Scientists express disappointment over US dioxin stance
Click
Here to Add CommentSubject: VietNam Investment Review - No. 543/Mar 11 - Mar 17, 2002
Date:
Sun, 7 Jul 2002
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State
of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
THE United States has again disappointed American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and other dioxins it sprayed over the country during the war.
Despite strong worldwide criticism from scientists, the US has insisted that it needs more time to study the level of impact of the toxic herbicides on both people and Vietnam’s environment.
The US mood was revealed during the first-ever international conference on the impact of Agent Orange, held last week in Hanoi.
Researchers from 19 countries presented the findings of around 100 separate studies on the effects of this and other chemical defoliants.
A statement issued by the conference organising committee said: "If we can address the important and difficult issue of exposure assessment, the Vietnamese population may offer a special opportunity for studies of exposure/disease relationships that does not exist anywhere else in the world."
US ambassador to Vietnam Raymond Burghardt admitted that the US military had sprayed more than 72 million litres of defoliating dioxins on Vietnam between 1961 and 1970.
The US stressed that the purpose of the Hanoi meetings should be confined to assessing priorities for research into the effects of dioxins. Asked if his agency was willing to discuss broader issues, US Environmental Protection Agency official William Farland said: "We have said it’s about research."
The conference heard various discussions on health effects, which generally focused on studies related to cancer, birth defects and effects on the endocrine and reproductive systems.
"The US government wants to see evidence that these health problems are the result of dioxins and that Agent Orange is connected to disabilities," said Thomas Corey, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA).
Anne Sassaman, director of Extramural Research at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said: "It’s clear there are long-lasting environmental impacts associated with the spray operation of the US military."
After the conference, Chuck Searchy, also of VVA, said: "It’s just more talk at high levels. A very expensive conference offering nothing new to help victims."
Paul Sutton, head of the VVA Agent Orange/dioxin committee, whose three children were born with birth defects he believes were caused by his exposure to the toxic chemical, said the US government and the makers of the defoliants, Dow Chemical Company and Monsanto Company, had to own up to their responsibility to compensate victims.
"This is a very thorny issue that just has to be worked out," he said. "We, in our organisation, believe we should see fair and equitable compensation paid to victims and more work done on solving the related health problems of people in this country," he said.
"They have been using the same line [that more research is needed] all along," said Sutton. "They are simply worried it might end up costing them millions and millions of dollars to tackle a problem they should have solved 30 years ago."
The head of Vietnam’s Red Cross, Nguyen Trong Nhan, told foreign press that Agent Orange victims could not wait years for more research to be conducted but needed help now.
"We feel...we can have answers in less than a few years," said VVA president Tom Corey. "I am talking no more than three years before we see significant answers by joint research."
Le Ngoc Trong, Vice Minister of Health and chief of the organising committee said: "The research results delivered in the conference have shown us comprehensive scientific evidence of the relationship between Agent Orange/dioxin exposures and human health and environmental problems."
"The effects of the chemical defoliants on people in Vietnam is a reality which needs to be comprehensively addressed," he said.
Christopher Portier, director of the Environment Toxicology programme at the US Department of Health and Human Service said:
"Whilst there are definitely some associations between dioxin exposure and certain diseases, the scientific community rarely aggress on specifics. It takes years and years of research, debate and discussion before you can either confirm or discount particular findings," he told Vietnam Investment Review.
"While many international experts concur on some results, there is a great deal which is not yet proven. I want to stress that I am speaking here on behalf of scientific community, not for the US government," he said.
The former US Ambassador Pete Peterson, in an interview with this paper in 1997 said "there was not enough scientific evidence to link US chemical warfare with alleged victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam", a statement which later received strong criticism from some US scientists.
As part of their campaign during the American War, US forces sprayed millions of litres of Agent Orange and other defoliants on Vietnam from 1961 to 1970, causing heavy damage to the Vietnamese people and environment.
The Vietnamese government is itself funding a number of research projects aimed at restoring areas contaminated by defoliants and to assist victims to lead a normal life.
What people have said: Boxed – let’s look to the mirror – please cut
Chuck Searcy, country representative for the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial Fund
I know that the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has done much to try to alleviate the suffering of Vietnamese children and veterans who were exposed to the dioxins. Other organisations such as the Red Cross and international NGOs, and even some individual American veterans with a conscience, have also provided assistance.
However, the US Government so far has done nothing except propose "more study and research" on the problem. All Americans must continue to work in every way to persuade our government to provide direct assistance to the Vietnamese through expanded disability assistance, and through efforts to help Vietnamese people in contaminated areas to live safely.
Lady Borton, American Friends’ Service Committee
As you may know, the US Government Veterans Administration compensates all American veterans of the US war in Vietnam who suffer from certain medical conditions recognised as linked to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
The Veterans Administration assumes that any US veteran who served in Vietnam between January 9, 1962 and May 7, 1975 may have been exposed to Agent Orange and eligible for compensation.
Most US veterans served for just one year. However, toxins were dumped on the land and people of Vietnam for close to 10 years.
Yet the US government refuses responsibility. The US continuing insistence on more scientific ‘proof’ that Vietnamese are victims of Agent Orange dioxin poisoning is an outrage.
It’s racist. It’s time-consuming, expensive, and wasteful. We already know toxins cause cancer. We already know toxins cause birth defects.
While the US government shuns this moral, humanitarian issue, there are families in need.
In 1983, I visited the OB/GYN Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and saw the specimen room lined floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall with glass crocks, each containing a molar foetus or a full-term baby with alarming birth defects. The mothers had all come from sprayed areas.
As I stood there staring, the light changed. Sunlight glinted across the crocks, turning them into mirrors. In each mirror, floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall, I saw I was my normal self.
Over the past 18 years, whenever I have looked in a mirror, I have seen those full-term, stillborn babies. Day by day, they have reminded me to take some small step. We have the power of ordinary people. We care. We each have our own strengths, resources, friends.
Day by day, we can look ourselves in the mirror and ask what small action we will take today. With many of us, each contributing, we can help.
Dear Mr. Helliker, Ayn Rand (Russian-born Am. novelist, 1905-82): Writing in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal [1967] "America's Persecuted Minority" noted that: Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. "We" are now bombing Columbia and forcing people to use/misuse your "registered" POISONS all over the world. What do you think of the "excuse"? Do you ever look in the mirror and ask what you should do?
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, please email us at list@safe2use.com.