Environmental Defenders? 78 6. EDF Diversifies into New Environmental Arenas 87 Early Battles 88 The Environmental Decade: The 1970s 93 Environmental Defense Fund: Biggest Bang for the Buck 99 The Judicial Approach Is Contagious 100 7. Time to Go After the Feds 103 What!? DDT Also Causes Cancer? 106 What!? DDT Also Causes Mutations and Birth Defects? 108 Both Federal Agencies React to the Petitions. Barely! 108 The Environmental Defense Fund Takes Two Federal Agencies to Court 110 The Appeals Court Makes an Historic Decision 111 The Bruising Battle of the Briefs 113 8. Escalating the DDT Issue with More Court Cases 115 Flushing Tons of DDT into the Los Angeles Sewer System 116 What Happened to Montrose and Its Pollution Legacy After 1972? 117 Bald Eagles Gone, Golden Eagles Move in 119 9. Changes in Washington Affect the DDT Battle 123 EDF Begins to Expand: New People, New Washington Office 127 CONTENTS ix 10. DDT Goes to Trial, Finally, in Washington, DC 131 DDT: Global Contamination Problem 136 Predatory Birds Pay the Price 138 Mechanism for DDE-Induced Thin-Shelled Eggs 143 Dangers of DDT to Fish and People Who Eat Them 145 Superior Insect Control Without DDT 145 Does DDT Cause Cancer? In Mice? Rats? Humans? 148 DDT Industry Shortage of Qualified Witnesses 151 11. Ruckelshaus Decides 157 The Ruckelshaus Decision: DDT Gets Canceled! Almost! 158 Both Sides Appeal the Ruling to the Court of Appeals 163 Passing the Test of Time 163 They Are After Us Again—40 Years Later. Why? 164 The Use of DDT for Controlling Malaria 168 12. Encores: Five More Bad Actors Were Dispatched 171 Aldrin and Dieldrin on Trial: Suspension Mid-stream 172 Heptachlor/Chlordane: Another Suspension Mid-stream 178 Mirex Will “Eradicate” the Imported Fire Ant 180 13. The DDT Wars: Four Great Victories 183 DDT Ban Led to Greater Cancer Prevention 184 DDT Precedents Launched Environmental Law 186 Remove the Threat and the Birds Will Recover 188 EDF Today: Brilliant, Innovative, Optimistic, and Effective 195 Epilogue: The Last Word by President Fred Krupp 201 Appendices 205 Bibliography 209 Index 215

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