Advertisement

This site uses cookies to enhance your user experience. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to our COOKIE POLICY.

ACCEPT AND CLOSE

If you have an ACS member number, please enter it here so we can link this account to your membership. (optional)

ACS values your privacy. By submitting your information, you are gaining access to C&EN and subscribing to our weekly newsletter. We use the information you provide to make your reading experience better, and we will never sell your data to third party members.

The key to knowledge is in your (nitrile-gloved) hands

Already an ACS Member?  

Basic

$0 Community Associate

ACS’s Basic Package keeps you connected with C&EN and ACS.

  • Access to 6 digital C&EN articles per month on cen.acs.org
  • Weekly delivery of the C&EN Essential newsletter
JOIN NOW
Standard

$80 Regular Members & Society Affiliates

ACS’s Standard Package lets you stay up to date with C&EN, stay active in ACS, and save.

Eligibility restrictions apply. Review ACS Membership Packages to see if you qualify.

JOIN NOW
Premium

$160 Regular Members & Society Affiliates
$55 Graduate Students
$25 Undergraduate Students

ACS’s Premium Package gives you full access to C&EN and everything the ACS Community has to offer.

  • Unlimited access to C&EN’s daily news coverage on cen.acs.org
  • Weekly delivery of the C&EN Magazine in print or digital format
  • Access to our Chemistry News by C&EN mobile app
  • Significant discounts on registration for most ACS-sponsored meetings
ACS offers discounts for some countries outside the United States. This discount is shown at checkout, if applicable.

JOIN NOW

Thank you!

Your account has been created successfully, and a confirmation email is on the way.

Your username is now your ACS ID.

ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCES TO C&EN

Policy

From C&EN Archives: Environment

by Cheryl Hogue
September 9, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 36
Advertisement

Most Popular in Policy

Wearing a wig to hide the aftereffects of radiation treatments, Rachel Carson sat before a cluster of microphones in 1963. Carson, who was battling breast cancer, was testifying to a Senate committee about toxic pesticides. Her landmark book “Silent Spring” had been released less than a year earlier. She would be dead within a year.

On June 17, 1963, C&EN reported on Carson’s testimony: “New chemicals are introduced so fast that it is impossible for research on their effects on the physical environment, on wildlife, and on man to keep pace. She believes that this outpouring of chemicals is dictated by industry competition rather than need, and proposes that new pesticides should not be approved for use unless no existing chemical or other method will do the job. … She also urges the chemical industry to step up research to develop chemicals that attack specific pests and leave short-lived residues rather than to develop one super weapon that will solve all pest problems.”

Although some American Chemical Society members attacked Carson at first, in a few years ACS was addressing the environmental issues she raised. In 1969, ACS issued a report, “Cleaning Our Environment: The Chemical Basis for Action,” that covered a broad sweep of pollution control issues.

C&EN Editor Patrick P. McCurdy wrote in the magazine’s issue of Sept. 8, 1969: “Too much of what has been written about pollution has been adrift in technicalities, mired in ignorance, or tainted by political opportunism. Certainly all of us are by now aware of the problem. And no matter how you slice it, the problem is largely chemical in nature and largely chemical in solution.”

Article:

This article has been sent to the following recipient:

0 /1 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH Remaining
Chemistry matters. Join us to get the news you need.
GET MORE
GET MORE