You must be an expert on the matter, Poli. I've not heard such a coherent, correct, and concise summation of the matter in my entire life.
Wow, thank you kindly for the compliment. I wouldn't call myself an "expert" on this particular matter, but I do try to keep myself informed.
The watershed for the environmentalist movement, leading directly to the banning of DDT, was Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, which was to pesticides what The Jungle was to meatpacking. The time was ripe; public mistrust of the chemical industry was very high, thanks to highly visible fiascos like Agent Orange and Love Canal. Since then, many if not most of the claims made in Silent Spring have been found to be based on dubious evidence or entirely fabricated.