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Agent Orange use 'understated' |
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The United States military used much
more Agent Orange and other defoliant spray during the Vietnam war than
previously thought, scientists say.
A new study of US military records also
found that the amount of cancer-causing dioxin chemicals in the spray has
been seriously underestimated. The report, commissioned by the US
Government, is the culmination of a five-year project by environmental health
experts at New York's Columbia University. Between 1961 and 1971, the US military
sprayed parts of southern Vietnam with defoliant chemicals - such as Agent
Orange - with the aim of allowing the Americans and their South Vietnamese
allies to spot Vietcong forces moving in the forests. The Columbia team painstakingly examined
operational records of individual spraying missions in Vietnam, and
cross-referenced them with procurement records showing which kinds of
defoliant were used at which times.
They conclude that 77 million litres of
Agent Orange were used - rather than 70 million litres as has been estimated
previously. But according to project leader Professor
Jeanne Stellman, the most significant finding concerns dioxins - chemicals
known to cause cancer. "We think there was at least twice as
much dioxin as had been thought before - and that number is a conservative
estimate because it seems very likely that much of the earlier Agent Orange
was much more heavily contaminated with dioxin," Professor Stellman
said. 'Millions' affected Her team has published their work in the
scientific journal Nature. But it also forms part of a report which
the US Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned from the National Academy
of Sciences. It will almost certainly increase pressure
within the United States for a comprehensive medical assessment of veterans
exposed to Agent Orange, but also pressure from within Vietnam for assistance
and compensation. The Columbia team concludes that
"millions of Vietnamese were likely to have been sprayed upon
directly". Previous research has found that some
Vietnamese have 200 times the normal level of dioxin in their bodies. |
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We
think there was at least twice as much dioxin as had been thought before -
and that number is a conservative estimate 
Agent
Orange hotspots located
By BBC
Science's Helen Sewell
Scientists investigating the effects of Agent
Orange in Vietnam have found that people living in a so-called hotspot have the
highest blood levels of its poisonous chemical dioxin ever recorded in the
country.
Agent Orange, which has the dioxin (TCDD -
short for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) as one of its constituents, was
last used in 1973.
But today, some residents of Binh-Hoa, near
Ho Chi Minh City, have 200 times the background amount of dioxin in their
bloodstreams.
Agent Orange was widely used by the US
military during the Vietnam War as a defoliant so that Vietnam's dense jungle
could not provide cover for Viet Cong forces.
'Startling' results
It was when US veterans started to become ill
with a variety of health problems that investigations suggested that Agent
Orange could be involved.
The most dangerous ingredient was the dioxin,
a pollutant that stays in the environment for decades.
There are still about 12 dioxin hotspots in
Vietnam, in areas where very heavy spraying took place.
Scientists from the United States have been
working with the Vietnamese Red Cross in these areas, testing residents to see
whether they are suffering any ill effects.
The lead scientist, Professor Arnold Schecter
of the University of Texas, says they are "very startled" by the
results.
Export worry
In a paper to be published in the journal
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, he says that in Binh-Hoa, 95% of
people sampled had elevated levels of dioxin in their bloodstream, and some had
200 times the average amount.
Dioxins, which include TCDD and other related
compounds, can cause cancers and problems with reproductive development, the
nervous and immune systems.
It is thought the high levels of dioxin found
in Binh-Hoa residents result from the chemical leaching into watercourses where
it is absorbed by fish and ducks, which form part of the Vietnamese diet.
The issue is very sensitive for Vietnam,
which exports these foods all over the world.
Deal
reached on Agent Orange
Vietnam
says up to a million people were affected
Hanoi and
Washington are to research jointly the effects of the notorious chemical
defoliant Agent Orange, which the US armed forces sprayed on Vietnam during the
Vietnam War.
The issue has long dogged relations between
the former enemies, with Vietnam's authorities alleging that the health of up
to a million people has been severely damaged.
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Both sides were gratified with the spirit of co-operation and
scientific discussion
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US embassy statement |
When he was in office, former US President
Bill Clinton called for more international research into Agent Orange, and
Tuesday's breakthrough accord will free up US funds to do just that.
The US Congress has already approved funding
for the studies, but the release of that money was contingent on the two sides
reaching agreement on how to conduct the research.
Scientists representing the two governments
met in the Vietnamese capital and agreed to conduct a study to screen soil for
its most dangerous chemical component, dioxin.
There will also be a joint Vietnam-US
scientific conference on human health and environmental effects of Agent
Orange, tentatively arranged for April 2002 in Vietnam.
Carcinogenic
The Hanoi meeting was the first between the
two sides after five days of talks on joint research broke down in Singapore
last November.
A statement from the US embassy in Hanoi said
both sides were "gratified with the spirit of co-operation and scientific
discussion".
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US troops sprayed Agent Orange over the Vietnamese jungle |
"[They] look forward to future
interactions and continued progress in addressing research collaboration on
dioxin and related compounds, a scientific issue of importance to both
countries," it said.
US troops sprayed millions of gallons of
Agent Orange and other defoliants on Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 to deny jungle
cover to communist fighters who eventually triumphed in 1975.
The chemicals were contaminated by TCDD, the
most dangerous form of dioxin, which is a known carcinogen.
Washington, however, has consistently argued
there is no solid scientific proof that Agent Orange caused, as Vietnam and
some US veterans say, a wide range of illnesses, including tens of thousands of
mental and physical birth defects.
Many US scientists doubt that the problem is
that widespread and argue that more research is needed to establish exactly
what impact dioxins have on human health.
Wednesday, 15 November, 2000, 17:47 GMT
Agent
Orange's toxic legacy
Is
Agent Orange affecting a third generation?
By
Owen Bennett-Jones in Hanoi
One of the key issues likely to come up
during President Bill Clinton's visit to Vietnam this week is the legacy of
Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used by US forces which has been blamed for
huge numbers of birth defects.
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Agent Orange was used to destroy tree cover |
The Vietnamese authorities say they fear that
illnesses caused by Agent Orange are now being passed on to a third generation
of victims.
During the war in Vietnam the Americans
sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange on the country in an attempt to
deny food and cover to the enemy.
To Tien Hoa is a 65 year old grandfather who
spent seven years fighting against the Americans.
He was repeatedly sprayed by agent orange.
"My son was born with a deformed foot and now my grandson has no legs and
a deformed hand. I can confirm this is because of Agent Orange."
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This girl's skin is covered in black spongy blotches |
Scientists say it is not that simple. The US
does pay compensation to some of its own serviceman for Agent Orange related
illnesses, but proving a link between various medical conditions and Agent
Orange is difficult and highly controversial.
There is, however, widespread agreement the
dioxin which Agent Orange contained is very dangerous.
Some parts of Vietnam, especially the sites
of former US air bases where the herbicide was stored, have high concentrations
of dioxin.
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The US sprayed 20 million gallons over Vietnam |
The most thorough survey yet has been
conducted by a Canadian, Chris Hatfield, who says that in some places it
appears dioxin has not really reduced at all.
"Dioxin has moved from the soils to the
sediment of fish ponds and into the fish themselves that are raised in the
ponds for food - right up into the blood and breast milk," he added.
Clean-up
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This child was born with no legs |
The suspicion that 25 years after the war,
dioxins could still be infecting foetuses through the placenta and infants
through breast milk has added urgency to the demands for a clean up.
"So far the Vietnamese government has
not been able to do anything to clean up," said Professor Le Cao Dai, the
Executive Director of the Agent Orange Victim Fund and one of Vietnam's leading
experts on the issue.
To break down dioxin, affected soil has to be
heated to very high temperatures - an expensive process.
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Many handicapped come from villages that were sprayed |
President Clinton is expected to stress the
US's commitment to international research on the issue.
In recent months the US has also, for the
first time, begun to discuss the possibility of providing technical assistance
for a clean-up of Agent Orange.
Pete Peterson, the US ambassador in Vietnam
and a former prisoner of war during the conflict, says they are beginning a
"full research effort on Agent Orange".
Friday, 19 November, 1999, 12:13 GMT
Vietnam
War poison
Julian
Pettifer speaks to Kim Thoa: is she a victim of Agent Orange?
By Arlene Gregorius
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Kim Thoa is a bright and cheerful
fourteen-year old girl from the North of Vietnam. She speaks some English, and
has a talent for drawing and painting. She also suffers from a very disfiguring
skin condition: her face and body are covered in patches of inky-black, scaly
skin.
Listen to
this programme in full
That's why she's taught at Than Shuan Peace
Village, one of several special boarding schools in Vietnam for children with a
range of mental and physical disabilities. Why should Thoa's black skin patches
put her in a class with pupils who have severe learning difficulties? Because
all these children, regardless of the nature of their various conditions, are
alleged to be victims of Agent Orange, the herbicide and defoliant sprayed over
much of South Vietnam during the war.
But how could the children, none of whom is
older than sixteen, possibly be victims of the Vietnam war, which ended in
1975? And how could they be affected by a substance sprayed only up until 1971?
We asked the deputy director of the Peace Village, Nguyen Huy Long.
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Agent Orange has been linked to mental and physical problems |
"Although the war ended long ago",
he said, " the children here are still considered victims of the war,
because their parents fought in the battlefields in the South, and were
affected by Agent Orange." In other words, according to Nguyen Huy Long,
Agent Orange caused the veterans to father children with mild or severe birth
defects.
The children probably get better medical care
here than they would otherwise, and they're not made to feel freaks. But we had
a strong feeling that the brighter children here were unlikely to reach their
full intellectual potential.
And it also seemed to us that these children
were being used for propaganda purposes. Their future appeared to be sacrificed
to the greater good of gaining international sympathy, and funding. For, as we
found out, there is now a veritable Agent Orange trail, well trodden by foreign
journalists, charity workers, and anyone else who shows a serious interest in
the matter. All are taken to the same places.
After the Peace Village, our next stop was
the 10-80 committee, so-called because it was set up by the Vietnamese
government in October 1980 to investigate the effects of Agent Orange on people's
health and on the environment. We asked Professor Hoang Dinh Cau, the chairman
of the Committee, about their findings.
"What we discovered is that Agent Orange
causes diseases in victims' eyes, as well as the lungs, the liver and other
organs. But especially, we discovered birth defects in the children of affected
people." He then showed us a number of statistical charts. There was one
about the number of babies born with birth defects in one of the main hospitals
of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). It showed that the number of such births
rose dramatically after the Vietnam war. Another graph showed that levels of
dioxin in mothers' breastmilk were up to seventeen times the maximum safety
level.
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Banners warn of the dangers of dioxin |
Agent Orange is a compound of two herbicides,
and the combination of these created a type of dioxin as a by-product. This
substance is the most toxic chemical known to mankind. Five parts per trillion
are known to kill laboratory animals. No scientist, whether in Vietnam or the
West, would dispute that dioxin can cause a whole range of cancers, and some
other diseases. But birth defects?
Professor Arnold Schecter of the University
of Texas School of Public Health is one of the world's leading experts on the
subject. He's made fifteen working trips to Vietnam, two of them this year. He
insists that it's extremely unlikely that most of the deformities shown to people
in Vietnam are caused by Agent Orange.
The higher levels of dioxin in breast milk
only exist in a small number of women in the South, and not in the North, he
says, so it's almost impossible that the conditions of the children in the
Thanh Shuan Peace Village, for instance, are caused by Agent Orange.
Professor Schecter admits that "Vietnam
is the world's worst dioxin incident", and that therefore when quoting
Western evidence, one might not be comparing like with like. However he says
scientists have learnt enough from other dioxin contaminations - in Italy,
Taiwan or Japan - to be sure that the vast majority of birth defects are not
caused by Agent Orange.
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We took the train south, to Quang Tri
province just south of the former DMZ, the "demilitarised zone" on
both sides of what was the border between the Communist North and the
American-backed South Vietnam during the war. Quang Tri province was one of the
most heavily sprayed areas of Vietnam, and where some of the toughest fighting
took place.
Khe Sanh, Hamburger Hill, the Ashau Valley,
Camp Carol, Con Tien - all these former U.S. marine bases and battlefields were
Quang Tri. The U.S. bases repeatedly sprayed their surroundings with Agent
Orange to give clear fields of fire in every direction.
We went to a village near Con Tien to meet a
local farmer, who has seven children. The three eldest were born whilst the
family lived in an area that had not been sprayed, and they were healthy.
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This farmer had three healthy, then four disabled children |
The disturbing fact was that the four
youngest were born here, in Quang Tri province, and they were all both mentally
and physically disabled. "When the oldest of the four was born", hed
told us, " the doctor said that maybe I was affected by a poisonous
chemical. He advised me not to have any more children."
As we walked away from the village, we met
another team of journalists. Quang Tri province, too, is a firm fixture on the
Agent Orange trail. But could the conditions of the farmer's four youngest
children really be caused by dioxins in the soil, and hence the food chain,
here?
Professor Arnold Schecter doubts it. To prove
it, one would have to test blood samples of the farmer and his family to see if
they contain elevated dioxin levels. This is expensive, costing up to US $1,000
per sample. Few laboratories in the world - and none in Vietnam - can do it.
The high cost is only one reason why more
research on Agent Orange's legacy has not been done. Both Vietnam and the US
are reluctant to fund it. And the reasons for that reluctance are political.
The Vietnamese government isn't united on the
issue. Those concerned with public health want more research done, but those
dealing with commercial interests don't want any adverse publicity about
dioxins which could affect food exports, such as rice, and tourism.
The US attitude is also ambiguous. No-one
from the US Embassy in Hanoi or at the State Department in Washington was
prepared to speak to us. But it's clear that the US is worried about possible
compensation claims from Vietnam.
There are already claims for a billion
dollars compensation for Agent Orange damage, from South Korean veterans who
fought on the American side during the Vietnam war. So the US too is playing
for time.