Agent Orange - Dioxin War Legacy

[Guest guest]

Taken from the Occ-Env-Med Chatboard. Wonder what the long term effects

will be from the micoherbicides we are using in Columbia and Afganastan in the

" War on Drugs " will be?...Which, in some cases, are the same toxins produced

within a damp, poorly ventilated, indoor environment. (fungal toxins)

PS. I am back from my vacation. Did you all miss me?

Sharon

FEATURE - Vietnam, US Set New Tone on Dioxin War Legacy

This article had no content I felt right about dropping, so QUITE

contrary to my usual policy, the whole text is posted here. I believe

that occasional fair-use rules have to protect their copyright and our

dissemination.

- G

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38329/story.htm

VIETNAM: October 3, 2006

BIEN HOA, Vietnam - Doctors warn people living near the Bien Hoa

military airport not to drink the water, eat the fish or grow fruit

and vegetables because of wartime dioxin poisoning.

Brain-damaged babies and children with shortened limbs and other

physical deformities are still being brought to hospitals for

specialised care, four decades after the United States sprayed Vietnam

with the highly toxic defoliant.

In recent months, Vietnam and the United States have started to

overcome years of frustration in both governments about how to deal

with environmental and health effects of the poison code-named " agent

orange " .

Americans and Vietnamese say they are perhaps just months from

planning environmental clean-up and containment of dioxin, beginning

at the former US air base in the central city of Danang.

" Assisting Vietnam with this issue will help clear the conscience of

the US government, " said Le Ke Son, director of " The Committee 33 "

working on impacts of an estimated 70 million litres of toxic

chemicals used from 1961 to 1971 by the US military and the South

Vietnam government it supported.

The war ended on April 30, 1975 when communist North Vietnam took

Saigon, re-named it Ho Chi Minh City, and unified the Southeast Asian

country.

Hanoi and Washington restored diplomatic ties in 1995 and they are now

cementing a friendship founded on growing trade and business ties as

Vietnam introduces market reforms.

But the consequences of the toxic war remain a painful sore in the

relationship that both governments and non-governmental organisations

dearly wish to repair.

" There has been a lot of work on the issue, " said Marine, US

ambassador to Hanoi. " The question is very complex. What you do is in

part driven by how you intend to use the site, the land, the cost for

the clean-up. "

HOT SPOTS

Scientists identify coastal Danang, Vietnam's fourth largest city with

about 1 million people, the south-central town of Phu Cat in Binh Dinh

province and Bien Hoa in the southern province of Dong Nai as " hot

spots " , wartime bases where the chemicals were stored and spilled.

Bien Hoa is a bustling city of 500,000 people about 40 km (25 miles)

north of Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam's industrial heart.

It is a typical Vietnamese city, teeming with motorbikes, construction

sites and Internet cafes alongside displays of communist hammer and

sickle symbols and party slogans.

But its military airport and surrounding lakes, ponds and land are

toxic. The Vietnam military plans to clean up the site.

A study by Vietnamese and Canadian scientists of Hatfield

environmental consultants in West Vancouver, British Columbia,

measured dioxin levels in the soil that are hundreds of times higher

than is acceptable in other countries.

" My dream is to conclude work on these hot spots in the next five

years, " said Son, a scientist at the Ministry of Natural Resources and

Environment who serves on a joint Vietnam-US panel of technical

experts who met for the first time in June.

Washington has ruled out paying compensation but is willing to share

technical advice with Vietnamese counterparts.

The non-governmental Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation provides

expertise and the Ford Foundation, a US philanthropic group, has made

grants for environmental and health research.

" Part of the reason we are making these grants is so that they can

develop a more accurate view of the nature of the threat, " says

, Ford Foundation representative in Vietnam.

BUSH VISIT

The subject could come up when US President W. Bush visits in

November for the Asia-Pacific Economic ation (APEC) forum

summit.

But the issue is also legally sensitive because a Vietnamese victims

group is suing 37 American chemical companies in a US federal court.

The class action lawsuit was thrown out in March 2005 and the group is

appealing the ruling.

Americans, Australians, New Zealanders and South Koreans who served in

the war were also exposed to dioxin. They have all had some success in

obtaining services and care for themselves.

It is only with increasing economic prosperity that poor,

under-developed Vietnam has sought to improve assistance to Vietnamese

victims and to try to find out how many there are.

Children of people exposed to dioxin during the war have also been

sickened or deformed, but researchers say no one can yet accurately

quantify the total number of victims. The National Academy of Sciences

in the United States found that up to 4.8 million people " would have

been present " during spraying.

In another recent development, the United Nations has become involved

for the first time.

The United Nations Development Programme in Hanoi proposes the

establishment of a transparently governed trust fund where

international donors, companies and governments could put money for

dioxin-related environmental and health work.

" The stars really are aligned. I think we are getting there, " says

Koos Neefjes, senior advisor at UNDP in Vietnam.

DOCTORS AND VICTIMS

The doctors who work daily with the victims or live with environmental

and health impacts welcome the progress being made towards reducing

contamination and eventually ridding the country of dioxin.

" I don't hold any grudges or anger and I am of a view of letting the

past go and if we can do something now then we should do what we can

to help, " said Nguyen Thi Phuong Tan, head of the " Peace Village " for

the disabled in Ho Chi Minh City, one of 12 nationwide.

Every day, Tan and her staff of doctors and nurses provide care to 339

patients from infancy to 25 years old. They include children with

enlarged heads or shortened limbs and one with skin covering the face

where there should be eyes.

Some of the patients lie in a vegetative state in cots, others are

teenagers reading and writing and wrestling playfully with students

who come to visit the hospital.

The doctor's " let bygones be bygones " attitude is typical of

Vietnamese, who are known for being pragmatic.

Even in Bien Hoa, where toxicity levels are highest and health

authorities say there are 465 people with dioxin-related disabilities

or illnesses such as cancer, a doctor speaks in a matter-of-fact way

about the calamity.

" We have a few solutions, including warning residents against using

the water from ponds and lakes near the airport, " said Tu Thanh

Chuong, director of Dong Nai province health department. " We told

people not to eat fish from this area and we banned the production of

fruit and vegetables in the contaminated land. " (Additional reporting

by Nguyen Nhat Lam and Nguyen Van Vinh)

Story by Grant McCool