Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

About two decades later various other organic phos phates came into us e as ins ecticides , as we
have s een, and s oon cases reminiscent of the ginger paralys is epis ode began to occur. One was
a greenhous e worker in Germany who became paralyzed several months after experiencing
mild s ymptoms of pois oning on a few occas ions after us ing parathion. Then a group of three
chemical plant workers developed acute pois oning from expos ure to other ins ecticides of this
group. They recovere d unde r treatment, but ten days later two of them devel oped mus cular
weaknes s in the legs. This pers is ted for 10 months in one; the other, a young woma n chemis t,
was more severely affected, with paralysis in both legs and s ome involvement of the hands and
arms. Two years later when her case was reported in a medical journal she was still unable to
walk. The ins ecticide res pons ible for thes e cas es has been withdrawn from the market, but
s ome of thos e now in us e may be capable of like harm. Malathion (beloved of gardeners) has
induced s evere mus cular weakness in experiments on chickens. This was attended (as in ginger
paralys is ) by des truction of the s heaths of the s ciatic and spinal nerves. All thes e cons equences
of organic phos phate pois oning, if s urvived, may be a prelude to wors e. In view of the s evere
damage they inflict upon the ne rv ous s ys tem, it was perhaps inevitable that thes e ins ecticides
would eve ntually be linked with mental dis eas e. That link has recently been s upplied by
inves tigators at the Univers ity of Melbourne and P rince Henry’s Hos pital in Melbourne, who
reporte d on 16 cas es of mental dis eas e. All had a his tory of prolonged ex pos ure to organic
phos phorus ins ecticides. Three were s cientis ts checking the efficacy of s prays ; 8 worke d in
greenhouses; 5 were fa rm wo rke rs. Thei r s ympt o ms ra ng ed fro m i mpa i r ment of memor y to
s chizophre nic and depres s ive reactions. All had normal medical histories before the chemicals
they we re us ing boome ranged and s truck the m down.
Echoes of this s ort of thing are to be found, as we have s een, widely s cattered throughout
medical literature, sometimes involving the chlorinated hydrocarbons , s ometimes the organic
phos phates. Confus ion, delus ions , los s of memory, mania—a heavy price to pay for the
temporary des truction of a few ins ects , but a price that will continue to be exacted as long as
we ins is t upon us ing chemicals that s trike directly at the nervous s ys tem.