ABSTRACT
The insecticide dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) was first produced in the 1920s and was developed as the first of the modern synthetic insecticides in the 1940s. DDT was an excellent insecticide because it was very effective at killing a wide variety of insects at low levels. DDT’s quick success as a pesticide and broad use in the United States and other countries led to the development of resistance by many insect pest species. Rachel Carson, an unequaled environmental journalist of profound vision and insight, published Silent Spring in 1962, helping to draw public attention to this problem and to the need for better pesticide controls. DDT is known to be very persistent in the environment, will accumulate in fatty tissues, and can travel long distances in the upper atmosphere. Humankind’s development of chemical manufacturing and use of chemicals is a long and storied link-like-chain-account that is mentioned at the earliest time of recorded history.
