Although it was promoted by government and industry for use as an agricultural and household pesticide, there were also concerns about its use from the beginning.[6] Opposition to DDT was focused by the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. It cataloged environmental impacts that coincided with widespread use of DDT in agriculture in the United States, and it questioned the logic
of broadcasting potentially dangerous chemicals into the environment with little prior investigation of their environment and health effects. The book claimed that DDT and other pesticides had been shown to cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. Its publication was a seminal event for the environmental movement and resulted in a large public outcry that eventually led, in 1972, to a ban on DDT's agricultural use in the United States.[7] A worldwide ban on agricultural use was formalized under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, but its limited and still-controversial use in disease vector control continues,[8][9] because of its effectiveness in reducing malarial infections, balanced by environmental and other health concerns.
