Collateral damage: the toxic legacy of Agent Orange

By Plutonium Page

Between 1961 and 1971, over 20 million gallons of herbicide were sprayed over Vietnam, in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops of food and cover.  These herbicide mixtures included Agent Orange and similar mixtures;  all were contaminated with a very toxic dioxin called TCDD.  A landmark study (pdf), published in 2003, showed that the total amount of dioxin sprayed in Vietnam was up to four times what was previously thought.

TCDD is a persistent environmental toxin;  it bioaccumulates, and it is extremely teratogenic (causes birth defects).  In short, spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam resulted in an environmental disaster which is still affecting people over three decades later.

For that reason, in September 2004, a group of Vietnamese citizens filed a class action suit (pdf) against the companies that manufactured the herbicide mixtures, including Dow and Monsanto, plus at least 15 other chemical companies. Hearings began this week in New York.

Look below the fold for background on Agent Orange, TCDD, and  more about the lawsuit and its ramifications.

Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam

Operation Ranch Hand was the military name for the herbicide spraying missions in Vietnam.  By 1971, about 20% of Vietnam's jungles, and 36% of its mangrove forests had been sprayed.  Click here to see a movie of  herbicide spraying locations between 1963 and 1970 (2.9 MB Quicktime movie), or click here for a still map.

Fifteen different herbicide mixtures were used;  most were simply different ratios of two chemicals called 2,4,-D and 2,4,5,-T.  Agent Orange was a 1:1 mixture of these two, and proved to be a very effective defoliant, hence the Operation Ranch Hand motto: "Only You Can Prevent Forests" (mentioned here).  It was named for the orange stripes on the barrels in which it was transported.

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Toxic legacy: TCDD contamination of Agent Orange

According to Dow, TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) was an "unavoidable by-product" of 2,4,5-T production.  A confidential Dow memo released in 1965 states that:

 

...we had a serious situation in our operating plants because of contamination of 2,4,5,-trichlorophenol [2,4,5-T] with impurities, the most active of which is 2,3,7,8,-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin [TCDD]. This material is exceptionally toxic; it has a tremendous potential for producing chloracne and systemic injury.

(emphasis added)

In plain English:  Dow privately admitted that there was highly toxic (TCDD) contamination of the ingredients of Agent Orange.

Effects of TCDD exposure

Despite Dow's repeated claims that there is no connection between Vietnam veterans' (and Vietnamese civilians') chronic illnesses and Agent Orange/TCDD exposure, there is mounting evidence to the contrary:

 

• The EPA has confirmed that TCDD is a Class I carcinogen.

• Agent Orange exposure has been linked to chronic lymphocytic leukaemia

• Operation Ranch Hand veterans have an increased risk of developing type II diabetes

• Children of parents who were exposed to Agent Orange often have severe birth defects (warning: graphic photos)

There are many, many more examples.  The point is that TCDD stays in the environment for decades, as well as affecting second and third generation Vietnamese children (birth defects).  It is also bioaccumulated, i.e.since TCDD is lipophilic (fat-soluble), it ends up in food, which is one of the main sources of exposure for Vietnamese citizens.

Vietnamese file a class action lawsuit against manufacturers of Agent Orange

The plaintiffs will finally have their day in court... and the defendants' responses are predictable.

From the Boston Globe article:

 

It is the first Agent Orange suit filed by Vietnamese. Hearings will begin tomorrow in the US District Court's Second Circuit in Brooklyn.

The chemical companies have moved to dismiss the case, saying US law bars suits against corporations for work they carry out under government contracts. The Vietnamese plaintiffs argue this immunity does not protect companies when their products are dangerously defective, as Agent Orange was.

''The companies knew that their sloppy manufacturing processes caused Agent Orange to contain high levels of dioxin," said Jonathan Moore, one of the plaintiffs' American lawyers. ''They ignored it, because they figured the only people getting sprayed were 'the enemy.' "

The plaintiffs also argue that spraying Agent Orange was a war crime, since international law prohibits the use of chemical weapons. The defendants say this claim is baseless.

''Agent Orange was a defoliant, used to protect US and South Vietnamese troops," said Scott Wheeler, a spokesman for Dow Chemical. ''In no way was it ever used as a weapon."

The companies say that, contrary to the plaintiffs' claims, dioxin in the trace amounts in which it was present in Agent Orange has never been shown to cause disease in humans. Moreover, because the US government was well aware of the herbicides' dioxin levels, the manufacturers say, the government-contractor defense protects them. They say any settlement with Vietnamese victims should result from negotiation between the US and Vietnamese governments, not from litigation against the manufacturers.

Last month, the US government filed a statement supporting the chemical companies. It argued that the court has no authority to judge ''the validity of the president's decisions regarding combat tactics and weaponry," including Agent Orange.

Whether or not Agent Orange can be considered a weapon, the fact remains that irreversible damage was done to the environment and the people of Vietnam.  It's also interesting that the U.S. government supports the chemical companies, with the cover-your-ass reasoning regarding a president's decision about use of weapons.  The latest update on the case elaborates on this point:

 

The Justice Department is urging a federal judge in Brooklyn to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at forcing a re-examination of one of the most contentious issues of the Vietnam War, the use of the defoliant Agent Orange.

The civil suit, filed last year on behalf of millions of Vietnamese, claimed that American chemical companies committed war crimes by supplying the military with Agent Orange, which contained dioxin, a highly toxic substance.

The suit seeks what could be billions of dollars of damages from the companies and the environmental cleanup of Vietnam.

In preparation for legal arguments scheduled for today in United States District Court in Brooklyn, Justice Department lawyers filed a brief last month that described the suit as a dangerous threat to the president's power to wage war and an effort at a "breathtaking expansion" of the powers of federal courts.

Though the case drew little attention when it was first filed, it has become an important test of the reach of American courts, drawing worldwide interest and setting off a fierce debate among international-law experts.

"The implications of plaintiffs' claims are astounding," the government's filing said, "as they would (if accepted) open the courthouse doors of the American legal system for former enemy nationals and soldiers claiming to have been harmed by the United States Armed Forces" during war.

(emphasis mine)

In other words, this is essentially the same argument the Bush administration has used against recognizing the International Criminal Court.

So, what started out as a lawsuit seeking justice for Vietnamese who were exposed to Agent Orange, has turned into a battle over corporate versus government accountability.

Comments

[Meteor Blades]

Thanks, PP, for putting the spotlight on this case.

Every time I read about this environmental disaster, I am reminded that Monsanto faked studies on dioxin exposure, making it appear that there were no ill effects. Evidence of fraud in the studies came to like in Kemner v. Monsanto in 1989. During discovery, victims suing the company over a 1979 rail derailment spill of toxic chemical found that some of the same people who were classified as dioxin exposed in one Monsanto study were, in a later study, classified as not exposed.

A similar thing happened with Dow Chemical's and Shell Oil's production of DBCP, a pesticide for roundworms used widely by Southern and other farmers that I exposed in articles in The Straight Creek Journal in 1977. The company conducted tests and found ill effects of DBCP down to 5 ppm. So, without testing beyond this level, they set the exposure standard at 5 ppm. When male workers started wondering why none of them had children, their low sperm counts were traced to DBCP exposure. Other problems - liver and kidney damage - were also discovered.

[Plutonium Page]

You're welcome, MB.

I did come across some information about the Monsanto dioxin exposure studies, and I actually (vaguely) remember hearing about that way back when.

As for the DBCP, I took an environmental organic chemistry class, and our professor talked about the same case you exposed! Damn, can I have your autograph now? ;-)

[emptypockets]

Thanks for this very informative post... very well presented.

The paper in Chemosphere you link to as evidence that dioxins stay in the environment for decades is slightly sketchy to me. I am not bringing it up to dispute any of your conclusions but just because the science is bothering me. Chemosphere doesn't appear to be a top journal and the authors are from the Vietnamese ministry of health (except the first author who's from a consulting firm). The paper's not online, but I believe they claim they find dioxins in fish, ducks, and humans near the base where the most Agent Orange was stored. It doesn't look like they have any idea what percent of the original dose that represents or what the half-life in the environment is.

But it's clear we dumped a lot of nasty shit on Viet nam and it is still making people sick.

I believe the same could be said of Hiroshima, couldn't it? Is it reasonable for the Japanese to sue the manufacturers of the planes that dropped the bombs? Or for Iraqis to sue the manufacturers of the missile systems that have killed tens (hundreds?) of thousands of civilians?

I am not being sarcastic, I am really not sure. It's an interesting idea, and I haven't thought about it enough to know how I feel. When does it become ridiculous? (Can the Vietnamese sue individuals who were stockholders in Dow during the development of Agent Orange?)

[Plutonium Page]

Hey emptypockets,

I just did the nerd thing and looked up TCDD's half life.

EPA technical factsheet on TCDD.

Its half-life in lakes is about 1.5 years. In soil interiors, it can be as much as 12 years. There's a ton of other data there.

The most important thing to note is that once it's in you, it's there to stay (unless you have liposuction - sorry, that was lame sarcasm). I guess you can think of the bioaccumulation of dioxin as a type of persistence.

[emptypockets]

Page,

thanks for the info & link. That EPA factsheet also notes it is extremely poorly soluble in water, although even the amount you can get into solution is 20x higher than the maximum safe dose for a child to be drinking... it is toxic in the nanogram range & we were I'm sure dumping, storing & spilling hundreds of kilograms there (any numbers on this, by the way? I doubt the military records are available or reliable but the chemical companies must know how many tons of agent orange they shipped & what percent impurity dioxin made up.

As to my other questions about (1) how far the chain of accountability goes & (2) if there is accountability for killing during war, maybe there aren't good answers. Please keep us updated as this goes to trial, if you can, and someone much smarter than me tries to figure out the answers.

[kaleidescope]

The defendants' claim that Agent Orange (2,4,5 T) wasn't used as a weapon is bogus. In Vietnam, 2,4,5 T was deliberately used to destroy food crops, a weaponized use if there ever was one.

The companies' arrogance isn't surprising. As MB points out, they're responsible for a string of domestic atrocities, which has given them a lot of practice at being aggressive and callous.

We all carry these chemicals in our body fat, including the lipid faction of our blood. Recent studies have shown that dioxin exposure can cause endometriosis in MEN. In its 1994 reassessment of dioxin-like compounds, the EPA found that dioxin causes endometriosis and behavioral abnormalities (inability to deal with stress, for example) at concentrations close to background levels among the general population. This means that more sensitive people, and more heavily exposed people, are suffering from these effects right now.

But the companies don't give a shit because they know they don't have to. They continue to poison us with dioxin. For example, a ubiquitous source of TCDD (and other PCDDs and furans) is in every American neighborhood, leaking from virtually every telephone pole. These poles are treated with pentachlorophenol which, like 2,4,5 T, is highly contaminated with dioxins and furans. Most phone poles are treated with penta dissolved into heavy oil, which is what gives the poles their brown color. This mixture is 5% penta and the smallest amount of the brown goo that oozes from the poles contains extremely high levels of dioxins and furans.

The community uses these poles without any idea they ooze chemicals that can make little boys develop uterine tissues in their abdomens. Look around your neighborhood. You'll see kids playing around the poles. My friends and I used to use them as bases for kickball. People use them as community billboards to post "roomate wanted" and lost pet posters. And the toxic brown ooze washes off the poles into streams where it enters the food chain.

To recap: Each of us carries a body burden of dioxin that the EPA says is close to the level that causes endometriosis in women and a host of other developmental abnormalities. And companies are allowed to put more of it right into our neighborhoods without even telling us. In one sense, it's a measure of just how weak our product liability system is (and how sick our society has become) that a chemical like penta -- highly contaminated with dioxin -- can continue to be used where kids play.

These companies have spent a lot of money and worked long and hard to exempt themselves from liability. They thumb their noses at Americans who try to sue them for injuries suffered right here. It's no wonder they sneer at Vietnamese who seek justice for what was done thirty years ago nine thousand miles away.

If there is a hell, the executives of Dow, Monsanto, and Vulcan will surely be there. That is to say nothing of their political enablers.

[Shelia Snyder]

Fred Wilcox told the Agent Orange Story best back years ago but no one paid attention. In his book "Waiting For An Army To Die---The Tragedy Of Agent Orange." Thing is we didn't pay attention nor did we learn for we continued much of the same in the Gulf Wars & today we go on....maiming our heroes & watching them continue to suffer & die after they come home to another war. We continue to maim our own & deny them all in the same breath that we have have saved another country? When will we ever learn???

[tim o'rourke]

greetings to all viet vets...

sprayed and betrayed.. that says it all.. great article...funny thing about this is that the people of vietnam will more then likely get compensated, while most viet vets won't.. funny how our gov. wants us to fight for it,and then betrayes us!!!!

tim o'rourke
founder- namvets7@groups.aol.com

[David Starr]

I was stationed on Guam,not only did the airforce spray the old runways with AO,The planes wereloaded at Anderson AFB,spills on tar mack,wash dowen the drain to the aquafier and we all drank it.I have pic's where it was buried,the truck numbers -forklift numbers.photo of the barrels that read clear Ao-AB-AW. I have 4 kids with birth defects -spinal bifida,extra toes , CA,mental slowness,The kicker is I was told at AO exam as "positive findings" --Yet I am being denied because it wasn't Nam.Texas veterans magazine OOPs last time with stating the AO was transferred from Okinawa to Nam also.I called them and they didn't realize that they had made a positive stament to the fact it was all over the damned place. I suffer daily as do my kids.I have uncontrolled Diabetes with multiple injections and 6 times a day testing.Have no feelings in the hands &feet.Pawned of as something else caused it.
Any help for Guam veterans is appreciated. There are 8 of us fighting to win other than Guam . Respectfully David Starr. For give misspelled -blind.

[Frank Idzikowski]

I am seeking Vietnam Vets who have daughters that have endometriosis. I am wondering if it is related to my exposure to agent orange. There is no endometriosis on either said of our families.

[Frank Idzikowski]

I am seeking Vietnam Vets who have daughters that have endometriosis. I am wondering if it is related to my exposure to agent orange. There is no endometriosis on either said of our families.

[Richard P Pacheco]

2002 diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma, also have diebetes,perifual noropthy,Asstoporosis due to chemo, unable to walk short distance and can,t stand for more than 5 min.

[Dee Washkoske]

I was married to a Vietnam Vet and we had a daughter. She is now on Social Security Disability and has had more than 25 surgical procedure to remove the endometriosis that keeps recurring.

I am a nurse and investigator and recently wondered if there was a connection between the Agent Orange her dad was exposed to and the endometriosis. The clinic she goes to now is treating her with "aromatase inhibitors" also know as chemotherapy drugs which helped her get some control over her pain from the endometriosis.

My ex-husband went for 3 tours to Vietnam and developed diabetes from his exposure to Agent Orange.

Dariela R. Washkoske, B.S.N., R.N.
Senior Claims Analyst
ProClaim America, Inc.
930 Magnolia Field
San Antonio, Texas 78251
Phone (210) 767-8032
Fax (210) 767-8044
e-mail: dariela@satx.rr.com

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[Jeff Shrider]

I am trying to find any other active servicemen stationed in Okinawa during Vietnam. My father recently passed away and had diabetes and non-hodgkins lymphoma. I am reading a lot about Vietnam vets who were in-country that have these AO related diseases, but nothing about vets from Okinawa. Thanks for help.

[John McGinn]

I served at Anderson AFB (1968) and at Kadena AFB (1970) as a Security Policeman. We humped the B-52's and the ammo dumps. I remember a post near Pott's junction that smelled real bad, there 55 gal drums stacked up. I was diagnosed with type two diabetes, had quadruple heart by-pass, ventricular tachacadria they put in a pacemaker that lasted about ten years then a difribulator. They cleaned out my right corotid artery and know say that I haave a growth on my thyroid gland, just started by test today. I need solid info to file a claim. There was a case awarded out of Boston for a guy stationed at Anderson. Any info will help. Thank You John

[Richard Spinale]

I was stationed at anderson AFB (1966 thur 1968) I need help proving my disabilities which were caused by agent orange. mine are diabetes type two,and peripheral neuropathy which affect legs and hands, and numerous other problems. I worked around the flight line and drinking water wells. We used to spray on a daily if not weekly basis.Dioxon was clearly used. We had a chemical dump where the drums were stored and most of them were damaged. Need all the help I can from my fellow brothers. Ph 1-707-795-3260 Thanks

[Greta King]

I am looking for daughters of vietnam vets or WWll vets who was exposed to agent orange and now have thyroid problems. Please contact me

[Larry Flores]

TDY assignments to Andersen AFB Guam 1967-69, from Westover AFB MA. In Supply Squadron. Dioxin or Dioxin-like and other harmful contaminants found outside our barracks at Marbo Annex, 6 3-story buildings. Seek other GUAM VETS. If you have disabilities or like to share VA claim information, send me an e-mail. My other e-mail address: LarryF819@yahoo.com. I live in Corpus Christi Texas. (Houston VA)

[Erin]

i'm looking for information linking agent orange exposure to endometriosis in the children of Veterans.

[edward j gruetter]

i was stationed on guam at andersen afb, 3ad hq command post from 1965-1967. also in canada and thailand. to keep it short i have since had or still have glaucoma, type2 diabetes, prostate surgery, thyroid and throat cancer surgery and cancer of my rt kidney and subsequent removal. i've consistently been denied by the va. can anyone sugggest help for me. thank you

[Bruce Borton]

I was stationed at the Naval Facility at Ritidion Point in 1971 and 1972. Being in the SeaBees we sprayed weed killer on the edge of the jungle to keep it back. Boy was I stupid. Now I have type II Diabetes and have suffered from this disease for about 10+ years. Anyone else out there who is in a similar situation I could use your help to research this.

Thanks

[sadie r]

I am looking for other children of V.Vets that were born with heart defects.

I am 33 and just finished my second open heart to replace my deformed valve.
My beloved Father passed away 2years ago. He was a victom of A.O and was in the process of a class action law suit. He lived in Mlps Mn.
He suffered terrible PTSS. And died alone because of it. I was devistated. That war took his soul. And, made me sick as a result.......

[tony moschella]

okinawa from 73 - 76. now suffering from diabetes, mood swings, anxiety, high cholesterol, neuropathy, triple bypass at 46 need to hear from others with similar conditions or anyone with information concerning ao storage or transportation through okinawa.

thanks.

[Dennis L. Beachnaw]

I am 58, was in Okinawa68,69,&70. Many problems. I am now in the VA Loma Linda,Ca.
If you could send any info of men in "C" Company at 2nd Log Command,
Machinato,Okinawa

[Gene Wright]

I have a host of physical maladies that are all symptomatic of Agent Orange exposure but since I was in Guam 1973 to 1973 the VA says I am not apt to have been exposed to AO. I say BS what do you say?? Can anyone prove AO was there?