The RCC is a clearinghouse and library with information at both scientific and layperson levels on pesticide-related issues, which provides answers to the public, produces various publications clarifying pesticide dangers, brings alternative pest controls to the public's attention, and presents conferences and workshops for the public and the scientific community.
We have answered tough questions about pesticide effects and alternative pest-control methods since 1965.
Rachel Carson, a scientist and gifted writer, enchanted the public with her first three books about the sea. Then in her last great work, Silent Spring, she sounded the alarm about the hazard of chemical pesticides. Its publication in 1962 generated a mountain of mail from an aroused public asking questions about pesticide effects. Although she was ill, and often overwhelmed, Rachel Carson faithfully answered letters until shortly before her death in 1964.
In response to her hope for an enduring means of meeting the public's needs, a year after her death an organization was formed by friends and colleagues to continue her efforts. The founders shared her concerns about pesticide problems. The organization was initially called the Rachel Carson Trust for the Living Environment. In 1980 it became the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. For more than 20 years, Shirley A. Briggs served as Executive Director. Dr. Diana Post, the current Executive Director, was appointed in 1992.
The Council has compiled data on health and environmental effects of pesticides and provided answers to the public for almost 40 years. Serving as a source of scientific information and advocating integrity of the environment, the Council is the oldest organization bearing Rachel Carson's name and maintaining her vision.
Rachel Carson Council provides the following services:
- Books, booklets, and pamphlets
- Specific answers to questions about pesticide effects and alternative pest control methods
- Newsletters with articles interpreting current pesticide issues and alerts
- Expert testimony on pesticide issues to governing bodies by letter or in person
- Speakers for conferences
- Historical information about Rachel Carson
- Rental of photographs of Rachel Carson for publication
The RCC Staff is led by Executive Director, Diana Post, VMD
Reasons Why We Care
What Rachel Carson noted 40 years ago in Silent Spring could have been written yesterday:
"...we have put poisonous and biologically potent chemicals indiscriminately into the hands of persons largely or wholly ignorant of their potentials for harm. We have subjected enormous numbers of people to contact with these poisons, without their consent and often without their knowledge. It is the public that is being asked to assume the risks that the insect controllers calculate. The public must decide whether it wishes to continue on the present road, and it can only do so when in full possession of the facts."
"The choice, after all, is ours to make. If, after having endured much, we have at last asserted our 'right to know,' and if, knowing, we have concluded that we are being asked to take senseless and frightening risks, then we should no longer accept the counsel of those who tell us that we must fill our world with poisonous chemicals; we should look about and see what other course is open to us." (Silent Spring, 1962)
At the moment the environment appears to be facing a more perilous future than at any time since our organization's founding.
The pesticide-use rate continues to rise not only in our own country but all over the world. Human and animal health effects, including cancer, hormonal and reproductive disruption, decreased immune function, chemical sensitivity, and neurotoxicity have been associated with chemical pesticides.
Environmental integrity, already diminished by manmade chemicals, faces new challenges from reckless use of biotechnology. We urgently need to look for guidance before taking steps to re-engineer nature.
"Rachel's Senses"
In describing the great outpouring of correspondence generated by Silent Spring, Rachel Carson wrote:
"... the letters began to come immediately in enormous volume and they were not the sort of letters you could ignore...These letters were from people who were deeply concerned, from people who wanted to know what they could do. These letters must be answered."
Since 1965 the Rachel Carson Council has been answering the letters, for they continue to come. The following anecdotes exemplify the sort of help we provide:
A Homeowner - Alexandria, Virginia
found that his subdivision of 134 homes had voted to contract with a lawn-care firm to treat all the lawns with a uniform sequence of pesticides throughout the year. He decided to oppose the Homeowners' Association and brought the list of proposed pesticides to Rachel Carson Council.
He was given detailed information on the effects of each chemical. Armed with these facts and convincing scientific references, he confronted the Homeowner's Association and the earlier decision was reversed.
An Indian Citizen - Bhutadia, Indiaread Silent Spring, and with his fellow villagers decided to cease using or permitting the use of DDT in their village. He wrote to Rachel Carson Council, requesting information to overturn the law requiring routine spraying of DDT for malaria prevention.
Although he was fined for non-compliance with the law, he went on to fight it vigorously in the courts with the help and moral support of Rachel Carson Council.
A Private Citizen - Pocasset, Massachusetts
requested and received information on 1) contamination of ground water by pesticides on Cape Cod; 2) pertinent legislation and regulations; 3) other relevant organizations to contact; and 4) general information about EPA activities regarding water contamination issues.
A Physician - Dayton, Ohio
requested and received information about whom to contact in his area to get his home analyzed for chemical contaminants and to have himself examined by a knowledgeable physician in the area of environmental health. He also was sent a directory from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and information on the Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) syndrome.
A Researcher (at a major environmental org.) - Washington, DC
requested bird toxicity and hazard information for the the organophosphate insecticide temephos. Rachel Carson Council provided detailed materials on acute and long-term bird toxicity, references and contacts for alternatives to temephos.
An Environmental Consultant - Virginia
requested our comments on a video of a pesticide commercial submitted to us. She was disturbed about the lack of warnings that the pesticide was harmful to birds and aquatic organisms.
Rachel Carson Council reviewed the commercial, replied to the requester, and presented our recommendations to the Maryland Governor's Pesticide Council. That agency agreed that the commercial was misleading and sent a letter to the Maryland Department of Agriculture with their findings. The Department, in turn, sent a similar letter to the U.S. EPA.
A High School Environmental Club
requested and received information about pesticides and their manufacturers. Students produced 87 protest letters to the manufacturers helped by the specific information we provided.
A Distraught Father - Oklahoma
requested information on chlordane and chlorpyrifos sprayed in his home at various times before and during the time when his wife was three months pregnant.
The child had been born with three cysts behind the right eye eventually resulting in blindness. The child has little control of his neck and arms and has seizures, and other brain abnormalities such that he is unable to walk or talk. The Council responded with information about the two pesticides but unfortunately this could not change the child's condition.
Sense of Scholarship
In 1992 the Rachel Carson Council published a major reference book, Basic Guide to Pesticides.
Using a chart format for convenient reference, the Guide lists substances by trade name, common name, and scientific name and then describes physical characteristics, EPA registration status, acute and chronic mammalian toxicity, carcinogenicity, and effects on wildlife. Pesticide related issues are discussed in detail in the Appendices.
The Guide prompted the following comment from a medical doctor:
As a scientist and a clinician who has consulted most of the major text books of human toxicology over the past 10 years, I find this (Basic Guide to Pesticides) to be one of my favorites.
The RCC has solved a major, infuriating problem of its competitors; i.e. how to locate a pesticide by its chemical name when one only knows its trade name.
RCC searches the medical and toxicological literature to provide information on the ways in which pesticides affect human health and the environment. We use primary sources for references in our publications wherever possible.
We are concerned with how the information is produced as well as its content. We rely on peer reviewed journals but do not reject out of hand anecdotal reports from citizens.
Recently, in response to citizen requests, information on less hazardous means of pest control has become a significant portion of our work. Alternative methods, to be credible, must be truly effective. Here also we verify our recommendations through consulting the published literature and contacting experts in various fields of endeavor.
Rachel Carson respected nature and believed that we should intervene in a protective way as responsible stewards, when necessary, to protect the environment. She pointed out the perils of disrupting natural communities, but recognized that inevitably society will attempt to manipulate nature.
A significant Council goal is to influence the way in which agricultural and horticultural intervention takes place for the long-range benefit of humans as well as other residents of the ecosystem.
Saving habitat alone is not enough. In order to survive, we must assure the preservation of many elements of the ecosystem. A forest is composed not just of trees but "...birds, ants, forest spiders, and soil bacteria..." (Carson, p. 258, 1962).
The Rachel Carson Council seeks to protect all forms of life, not only those we love or which capture our imagination--dolphins, elephants, eagles, and others--but also more obscure creatures. The web of life depends on a variety of species, including earthworms, insects, and bacteria. These species need our good stewardship as much if not more than do the creatures that we perceive as having intrinsic value. As Daly and Cobb wrote in For the Common Good,
The interrelated whole would probably survive the extinction of the chimpanzees with very little damage, but it would be seriously disturbed by the extinction of some species of bacteria.
Those who dwell as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life...
A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement...(I would ask for) each child in the world...a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against...the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength...
If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder,...he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in... (Rachel Carson, 1965)
These words are from The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel Carson, published posthumously in 1965 with photographs by Charles Pratt. Love of the natural world was a pivotal theme in all of her work. She communicated a sense of wonder even as she described the destructive effects of pesticides in Silent Spring.
A significant portion of Rachel Carson Council's mission is one of fostering a sense of wonder and respect for nature. This we try to do in all our communications. In addition, we hope to develop through activities that expose children directly to nature a means of illuminating the fascinating web of life on earth.
As parents, teachers, and children, through direct experience, increase their understanding and enhance their observation skills, we believe that an appreciation of the need for protecting the earth will evolve.
There are compelling reasons for no longer taking the senseless and frightening risks associated with poisonous chemicals:
- Organophosphate and carbamate chemicals which replaced DDT in the pesticide arsenal, although less persistent have greater immediate toxicity for people and wildlife. Poisoning of agricultural workers, gardeners, children, pets, birds, and fish have been associated with these agents. (Government programs to compile information on pesticide poisoning of humans and wildlife have been underfunded since the early 1980s.)
- "It is now generally accepted that the western world at least has witnessed a considerable decline in the quality of human sperm this century, coupled with a rise in malformations of the genitals and an increase in rates of testicular and breast cancers." (British Medical Journal August 5, 1995). Endocrine disruption, including reproductive disorders have been observed in various wildlife species. Chemical pesticides have been implicated in these phenomena.
- The incidence rate of certain cancers has increased alarmingly. Some of these-brain cancer, non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Wilms' Tumor, breast cancer, and leukemia-are linked to pesticide exposure.
- Recent research has revealed that significant portions of our groundwater and surface water are now contaminated with pesticides. Decontamination is often prohibitively expensive.
- Exposure of young children to indoor and outdoor home pesticide applications, as well as to multiple pesticides in food and water, has not been considered by regulators when calculating combined impact of chemicals on this vulnerable population.
- Recently the U.S. EPA advised pregnant women to avoid or reduce their exposure to pesticides.
- Biological methods, more specific and frequently safer than chemical controls, are in some cases the only available means against pests which have developed resistance to traditional pesticides. Paradoxically, research on biological alternatives does not receive adequate support.
- Consumers lack information on pesticide toxicity and are misled by industry assurances that the chemicals are harmless "if used according to label instructions." Since many pesticides are still undergoing reregistration and most are sufficiently dangerous to require disposal as hazardous waste, this industry information appears to be quite incomplete.
- At least 12 wildlife species (two mammals, nine birds and one reptile) in the Great Lakes basin have experienced reproductive and other problems and/or population decreases since the 1960s that have been associated with chemical contaminants. (Fox 1993)
- Protection of humans and wildlife species from the subtle, chronic effects of pollution will require much more stringent regulations than those currently recommended to protect human populations from cancer. (Ludwig, 1993)
- The new biotechnology has enabled scientists to transfer genetic material between widely different life forms. Imprudent use of this technology may allow genetically engineered organisms to escape into wild populations which may adversely affect natural ecological balances. This area needs careful monitoring.