WASHINGTON – A senator has delayed submitting a resolution to honor pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson on the 100th anniversary of her birth after a colleague signaled he would block it because of her aggressive fight against pesticides.

Carson’s 1962 book “Silent Spring” revealed the harmful effects of DDT and other pesticides and helped launch the environmental movement.

The longtime resident of Silver Spring, Md., who summered in Southport, Maine, died in 1964. She would have turned 100 this Sunday.

Sen. Benjamin Cardin’s resolution had intended to honor Carson for her “legacy of scientific rigor coupled with poetic sensibility.” But Susan Sullam, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Democrat, said he delayed the bill because Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., signaled he would use Senate rules to halt it.

In a statement on his Web site Tuesday, Coburn confirmed that he is holding up the bill. He blamed Carson for using “junk science” to turn the public against chemicals such as DDT that could prevent the spread of insect-borne diseases such as malaria.