MALARIA: Rachel Carson

William Brieger
Date:	Fri, Sep 28, 2012 4:06 am

Ecology

Insecticide Resistance After Silent Spring

1. David G. Heckel

+ Author Affiliations

1. Department of Entomology, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knöll-Str. 8, D-07745 Jena, Germany.

1. E-mail: heckel@ice.mpg.de

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, published 50 years ago (1), eloquently awoke the public to the manifold dangers for the environment and human health posed by the wanton use of chemical pesticides (2). Carson argued that in addition to their many harmful ecological effects, chemical insecticides ultimately undermine sustainable pest management: They kill the parasites and predators that formerly held many pests in check, while the pests themselves become resistant and require ever-higher amounts of sprays for their control. Since the publication of Silent Spring, more than 450 arthropod species have been reported with resistance to one or more pesticides (3). Yet over the same period, a paradigm shift in dealing with this global problem has also occurred.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6102/1612.summary?maxtoshow=&hits=6&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=and&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=malaria&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct