Agent Orange [2]:
Heart of Darkness
pic credit: courtesy of William A. Buckingham
by Robert Allen
|
Doctor Phan Thi Phi Phi suffered four successive
miscarriages between 1971 and 1973 as a consequence of her
exposure to dioxin, the toxic contaminant of Agent Orange.
The southern Vietnamese provinces of Quang Nam and Quang
Ngai, where she treated casualties of the US war, had been
repeatedly sprayed with Agent Orange.
|
Dr Phi Phi's personal sorrow is not remarkable in Vietnam.
Nguyen Van Quy, a soldier serving in the army of the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam with the specific task of
repairing communications lines, also worked in Quang Nam
and Quang Ngai provinces, from April 1972 until the end of
the war in 1975.
Because of the nature of his work he supplemented his food
supply by eating manioc roots, wild grass and other wild
plants. He regularly drank water from streams in the
valleys.
He was aware of the fine yellow mist that drifted down
through the mangrove canopy.
"I could tell that an area had
been sprayed because the trees had no leaves and, when it
rained, a very strong and foul odor came up from the
ground," he said.
His initial exposure brought on headaches and tiredness,
his skin broke out in rashes. After the war, he returned
home and married. His wife miscarried and divorced him.
He married again and in 1988 his first child, Nguyen Quang
Trung, was born - deformed with spinal, limb and
developmental defects. In 1989 a second child, Nguyen Thi
Thuy Nga, was born deaf and dumb.
Quy's own health worsened and in September 2003, he was
diagnosed with stomach cancer and liver cancer. A month
later he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
These human tragedies are mere snapshots. No one knows how
many Vietnamese have been exposed. Many were directly
exposed during the war and passed that exposure onto their
children. Others have become exposed year after year from
eating food contaminated with dioxin.
Hanoi officially estimates that one million Vietnamese have
been born disabled as a consequence of the USA's biological
warfare. The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent
Orange, which filed a legal complaint in the US Federal
Court in New York in January this year, have said that
three million Vietnamese suffer from side effects. The Nhan
Dan (People) newspaper claim that nearly five million of
the 82 million population of Vietnam has a tragic
relationship with dioxin. These estimates do not include
those who have already died as a result of illnesses
contracted from dioxin.
The real tragedy is that the Hanoi government is unable to
do much for the victims of Agent Orange, and the US refuses
to accept there is a case for official compensation.
leaving what is a complex legal issue with the courts.
"In
Vietnam, the poorest, the most miserable and the most
discriminated ones are the Agent Orange victims," said Dr
Phi Phi, who feels that her personal tragedy is minor
compared to others.
Scientists who have conducted tests are concerned about the
levels of dioxin in the Vietnamese people. Professor Arnold
Schecter, of the University of Texas, said in December 2001
that he was
"very startled" by results, which showed that
nine out of ten people sampled in Binh Hoa had elevated
levels of dioxin in their bloodstream, many with 200 times
the average amount.
Residents of Binh Hoa, which is near Ho Chi Minh City and
regarded as one of twelve dioxin hotspots in Vietnam,
depend on fish and fowl for their livelihood.
The bioaccumulation of dioxin in fish and animals is,
according to Schecter, the major factor why dioxin is still
a problem in Vietnam. It is in the foodchain.
Dioxin settles into sediment where it is disturbed and
taken up by micro-organisms, shellfish and fish. On land
dioxin is stored in soil where it is eaten by animals. The
sediment and the soil act as reservoirs for this deadly
toxin. Once it reaches the animals it is stored in their
fatty tissue.
"Elevated [dioxin levels were] found in parents and
children in two families living in Binh Hoa," Schecter
reported in 2001.
"A family of sustenance fish eaters had
[elevated dioxin] blood levels. Agent Orange was last used
in Vietnam in 1971, yet both long-term and new residents of
Binh Hoa exhibited elevated blood [dioxin] levels. The
elevated tissue [dioxin] levels found over two and three
decades after Agent Orange was initially sprayed
demonstrate the persistence of [dioxin] in human tissue".
Schecter's work in Vietnam has revealed that dioxin levels
in the people of southern Vietnam is higher than in those
from industrialized countries. These are the scientific
facts that are now in the public domain.
It wasn't always this way. Once, we were all ignorant of
the dangers of dioxin because the manufacturers of phenoxy
herbicides did not want us to know. But the US military
knew.
Following on the work in the 1940s by E. J. Kraus at Fort
Detrick, the army continued research into the toxic
components in commercially-available herbicides like
2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. A 1952 correspondence between the US
Army Chemical Corps in Maryland and Monsanto in Missouri
revealed that the army sought information on the toxic
contaminant of 2,4,5-T. By 1959 US army scientists knew
that dioxin was that contaminant. They also knew everything
there was to be known about the toxicity of 2,4,5-T and
2,4-D.
With the start of the war in Vietnam, the US military
conducted experiments with 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D to devise
formulae specifically for military use. Based on these
experiments, Agents Orange (50:50 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T), Pink
(2,4,5-T) and Purple (2,4-D, 2,4,5-T) were prepared.
President John F. Kennedy was told that dioxin was a
contaminant of these biological agents.
In 1963 the US Department of Defence learned that their
biological weapons could be hazardous to health if toxicity
was high, which it was. Throughout the early stages of the
war the US government was aware that high levels of dioxin
were being sprayed in Vietnam. Their response was to order
the chemical manufacturers to deliver their 2,4-D and
2,4,5-T at full strength in barrels unmarked except for an
orange stripe.
Dr James Clary was an Air Force scientist in Vietnam.
"When
we initiated the herbicide program in the 1960s," Clary
wrote in a 1988 letter to a member of Congress
investigating Agent Orange,
"we were aware of the potential
for damage due to dioxin contamination in the herbicide. We
were even aware that the 'military' formulation had a
higher dioxin concentration than the 'civilian' version,
due to the lower cost and speed of manufacture".
There had been congressional opposition to herbicidal
warfare in Vietnam from 1963. A year later, the Federation
of American Scientists opposed the use of herbicides in
Vietnam because it was
"an experiment in biological and
chemical warfare". In 1966, 30 Boston scientists described
the crop destruction as "barbarous". Then in 1967 a
petition signed by 5,000 scientists urged President Johnson
to end the biological warfare while two reports from the
RAND Corporation claimed that the spraying was eliminating
the Vietnamese food supply. On December 16, 1969, by a vote
of 80 to 3 with 36 abstentions, the United Nations General
Assembly - restating the 1925 Geneva Protocol that
prohibited the use of chemical or biological agents against
plants in international armed conflicts - declared that the
US had violated that treaty. The US voted against the
resolution.
Meanwhile, a government-sponsored study by the Bionetics
Research Laboratories suggested an association between
exposure to large doses of 2,4,5-T and possible teratogenic
effects in laboratory animals. The study was kept secret
until 1969 when it was leaked to an environmental group.
As a result of this study and the public outcry, prompted
by diligent investigators like Thomas Whiteside of the New
Yorker magazine, a temporary ban on the use of Agent Orange
in Vietnam was announced by the US government in April 1970
becoming permanent eight months later. The last Agent
Orange mission was flown in January 1971.
"The history of 2,4,5-T is related to preparations for
biological warfare, although nobody in the United States
government seems to want to admit this, and it was wound up
being used for purposes of biological warfare, although
nobody in the United States government seems to want to
admit this, either," Whiteside wrote in 1970.
"Yet in the quarter of a century since the Department of
Defence first developed the biological warfare uses of this
material it has not completed a single series of formal
teratological tests on pregnant animals to determine
whether it has an effect on their unborn offspring".
For Dr Phi Phi, who is one of the plaintiffs in the action
against Agent Orange manufacturers, the truth is out. The
USA's heart of darkness is complete.
-
–
Robert Allen
Next: Pandora's Box
This series on Agent Orange, its deadly toxicity and the legal battle to bring compensation to its victims also appears in The Morning Star, London.
Robert Allen is the author of The Dioxin War: Truth and Lies about a Perfect Poison, Pluto Press [see below], and a forthcoming book, Orange, on the story of Agent Orange and its victims.
Robert Allen is the author of Dioxin War: Truth & Lies About A Perfect Poison, Pluto Press, London/Ann Arbor/Dublin and University of Michigan, US, published in July 2004. Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com.
Book Description
This is a book about Dioxin, one of the most poisonous chemicals known to humanity. It was the toxic component of Agent Orange, used by the US military to defoliate huge tracts of Vietnam during the war in the 60s and 70s.
It can be found in pesticides, plastics, solvents, detergents and cosmetics. Dioxin has been revealed as a human carcinogen, and has been associated with heart disease, liver damage, hormonal disruption, reproductive disorders, developmental destruction and neurological impairment.
The Dioxin War is the story of the people who fought to reveal the truth about dioxin. Huge multinationals Dow and Monsanto both manufactured Agent Orange. Robert Allen reveals the attempts by the chemical industry, in collusion with regulatory and health authorities, to cover up the true impact of dioxin on human health. He tells the remarkable story of how a small, dedicated group of people managed to bring the truth about dioxin into the public domain and into the courts - and win.
Robert Allen is the author of No Global: The People of Ireland versus the Multinationals, Pluto Press, London/Ann Arbor/Dublin, published in April 2004. Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com.
Book Description
Ireland's economy has seen phenomenal growth since the 1990s, as a result of an earlier decision by the state to chase foreign investment, largely from US corporates. As a result, manufacturers of raw chemicals, pharmaceuticals and highly dangerous substances came to Ireland, where they could make toxic products free from the strict controls imposed by other nations.
Robert Allen's book reveals the consequences to human health and the environment of the Irish state's love affair with the multinational chemical industry. The cost to Irish society was a series of ecological and social outrages, starting in the 1970s and continuing into the 2000s.
No Global is a lesson for countries who seek to encourage multinationals at the expense of the health their population and the delicate nature of their ecosystems. It is also a heart-warming record of the successful campaigns fought by local people to protect themselves and their environment from polluting industry
|
|
