When the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT late in 1972, environmentalists hailed the decision. Indeed, the DDT ban became a symbol of the power of environmental activism in America. Since the ban, several species that were decimated by the effects of DDT have significantly recovered, including bald eagles, peregrines, ospreys, and brown pelicans. Yet a careful reading of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring reveals DDT to be but one of hundreds of chemicals in thousands of formulations. Carson called for a reduction in the use of all chemical insecticides. Carson’s recommendations notwithstanding, policymakers focused on DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons, culminating in the DDT ban, passage of the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972, and subsequent bans on aldrin and dieldrin. Similarly, the history of pesticides has focused inordinately on DDT, providing a myopic image of the ongoing challenges of pesticides in agricultural practice and ongoing environmental protection efforts in the modern world. “Pesticides and the perils of synecdoche” argues that focusing on DDT oversimplified the environmental risks of chemical insecticides and narrowed the parameters of the debate, and in the process both policy and subsequent histories neglected the highly toxic organophosphate insecticides, which dominated agriculture in the United States and the world after the DDT ban, with unintended consequences for farmworkers and wildlife.

中文翻译：

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杀虫剂和科学史和环境史中比喻的危险

当环境保护署在 1972 年末禁止使用滴滴涕时，环保主义者对该决定表示欢迎。事实上，DDT 禁令成为美国环保行动主义力量的象征。自禁令颁布以来，受 DDT 影响而灭绝的几种物种已显着恢复，包括秃鹰、游隼、鱼鹰和褐鹈鹕。然而，仔细阅读雷切尔·卡森 (Rachel Carson) 的《寂静的春天》(Silent Spring)，就会发现滴滴涕只是数千种配方中的数百种化学品中的一种。卡森呼吁减少所有化学杀虫剂的使用。尽管卡森提出了建议，政策制定者仍将重点放在滴滴涕和其他氯化烃上，最终导致滴滴涕禁令、1972 年联邦环境农药控制法案的通过，以及随后对艾氏剂和狄氏剂的禁令。相似地，杀虫剂的历史过分关注滴滴涕，为农业实践中杀虫剂的持续挑战和现代世界正在进行的环境保护工作提供了一个短视的形象。“农药和比喻的危险”认为，关注滴滴涕过度简化了化学杀虫剂的环境风险并缩小了争论的范围，在此过程中，政策和随后的历史都忽视了在美国农业中占主导地位的剧毒有机磷杀虫剂。滴滴涕禁令后的国家和世界，对农场工人和野生动物产生了意想不到的后果。