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Article Excerpt
The war in Vietnam saw the first full-scale use of herbicides in warfare. Inspired by tactics of the British in Malaya, the US military developed an expansive spray-system (comprising aircraft, handsprayers, trucks, helicopters, and boats) aimed at the defoliation of mangroves and forests, and destruction of crops and their distribution so as to remove aerial cover and food supplies to the North Vietnamese and allied forces (Stellman et al. 2003). While its effectiveness as a weapon of warfare has been questioned, its effects have been far reaching. (1) Approximately two-thirds of the herbicides sprayed contained a highly toxic, irremovable chemical known commonly as dioxin, (2) which is able to concentrate in the body of animals and humans (Stellman et al. 2003; Schecter et al. 2001). Recognized as among the most toxic substances ever produced, archives recently released from the US Department of Defense inform the extent of exposure and concentration of dioxin to be far greater than previously thought (Stellman et al. 2003). It is now contended that an additional seven million litres of herbicides were sprayed, in particular with heavy dioxin concentration: more than doubling the total dioxin deposited to 366 kilograms or the world's largest dioxin contamination. Agent Orange, the main herbicide used and primarily for defoliation, it is now thought to have contained closer to 13 parts per million dioxin than an earlier estimate of 3 parts per million. Due to recording error and lost inventory, as well as questions as to what extent did vaporization occur in the atmosphere or after the spray had landed on vegetation, and the extent to which spraying continued after the Americans left, the exact amount of dioxin deposited can never be determined. Over a ten-year period 1961-71 it is estimated that 15 to 16 per cent of land cover of the former South Vietnam, and at least 2.1 million and as many as 4.8 million people were directly sprayed (Stellman et al. 2003). (3) Missions, discontinued officially in 1971, it is alleged continued by allied South Vietnamese forces until the end of the war in 1975 (Johnstone 1971; In Re: "Agent Orange" Product Liability Litigation 2005). (4) Select areas of Laos and less directly, Cambodia, that flanked the major supply and reinforcement route known as the "Ho Chi Mirth Trail" were also targeted. Extraneous in the whole, the extent of territory exposed and the number of flight missions remains contested (Stellman et al. 2003).
Described by villagers as a white mist that fell from the sky, herbicides containing harmful dioxin compound thus settled into the soil and waterways of the former French dominion Indochina, making way into animal or human tissue either by direct contact through the skin or lungs or by eating sprayed foodstuff (CGFED 2003, p. 28; Ngo Thi Kim Cuc 2003-2004). Being fat- and oil-soluble, dioxin bioaccumulates as it moves up the food chain (FDA-CFSAN 2003). A fish, for example, will have higher concentration than the plants and animals they eat; so too humans that eat the fish. Fish, a known conduit of dioxin and animal staple of the Vietnamese diet, is suspected as the main contributor of dioxin (Schecter et al. 2001, p. 442). The chain is propagated finally as it is transmitted through conception and or the breast milk of nursing mothers (Schecter et al. 2001; Dwernychuk et al. 2002).
A slow mobilizer over time, it was, perhaps, the disproportionately high number of "child monsters" born in dioxin-exposed regions that first raised alarm. Early reports sent chills of rising numbers of infant mortality, congenital malformation, miscarriage, and premature birth among exposed persons (10-80 Organizing Committee, 1993). While the science of dioxin is not completely understood, it is known to alter cell growth, hormones, and growth factors with more severe and consistent effects coming in the early stages of development (EPA 2001, 2001a; NAS-IOM 2004). At very low concentrations, dioxin has been shown to have very serious effect on the reproductive system (Le Cao Dai et al. 1993; Le Thi Nham Tuyet and Johansson 2001). (5) Common are stories of men whom before the war fathered healthy children to return and have multiple deformed children, and of those fathering multiple children with defects with more than one partner (CGFED 2003; Fox 2003; In Re: "Agent Orange" Product Liability Litigation 2005). International toxicology studies and studies conducted on American veterans of the war in Vietnam have further confirmed the statistical link between an exposure to dioxin and disease. In 1997 the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer included the dioxin congener (TCDD) contained in Agent Orange and other agents used in the conflict in Vietnam as carcinogenic (cancer-producing) to humans. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) convened finally in September 2000 that dioxins, in particular the TCDD form contained in Agent Orange, are potent and persistent animal toxicants with potential to cause widespread human health effects (EPA 2001). These include, for example, reproduction and development effects, depression of the immune system, severe skin conditions such as chloracne, and cancers. The study, commenced in 1991 with other federal agencies and the scientific community, represents an ongoing reassessment of the limits of science.
To date the majority of political and scientific attention has settled on veterans in the United States, and to a lesser extent, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Individually, and in class actions, veterans have sought to recover damages against the US government and the manufacturers of Agent Orange. (6) In 1991, after a long and ongoing struggle from veterans and their allies in Congress, the Agent Orange Act entered into force whereby any veteran, serving however briefly in Vietnam and suffering from any Agent Orange-associated disease, is entitled healthcare and disability compensation (Veteran Affairs 1997). Monetary benefits range from US$108 per month for a veteran with 10 per cent disability to US$2,299 for a 100 per cent rating (Veteran Affairs 2005, p. 4). (7) Subsequent bills were passed to provide a range of benefits to children of veterans suffering from the condition spina bifida and certain birth defects in the children of women veterans (Veteran Affairs 2003). By its own laws the US government is amenable to the use of toxic herbicides in Vietnam and Korea (8) but has yet to compensate victims outside of its borders, absolving that the exact consequences on human health are undetermined (Ha Thang 1997; Brunnstrom 2005).
At the time of writing a new generation of victims is emerging in Vietnam. In 1999 a national health survey was commenced by the Ministry of Health as a preliminary register of persons who reported or displayed any possible Agent Orange-associated diseases. One million persons were listed, of which fifty thousand were children; however, for want of resources universal blood testing and verification of diseases was not completed (Vietnam News 2001). In view of recent recalculations from the University of Columbia indicating that as many as 4.8 million people were present during the period of spraying these figures are thought to be conservative, particularly given the length and continuing exposure of the Vietnamese population (Stellman et al. 2003). (9) Given that the nature of the chemical is not yet fully understood and that an unknown number of persons have already died as a direct result of their exposure, the true number of those affected can never be determined with accuracy. There is, however, some light to be mentioned with sign that the genetic link is attenuating, though the question as to the fate of future generations remains uncertain (10-80 Organizing Committee 1993; Ngo et al. 2006).
The persistence of dioxin in the soil has been measured in decades. A combination of tropical rain, erosion, and chemical degradation over time is thought to have reduced the general threat of contamination in aerially sprayed areas yet for those in which herbicides were stored, loaded and or sprayed more directly very high dioxin levels continue to be recorded in soil, blood, and breast milk samples (Dwernychuk 2005; Dwernychuk et al. 2002; Schecter et al. 2001). (10) Lower yet elevated soil concentrations have also been taken from aerially sprayed areas, with abnormally high readings coming from sites typically where contaminated earth has been excavated, that is, where a pond is dug to raise carp, for example (Dwernychuk et al. 2002). Yet in general, the bulk of recent scientific research and fears focus on areas immediately surrounding former storage and loading bases where protracted perimeter spraying occurred. By the same measure are locations of known flight missions shot down and abandoned. At least five C-123 loaded aircraft each carrying 1,000 gallons of herbicides crashed, and another 42 were forced to dump their sortie in emergency (Stellman et al. 2003). As far as can be judged there has been only modest remediation of contaminated areas. In total it is estimated that approximately 2.6 million hectares were sprayed by herbicides at least once, of which 1.7 million hectares were sprayed by herbicides containing dioxin compound TCDD (Stellman et al. 2003). (11) Some upland forest areas were sprayed up to ten or more times (Stellman et al. 2003; HCL 2001). The actual...
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