Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 21, 1994                   TAG: 9408220089
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: D-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FROM ``SILENT SPRING''

Some excerpts from Rachel Carson's ``Silent Spring'', which has sold 2 1/2 million copies since it first came out and was a Book of the Month Club selection in 1962

``Over increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes unheralded by the return of birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song. This suddenly silencing of the song of birds, this obliteration of the color and beauty and interest they lend to our world have come about swiftly, insidiously, and unnoticed by those whose communities are as yet unaffected.''

``Spraying for Dutch elm disease began in a small way on the university campus in 1954. The following year the city of East Lansing [where the university is located] joined in, spraying on the campus was expanded and, with local programs for gypsy moth and mosquito control also under way, the rain of chemicals increased to a downpour.''

``Spraying is killing the birds but it is not saving the elms. The illusion that salvation of the elms lies at the end of a spray nozzle is a dangerous will-o'-the-wisp that is leading one community after another into a morass of heavy expenditures without producing lasting results.''

``The problem that concerns us here is whether any of the chemicals we are using in our attempts to control nature play a direct or indirect role as causes of cancer. In terms of evidence gained from animal experiments we shall see that five or possibly six of the pesticides must definitely be rated as carcinogens. The list is greatly lengthened if we add those considered by some physicians to cause leukemia in human patients.''