Vietnamese Show High Dioxin Levels 30 Years After Agent Orange Spraying

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Forwarded " John M. Novak " <sovereignty4all

 

> Vietnamese Show High Dioxin Levels 30 Years After Agent Orange Spraying

> By Joseph B. Verrengia

> The Associated Press

> Published: May 14, 2001

> http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAKG9ZUQMC.html

>

>

> Thirty years after the U.S. military stopped spraying the defoliant Agent

> Orange, a new study by American researchers shows the level of dioxin

in the

> bloodstreams of some Vietnamese remains " alarmingly high. "

>

> Public health researchers say residents of Bien Hoa City in south Vietnam

> show dioxin levels as much as 135 times higher than in residents in

Hanoi,

> Vietnam's capital hundreds of miles to the north where the defoliant

was not

> sprayed.

>

> Bien Hoa was a major U.S. air force base and important chemical depot

during

> the Vietnam War.

>

> Most disturbingly, they said, some of the affected residents did not

live in

> Bien Hoa during the war and others are children born many years after the

> war ended, indicating they were recently exposed to a persistent

source of

> contamination.

>

> Agent Orange exposure has been associated with cancer, birth defects and

> miscarriages, although a direct link to those health problems remains

> unproven.

>

> The results are published in the Tuesday issue of the Journal of

> Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

>

> Agent Orange has long been a knotty dilpmatic subject for both nations.

> These latest results appear during a particularly tense juncture as

Congress

> delays ratifying a trade pact with Hanoi and amid revelations that former

> Sen. Bob Kerry conducted a raid in which 13 civilians were killed.

>

> But scientists said today's politics should not overshadow the study's

> striking findings.

>

> " We have a public health crisis for the people living in Bien Hoa City, "

> said Arnold Schecter, the study's lead author and an environmental

scientist

> at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas.

>

> " These are the highest levels we've seen since 1973 after Agent Orange

> spraying was stopped, " said Schecter, who has worked in Vietnam since

1984.

> " I have never seen children born after the spraying with levels so high. "

>

> Other public health researchers who did not participate in the study said

> Agent Orange remains a tragic legacy of the war that cannot be

ignored. They

> said the problem probably is confined to a handful of dioxin

" hotspots " that

> could be surveyed and cleaned up with adequate funding.

>

> " Although wishful thinkers might have assumed the problem would go

away over

> time, that data indicate that for some populations the exposure

continues, "

> said Michael Gochfeld of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New

> Jersey.

>

> Between 1962 and 1971, U.S. military tanker planes and helicopters

sprayed

> 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other defoliants in Operation

Ranch

> Hand to deny cover to insurgent Communist forces.

>

> The defoliants were contaminated with TCDD, the most dangerous form of

> dioxin.

>

> Soldiers on both sides, as well as local residents, were drenched by the

> sweet-smelling herbicide. Today, thousands of American servicemen and

their

> families receive disability benefits for health problems related to Agent

> Orange.

>

> Among Vietnam's 76 million people, more than 1 million are believed to be

> disabled, including 150,000 children.

>

> In many places, the Vietnamese countryside has not rebounded from the

> defoliant, but the environmental damage is not uniform.

>

> Bien Hoa, located near Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was one of the

> biggest Agent Orange stockpiles. In the late 1960s, more than 7,500

gallons

> of the defoliant spilled there.

>

> Schecter reports at least two sediment and soil samples from the area

showed

> TCDD levels as high as 600,000 parts per trillion. In the United

States, he

> said, government cleanups have been ordered for levels as low as

1,000 ppt.

>

> Throughout Vietnam, more than 2,400 blood samples collected by the

Red Cross

> showed the TCDD levels in humans typically runs about 2 ppt. In Bien Hoa,

> TCDD levels in 20 people sampled peaked at 271 ppt, and were higher than

> normal in each case, Schecter said.

>

> Left unproven is how the dioxin worked its way into humans. Schecter

> suspects it accumulates in the fatty tissues of fish and water fowl,

both of

> which are important local food sources. Vietnam has not allowed

Schecter to

> analyze food samples.

>

> Even without those laboratory results, Schecter and other epidemiologists

> say they recommend supplying residents near the Bien Hoa hotspot with

clean

> food and water. Then, contaminated sediments and soils can be removed.

>

> Scientists said the hotspot could serve as a test bed for public health

> programs and new cleanup technologies. It also could be useful in finding

> American servicemen and Vietnamese emigrants who were exposed during the

> war, they said.

>

>