That people could spray it on the walls inside their homes to kill mosquitoes. That it magically only hurt insects, and even then, selectively. In a nutshell, Big Tobacco heavily funded think tanks, non profits and journalists to make it seem as though the science was wrong, and to dictate that DDT was safe for humans. If Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was a closeup and exposé of a bad situation, this book tacks on a further 60 years' worth of dishonesty and manipulation in the neverending struggle for profit over people and ecology. Her book is an easy reading, fast paced collection of less than delightful stories, a biography of an ongoing disaster that needs remembering and examination.
#EMPIRE OF SIN POISON STILL HOW TO#
The lies, the fraud, the misinformation and the disinformation will be very familiar to any reader who has been the least bit awake the past five years.Įlena Conis, a historian of medicine, tells the whole frustrating story in How to Sell a Poison. Her book is an easy r The story of DDT is a rollercoaster ride of scientists, damaged people and the environment, fighting to get rid of this dangerous insecticide, while corporations campaign with every trick in the Big Tobacco book to bring it back. Elena Conis, a historian of medicine, tells the whole frustrating story in How to Sell a Poison. The lies, the fraud, the misinformation and the disinformation will be very familiar to any reader who has been the least bit awake the past five years.
The story of DDT is a rollercoaster ride of scientists, damaged people and the environment, fighting to get rid of this dangerous insecticide, while corporations campaign with every trick in the Big Tobacco book to bring it back. In an age of spreading misinformation on issues including pesticides, vaccines, and climate change, Conis shows that we need new ways of communicating about science-as a constantly evolving discipline, not an immutable collection of facts-before it’s too late.more Historian Elena Conis follows DDT from postwar farms, factories, and suburban enclaves to the floors of Congress and tony social clubs, where industry barons met with Madison Avenue brain trusts to figure out how to sell the idea that a little poison in our food and bodies was nothing to worry about. This is the sweeping narrative of generations of Americans who struggled to make sense of the notorious chemical’s risks and benefits. But decades after that, a cry arose to demand its return. Americans granted it a hero’s homecoming, spraying it on everything from crops and livestock to cupboards and curtains. The chemical compound DDT first earned fame during World War II by wiping out insects that caused disease and boosting Allied forces to victory. Americans granted it a hero’s homecoming, The story of an infamous poison that left toxic bodies and decimated wildlife in its wake is also a cautionary tale about how corporations stoke the flames of science denialism for profit. The story of an infamous poison that left toxic bodies and decimated wildlife in its wake is also a cautionary tale about how corporations stoke the flames of science denialism for profit.