Carol A. Yannacone sued all the DDT manufacturers

Building on the success of the DDT hearings in Madison Wisconsin, which resulted in a declaratory ruling that DDT was a “pollutant” and would be banned from use in Wisconsin, Carol Yannacone, brought a class action against the manufacturers of DDT, seeking equitable relief in the nature of an injunction. Shortly after the suit was filed, all the manufacturers of DDT, with the exception of the Montrose chemical company in California, ceased manufacturing DDT and the suit was discontinued.

Time picked up the story and summed up the state of the law at that time with respect to the environment. Carol’s success in going to Court seeking Declaratory Judgments and equitable relief to protect the Environment accomplished what the older established Conservation groups and their lawyers mired in conventional tort law such as nuisance or forced to find some kind of statute, legislative enactment or administrative agency ruling were unable to do.

This final step by Carol succeeded in awakening Americans to the dangers to their and led to the passing of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) early the next year, 1970.

In 1970, Carol A. Yannacone 1934–2025) completed the work Rached Carsen (1907–1964) began with Silent Spring in 1962.