What Would Rachel Say?

Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
Eating his Birthday Pie.
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
and said, I wonder how many pesticides have I?

Simple Simon met a pieman, going to the fair.
Said Simple Simon to the pieman, "What's inside of there?"
Said the pieman to Simple Simon, "Pesticides a plenty,"
Said Simple Simon to the pieman, "Indeed, I don't want any."

Peter Peter, avid DEET-er,
has a wife and likes to keep her
free of pesky fleas and flies,
and wonders why his puppy dies.

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep,

and doesn't know where to find them.
They're in a sprayed field.
Their fate has been sealed.
Bo-peep will never find them.
 
Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With chemical smells f rom sprayed silerbells
And with warning signs all in a row?

Jack Sprat, her found a rat,
His wife thought it unclean.
She found some Raid,
with which she sprayed,
Now the Sprats no more are seen.

Sing a song of pesticides,
a pocketful of dyes,
Four and twenty chemicals
baked up inside.
When the pie was opened
the birds began to cry,
"Who has added these poisons
to our precious food supply?"

Sing a song of pesticides,
a pocketful of lies,
Four and twenty chemicals
baked up inside.
When the pie was opened
the birds forgot to sing.
Didn't Rachel Carson warn you
about a Silent Spring?

--Poem Ideas by Maeve Ward, Ellie Goldberg, Sasha Goldberg, Maggie Cooper

 

Pesticides lurk in daycare centers
Millions of children get exposed to pesticides while attending daycare,
concludes the first nationwide study of insecticide residues in U.S.
daycare centers. Environmental Science & Technology
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/2006/sep/science/pt_daycare.html

Refers to on-line publication of the article whose authors include EPA,
HUD and CPSC folks and whose abstract is below:

Pesticide Measurements from the First National Environmental Health
Survey of Child Care Centers Using a Multi-Residue GC/MS Analysis Method
Nicolle S. Tulve,  Paul A. Jones, Marcia G. Nishioka, Roy C. Fortmann,
Carry W. Croghan, Joey Y. Zhou, Alexa Fraser, Carol Cave, and Warren
Friedman

Abstract:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration
with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, characterized the environments of young
children (<6 years) by measuring lead, allergens, and pesticides in a
randomly selected nationally representative sample of licensed
institutional child care centers. Multi-stage sampling with clustering
was used to select 168 child care centers in 30 primary sampling units
in the United States. Centers were recruited into the study by telephone
interviewers. Samples for pesticides, lead, and allergens were collected
at multiple locations in each center by field technicians. Field
sampling was conducted from July through October 2001. Wipe samples from
indoor surfaces (floors, tabletops, desks) and soil samples were
collected at the centers and analyzed using a multi-residue GC/MS
analysis method. Based on the questionnaire responses, pyrethroids were
the most commonly used pesticides among centers applying pesticides.
Among the 63% of centers reporting pesticide applications, the number of
pesticides used in each center ranged from 1 to 10 and the frequency of
use ranged from 1 to 107 times annually. Numerous organophosphate and
pyrethroid pesticides were detected in the indoor floor wipe samples.
Chlorpyrifos (0.004-28 ng/cm2), diazinon (0.002-18 ng/cm2),
cis-permethrin (0.004-3 ng/cm2), and trans-permethrin (0.004-7 ng/cm2)
were detected in >67% of the centers. Associations exist between
residues measured on the floor and other surfaces for several pesticides
(p-values range from <0.0001 to 0.002), but to a lesser degree between
floor and soil and other surfaces and soil. Regional analyses indicate
no differences in mean level of pesticide loading between the four
Census regions (0.08 < p < 0.88). Results show that there is the
potential for exposure to pesticides in child care centers.
http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/esthag/asap/abs/es061021h.html

Books by Rachel Carson
Under the Sea-Wind.New York: Oxford University Press, 1941.
The Sea Around Us. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951.
The Edge of the Sea. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1955.
Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962.

Books about Rachel Carson
Linda Lear, ed. Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson.1998.
Linda Lear. Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. 1997.
Martha Freeman, ed. Always Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman. 1995.
Carol Gartner. Rachel Carson. 1993.
H. Patricia Hynes. The Recurring Silent Spring. 1989.
Jean L. Latham. Rachel Carson Who Loved the Sea. 1973.
Paul Brooks. The House of Life: Rachel Carson at Work. 1972.
Philip Sterling. Sea and Earth, the Life of Rachel Carson. 1970.
Frank Graham, Jr. Since Silent Spring. 1970.