Article ID: CBB001251547

From Coal to DDT: The History of the Development of the Pesticide DDT from Synthetic Dyes till Silent Spring (2012)

unapi

Jarman, Walter M. (Author)
Ballschmiter, Karlheinz (Author)


Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Volume: 36, no. 4
Issue: 4
Pages: 131-142


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Silent Spring after Fifty Years”
Language: English

The controversial pesticide DDT arose out of a number of practical and conceptual developments in science and industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Here we trace its story back to experiments involving the industrial by-product coal tar, proceed to the develop-ment of modern organic chemistry and the establish-ment of an advanced dye industry, and go on to chart the attempt to identify and synthesize chemicals capable of killing the insects involved in human and crop diseases. This paper argues that work on the chemistry of coal tar played a significant role in the history of DDT because it helped bring about the scientific ideas and the practical objectives that led chemists to embark on the search for pesticides. It concludes by examining the Swiss-German DDT production industry in the early 1940s and the subsequent condemnation of DDT by an environmental movement epitomized by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

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Article Davis, Frederick R. (2012) Silent Spring after 50 years. Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (pp. 129-130). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001251547/

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Authors & Contributors
Travis, Anthony S.
Kinkela, David
Thomas, Craig
Junho Jung
Daniel Francis Zizzamia
Economos, Jeannie
Concepts
Pesticides; insecticides
Environmental sciences
DDT
Chemistry
Chemical industry
Coal and coal mining
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Germany
Switzerland
Florida (U.S.)
Great Britain
England
Institutions
United States. Army
Science Museum, London
Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft
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