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The U.S. Army also set its sights on developing medicinal cures for malaria to supplement quinine, the standard treatment at the time. This concerted effort re- sulted in the development and approval of Atabrine and chloroquine. These new drugs, plus DDT, were eventually put to use in a worldwide strategy to eradicate malaria. The campaign achieved major victories. According to the July 2007 National Geographic , “Malaria was virtually wiped out in much of the Caribbean and South Pacific, from the Balkans, from Taiwan. In Sri Lanka, there were 2.8 million cases of malaria in 1946, and a total of 17 in 1963. In India, malaria deaths plummeted from 800,000 a year to scarcely any.” Despite these successes, the money for eradi- cation dried up and malaria resurged, including in India and Sri Lanka. In addition to funding issues, concerns rose about the environmental risks of DDT. Farmers were using it more and more as a general pesticide. It was cheap and unregulated—so applying more, rather than limited amounts, was easy. Excess amounts of DDT contaminated the surrounding land as it leached off fields and polluted nearby streams. While relatively safe for humans, except if it accumulates to high levels, it was shown to be toxic to birds and fish. The benefits of DDT aside, its use became highly suspect. And as seen in the next chapter, its reputation would become so tainted that it was banned by most countries for agricultural use. Other insecticides, as well as herbicides, were developed during and right after the war. The weed killer known as 2,4-D was arguably more important to American farmers than DDT. It was developed in 1944 and released for public testing in 1945. According to Wessel’s Living History Farm Web site, 631,000 pounds (286,217 kg)

were sold to American growers in 1946, but in just one year that number grew by more than eight times. In the next six years, the United States Department of Agriculture registered 10,000 new pesticide products. The war helped give birth to a whole new chemical age. In the decades that followed, however, the environ- mental fallout would be felt. Nuclear Fallout S cience and technology were used to fight the war in other ways. Most notorious were the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. The first bomb—dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945—killed some 70,000 immediately, and the second—dropped three days later, on Nagasaki—killed upwards of 40,000 people.

A military poster about fighting malaria- carrying mosquitos during World War II.

11

CHAPTER 1