Toxic Drift: Pesticides and Health in the Post–World War II South

Daniel exposes corporate cupidity, bureaucratic ineptitude and the harm that results when businesses dictate their own regulations in this book on the cozy relationship between chemical companies, agribusiness and the USDA during the 1960s and '70s. The Agricultural Research Service arm of the USDA promoted insect eradication with pesticides, even when an insect, such as the fire ant, was beneficial in controlling other harmful insects. The spraying itself was dangerous: Daniel, a curator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, tells of accidental poisonings and wildlife and livestock kills. A case study of one unsuccessful suit demonstrates how difficult it was for pesticide victims to battle the combined forces of government and industry. Eventually, thousands of complaints, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and a damaging congressional hearing led to a change of attitude at the ARS, though pesticide problems continue. Daniel's rhetoric is sometimes heated, characterizing bureaucrats as bumbling and scientists as hubristic, but he has evidence to back it up. He raises tantalizing if unanswered questions about how the chemical industry was able to have such influence on agricultural policy when there were less noxious solutions. This book has plenty of data for the historian, but a deeper story is waiting to be told. 19 b&w photos. (Oct.)