U.S. and Vietnam Work to Clean up Agent Orange

http://english.ntdtv.com/ntdtv_en/ns_asia/2009-09-25/276816167024.html

A Luoi, one of the poorest districts in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, is still dealing with the consequences of the Vietnam War.

One of the places in the district, "Hamburger Hill," was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting.


Agent Orange was heavily sprayed to clear the supply route of the Ho Chi Minh Trail from North Vietnam.

For many Vietnamese, the "ghost of war" is still there. They believe that most disabled children born with deformities in the region have been affected by Agent Orange.

U.S. planes dumped about 18 million gallons of the chemical on Vietnamese forests during the war to destroy Vietnamese sources of food and cover.

Studies have shown that Agent Orange sprayed during the war is still present in so-called "hot spots" at levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere.

Cleanup efforts at a former U.S. military airbase in Danang City have been made by the Vietnamese and U.S. governments and non-governmental organizations. Concerns were high Agent Orange on the base would contaminate a nearby lake and soil.

[Dr. Lai Minh Hien, Natural Resource & Environment Ministry]:
"In the first phase, we have to isolate the affected area and closely monitor it. We also carry out a pilot program for remediation technologies, either bio-remediation or chemical remediation or physical remediation technology, so that we can find and apply the most appropriate technological method."

During the fourth annual meeting recently in Hanoi, Vietnam urged the U.S. to speed up funding for Agent Orange victims while continuing efforts to clean-up the "hot spot" areas.

But the United States has maintained there is no scientifically proven link between the wartime spraying and the claims of dioxin poisoning of more than three million people in Vietnam.

[Dr. Kevin Teichman, Joint Action Committee Co-chairman]:
"It's a very difficult no matter to disabilities in any country from different causes, as there are so many causes for potential disabilities. Our concern at this point is to help those populations that are in the 'hot spot' communities to learn what we can do there to give information out to prevent future disabilities if at all possible, and then extend those lessons elsewhere within the country."

Besides the environmental task force, the two sides also created a health task force as a joint effort to help disabled Vietnamese whose health problems might be linked to Agent Orange.

St. Paul photographer documents lingering aftermath of Agent Orange on Vietnamese families

http://www.minnpost.com/artsarena/2009/09/25/11898/st_paul_photographer_documents_lingering_aftermath_of_agent_orange_on_vietnamese_families

By Susannah Schouweiler | Published Fri, Sep 25 2009 8:12 am

Legacy of an Ecocide. Agent Orange Aftermath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoC0ZuKVENs&feature=player_embedded

There's an unforgettable installation of photographs on view now at St. Catherine University -- "Legacy of an Ecocide: Agent Orange Aftermath."

St. Paul photographer Petronella Ytsma spent several weeks in Vietnam in 2007 and 2008 documenting the human legacy of the Vietnam War, specifically the lingering genetic maladies left among Vietnamese survivors and their families by America's widespread use of the herbicide dioxin during the war.

"I had a chance, through Gustavus Adolphus College, to teach a class in Thailand in 2006, and I fell in love with Southeast Asia," she recalls. "I was struck by how warm the people are, how beautiful — just incredible — the land is. And the food is amazing, too," she laughs. "How could you go there and not come away smitten?"

"Like everyone my age -- I'm 60 -- I was deeply affected by the Vietnam War." Ytsma says. "I recently started doing research on the issues surrounding Agent Orange, in particular, soon after one of my friends, a veteran, passed away from a dioxin-related cancer."

She goes on, "Then, shortly after my friend died, I started thinking about the generational effects of the war for families in Vietnam. I wanted to see what we'd left behind there, all these years afterward. And the larger concerns continue today, I think: the ripple effects of our nation's current activities in the Middle East and in the ongoing international production of similarly toxic chemicals - these issues are still relevant."

So, with funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board, Ytsma took a leave of absence from her job and returned to Southeast Asia to take stock of those ripple effects in Vietnam for herself.

"I hired an interpreter and got a letter of introduction from Mayor Coleman, and that allowed me to meet Vietnamese officials." Then, with the aid of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange and other international relief agencies and nonprofit aid organizations, she started taking portraits. In all, she visited more than 70 Vietnamese families still touched by their wartime exposure to Agent Orange.

"I wasn't there as a social documentarian. Actually, I wasn't detached at all: I ate with these families, drank tea with them, wept with them. At first, I was unsure -- afraid they might feel bitterness or that I was intruding, or, at the very least, I was concerned they might treat me with suspicion as an outsider. To be honest, I thought that sort of response would be understandable," she says. "But instead, they welcomed me as an honored guest and invited me into their homes."

She describes the experience of documenting their lives, their dignity and familial devotion, in sacred terms: "I felt like I was on the inside of a prayer."

"As difficult as it is to face such stark realities," she says, "I hope these images can be one way the viewer can come to terms with their own footprint in the universe. We should be reminded that our actions - individual and national -- have impact on other people, sometimes for generations down the line. I hope, through these personal portraits, we can remember that other people's children are just as precious as our own."

Indeed, what's most haunting about these beautifully made black-and-white prints isn't the heartbreaking disfigurement bequeathed to innocent generations by Agent Orange. Rather, it's the abundant tenderness captured in these photographs that lingers in the mind: fingers interlaced, a hand affectionately placed on a child’s shoulder, lovingly chosen baubles and youngsters carefully decked out in their Sunday best to have their pictures taken. The friendly guilelessness of the younger generations in these photos is also striking, especially in contrast with the steely but tired gazes of their elder caregivers. (You can see many of the images included in the exhibition online here.

Presenting the images of "Legacy" publicly has been easier said than done, as it turns out. "I've gotten tons of rejections," Ytsma admits, "from funders, venues, publishers and the art world. It's been very difficult to get this work shown."

"But I felt, throughout this process, that I needed to make a trade with these families," she says. "If you take someone's picture, you have the sense that you're taking a piece of that person's soul with you. I needed to give something back to them in exchange."

Because of that debt she feels, she says, "It's never been enough, to my mind, just to hang the photographs. Part of the way I can pay homage to these people is to use the photographs to encourage a larger public conversation. It was always important to me that the installation at St. Kate's should also include a symposium (PDF). We need to have more dialogue about these issues, about how national decisions made in our name ripple throughout the world."

"I don't have any answers, as much as I wish to God images like these could provide them," she says. "I find, after all this, I'm left, mostly, with more questions. But if there's a central thread here, maybe it's just about treading softly as we move through the world."

"Legacy of an Ecocide: Agent Orange Aftermath," an installation of photographs by Petronella Ytsma, will be on view at St. Catherine University, in the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery, through Oct. 31. The related symposium and panel discussion -- scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 27 from 2 to 4 p.m. in the J'eanne d'Arc Auditorium -- is free and open to the public. Exhibition catalogs are available for purchase at the gallery; a portion of the proceeds from each sale will be donated to the Catherine G. Murphy Gallery and to the families directly affected by the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese miracle

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/09/21/23844/

OPINION
September 21, 2009



By Charlie Metzger, Senior Columnist

The face of a Vietnamese child affected by Agent Orange (AO) is an image that sticks with you. It’s especially hard to get rid of if he asks if he can have your American water bottle because he’s never seen anything like it before. Or when you consider that his physical deformities and mental challenges are the direct result of a chemical that your government sprayed on his country, all the while knowing that it would cause birth defects like the ones he lives with today.

I met plenty of children like the one described above during the seven weeks I spent in Vietnam last summer as part of a program run by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS). Most of them lived at a government-run village for children affected by AO, but several, especially in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), were beggars asking predominately Western tourists for money. So much for reparations.

What’s remarkable about AO victims, though, is that they’re some of only a handful of readily apparent indicators in present-day Vietnam that one of the bloodiest wars in history ended there just 30 years ago. They’re easily overshadowed by the exploding industry and vibrant culture of what many people call “Asia’s most beautiful country.” In a lot of ways, what was most startling to me about my time in Vietnam was how much the country’s current state challenges conventional Western ways of thinking about the world, many of which I seriously bought into before I left. So, instead of using this space to argue for the merits of going abroad and leaving the Orange Bubble (which has been done ad nauseam in these pages before) I thought I’d discuss a few.

First, surprising as this may seem, Vietnam is an encouraging counterexample to the idea that anti-Americanism is insurmountable in some parts of the world. According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press last July, while President Obama’s election has helped improve the standing of the United States worldwide, “in predominantly Muslim nations, widespread concerns about U.S. policy and power linger.” And while the Muslim world views Obama as a major improvement over George W. Bush, the uptick in American popularity there has been modest at best.

By contrast, Michael Michalak, American ambassador to Vietnam, told me that a survey conducted by the American Embassy in Hanoi a year ago reported that 88 percent of Vietnamese have a positive view of Americans — a strikingly high percentage. If a country that the United States occupied in violation of an international agreement (the 1954 Geneva Conference) invaded on the basis of trumped up and fabricated allegations (the Gulf of Tonkin Incident) and then, to quote Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay, “bombed back to the Stone Age” — we dropped more bombs on Vietnam during the war than on Germany and Japan combined in World War II — can come such a long way in just a few short decades, the prospects for American relations with the Middle East, North Korea or Venezuela don’t seem nearly as bleak.

Second, modern Vietnam is a challenge to the idea that freedom is universally desired and universally applicable, especially when you consider that “freedom” means something very different to Vietnamese. To choose just one freedom (of many) denied to the Vietnamese people by the central government in Hanoi, freedom of the press in Vietnam is more or less nonexistent. But while the slightest hint of media censorship in the West almost sparks revolution, Vietnamese people on the whole don’t seem to mind that they don’t have access to free and fair media outlets. In fact, even the well-educated, young Vietnamese journalists that Princeton put me in touch with, some of whom had spent time in America, much preferred a state-run media to the bloodletting they argue would come about if political reform were accelerated. If given a choice between an expansion of freedoms and continued stability, most Vietnamese would choose the latter.

Finally, unlike other allegedly authoritarian regimes bent on self-preservation (China in particular), the Vietnamese government hasn’t tried to clamp down on what some see as potentially dangerous aspects of Vietnamese culture — religion in particular. The Catholic Church has made great inroads nationwide, and Buddhist Temples are a dime a dozen in major cities. The Hanoi government has also made a major commitment to ancient art forms like Ca tru (a style of dance accompanied by ethnic music), which many other single-party states would view as a threat.

Vietnam still has a long way to go — beneath the surface lie several serious problems, not least of which is the potential danger of Western and regional corporations exploiting local workers or of corruption and nepotism undermining the stability Vietnamese believe should be the country’s top political concern. All the same, in 30 years, Vietnam has managed to transform itself from a nation ravaged by war to one in which serious economic growth has dominated the last two decades. In many ways, that’s nothing short of a miracle.

Charlie Metzger is a sophomore from Palm Beach, Fla. He can be reached at cmetzger@princeton.edu

US, Vietnam face Agent Orange legacy

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLBZotnFuse0ioSlZelFi3wXn4aw


By Ian Timberlake (AFP) – 1 day ago

DANANG, Vietnam — Mai Khai contentedly grows his potatoes and melons smack up against an old brick wall surrounding a former US airbase in Vietnam which experts say remains highly contaminated.

Almost four decades after American troops stopped wartime spraying of Agent Orange and other herbicides containing potentially cancer-causing dioxin, United States and Vietnamese officials are cooperating on preliminary clean-up measures at the Danang airport.

Full-scale decontamination has yet to begin, though, and could take years.

While the preparatory work continues, Khai faces only a limited danger from his vegetables, foreign and Vietnamese experts said.

But residents near the airbase do face a more general dioxin risk, they said. A Canadian study found elevated dioxin levels in people living near the north and east of the airbase although neither foreign nor Vietnamese experts could say exactly how many people are at risk from the contamination.

"We have globally, collectively, agreed that this stuff is bad," said Koos Neefjes, an adviser on dioxin to the United Nations in Hanoi.

Khai, 76, is not worried.

"There's no pollution here," says the longtime area resident. "I'm still alive."

During the Vietnam War, US forces stored Agent Orange at Danang and other bases where it was loaded onto airplanes for defoliation missions.

Jungle areas that were sprayed do not have high levels of dioxin today, said Thomas Boivin, president of Canadian environmental specialists Hatfield Consultants, who have spent years studying dioxin contamination in Vietnam.

But US and Vietnamese officials have identified the old US bases in Danang, Bien Hoa -- near the former Saigon -- and Phu Cat as significant "hotspots" where spillage, washing of aircraft and loading of the herbicides contributed to contamination.

At Danang airport now, dioxin levels are still 300-400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, Boivin said.

Almost two years ago Vietnamese officials, assisted by the US, installed a concrete cap over the former Agent Orange mixing and loading area and improved drainage and filtering of lake sediment inside the Danang airbase.

Authorities also banned people from eating fish or other foods from lakes on the property.

These temporary measures have prevented contamination from spreading, officials from both sides said.

The affected area is under Vietnamese military control and is separate from the passenger terminal in Vietnam's fourth-largest city, which authorities want to promote as a tourist destination.

Without further action, contaminated material at the hotspots will continue to be dispersed through soil particles as well as water currents, wildlife and air, Neefjes told annual US-Vietnamese Agent Orange talks this month.

Dioxin can be passed through the food chain via fish or fowl.

Other donors are also assisting but at Vietnam's request, the US is focusing its help on the Danang site.

US officials told AFP that "such a complex and politically sensitive issue" has required consensus both within the US government as well as between the US and Vietnam.

The US has "certainly worked as fast as we possibly can to get moving on this project," US ambassador Michael Michalak said after a senior Vietnamese official complained at the recent talks that US funds had not been disbursed quickly enough.

Bids have been received and a contract will soon be announced for an environmental assessment and preparatory work at the Danang site, Michalak said. In June both sides began testing "bioremediation", the use of biological organisms to destroy dioxin.

The cleanup will require moving tainted soil to a landfill before it can be decontaminated either by biotechnology or another method, said Lai Minh Hien, director of Vietnam's Office 33 which deals with Agent Orange.

Decontaminating all three former bases could cost about 60 million dollars or more, Hien told AFP in an interview, calling for additional funding from the United States.

"We want the US to put in more effort," Hien said.

Michalak countered that it is too early to say what a cleanup would ultimately cost.

Le Ke Son, co-chairman of the bilateral talks, agreed. He said the scope of contamination in Bien Hoa, for example, is greater than initially thought and requires a new study.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975 but the US and Vietnam did not normalise relations until 1995. Twelve years later, with US approval of three million dollars for dioxin mitigation and health activities in Vietnam, American policy changed to support a cleanup, US officials said.

President Barack Obama this year signed a bill doubling that assistance to six million dollars.

Vietnam blames dioxin for a spate of birth deformities but the US says there has been no internationally-accepted scientific study establishing a link between Agent Orange and Vietnam's disabled and deformed.

Hoang Thi The, 71, a widow who lives near Danang airport, said she knows nothing about the six million dollars but would like US funding for her disabled children.

She kept one hand, as if protectively, on the damaged wheelchair of her son, Tran Duc Nghia, 35, who sat with his mouth open and eyes vacant. His sister Tran Thi Ty Nga, 31, held onto a walker, sweat forming on her neck.

The said doctors told her the children, normal in their earliest years, became affected by Agent Orange.

"I was told that if we lived near the places where Agent Orange was stored or was sprayed, we may be hit by these toxins," said The, who remembered the sound of planes taking off during the war.

"But I did not know that they carried Agent Orange."

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

September 2009
Vol 3, Issue 4
Birth Defect News
National Birth Defect Registry
http://www.birthdefects.org/registry/privacy.asp
Eye of the Whale
National bestseller Douglas Carlton Abrams' new novel, Eye of the Whale, brings to vivid life the crucial issues that motivate our work here at Birth Defect Research for Children. This is a captivating ecological thriller about a marine biologist and a neonatologist couple who discover the true impact of toxins and the danger they pose to ourselves, our children, and the planet as a whole. This page-turning adventure story will move you with its beauty and inspire you with its message of hope for what we can accomplish together.

While writing Eye of the Whale, Abrams worked closely with leading scientists to uncover the shockingly true facts on which it is based. This powerful story will transform how readers see their relationship to other species and the fragile world in which we live.

Through a special arrangement with the author, Healthy Child is delighted to offer its members a free sample of the book: Click here. Read it to inspire your own work, then share the link and the book with your friends and family so that they will recognize the dangers we face and join you in your support.

For more on Doug, his books, and his research, please visit

Whole Foods Markets Supports BDRC
Whole Foods
On September 11, Leah Abell (left), the Marketing Director from Whole Foods Markets in Winter Park, Florida presented a check for more than $2,500 for BDRC to Betty Mekdeci, Rachel Thomas and David Mekdeci from BDRC's staff. The Whole Foods Market gave 5% of their profit from one day's receipts at the busy store. During the day, BDRC staffed a booth to talk with customers about the organization's work on birth defects.

Whole Foods offers the most abundant organic produce selection in Central Florida, a full-service seafood counter and well stocked natural meat case. The wine, cheese and beer corner is a local favorite, boasting the best selection of specialty cheeses in the area and hundreds of unique wines. The bakery is full of delicious pastries, hearth baked breads and gluten-free breads. Whole Foods also has a full line of nutritional supplements and a staff that is eager to help you find answers to all your natural health questions.

In This Issue
Lead Alters Brain
Overweight Babies
Birth Defect News Briefs
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1101610839236

National Birth Defect Registry

Healthy Baby Resource

Free Parent Information

Agent Orange & Birth Defects

Baby Green Genes Marketplace

Prenatal Exposure to Lead May Permanently Alter Brain Structure
Research Microscope

Childhood lead exposure can result in abnormalities in the wiring of the brain that persist into adulthood.

Exposure to low to moderate levels of lead before birth and as a child can permanently change the brain's structure in a way that may alter if and how it transmits messages, a new study finds. The conclusions are based upon comparisons of images of the brain's nerves and their protective coverings - collectively called white matter.
More differences in the nerve cells and the thickness of their coverings were found in adults who had higher lead exposure during development and as children. Some areas of the brain developed less robust nerve pathways and other parts had thicker or thinner coverings. More...


Are Prenatal Chemical Exposures Causing Babies to Be Overweight?
Baby Green Genes Banner
In 2006 scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health reported that the prevalence of obesity in infants under 6 months had risen 73 percent since 1980. Since these babies are consuming only formula or breast milk, and don't get a lot of exercise, the obvious explanations for obesity won't work for babies.

The search for the non-obvious has led to early-life exposure to traces of chemicals in the environment. Evidence has been steadily accumulating that certain hormone-mimicking pollutants, ubiquitous in the food chain, have two previously unsuspected effects. They act on genes in the developing fetus and newborn to turn more precursor cells into fat cells, which stay with you for life. And they may alter metabolic rate, so that the body hoards calories rather than burning them. More....


Environmental Birth Defect News Briefs


Washington compiling top 50 chemicals toxic to kids. In 2008, Washington became the first state in the nation to pass a law requiring manufacturers to report whether certain products contain chemicals toxic to children. More...

Is swimming pool chlorine fueling the allergy epidemic? Swimming in a chlorinated pool may boost the odds that a child susceptible to asthma and allergies will develop these problems, a study released today indicatesStudy finds pesticide link to childhood leukemia. More...

Chemical pollutants linked to fewer female births. High exposure to PCBs and PBBs, now-banned industrial chemicals that persist in the environment, may lead to fewer female births, a new study suggests. What this means for the public at large is unknown. More...

New briefs from Environmental Health News
Above the fold. News aggregated by www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org


Betty Mekdeci
Birth Defect Research for Children
Give Direct

Birth Defect Research for Children offers families free information about their child's birth defects; links to other families whose children have similar conditions and connections to support groups, chat rooms and resources. BDRC also sponsors the nation's only National Birth Defect Registry collecting ongoing data for studies to discover the causes of birth defects. BDRC also educates families about how to have healthier babies through the online Healthy Baby Resource. All of these services are made possible through your support. Your help today will help us continue these services tomorrow. Click on Give Direct to make an online donation.


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Welcome
Birth Defect Research for Children is your resource for free birth defect information, parent networking and birth defect research through the National Birth Defect Registry.

The National Birth Defect Registry
The National Birth Defect Registry is a research project designed through a collaboration of seven prominent scientists. The registry collects information on all categories of structural and functional birth defects as well as the health, genetic and environmental exposure histories of the mothers and fathers of these children. Registry data have identified patterns of birth defects in the children of Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans. The registry has also helped detect clusters of birth defects in communities with toxic environmental exposures and in the children of mothers exposed to similar medications during pregnancy. Registry data have been presented to numerous government agencies and in many national and international media forums.
Click here to participate in the National Birth Defect Registry and Parent Matching Project.

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Through the National Birth Defect Registry we also match families of children with similar birth defects. You will receive a list of other families who have children with up to three of your child's major birth defects or conditions.

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If you experience any problems with the site, please contact us at staff@birthdefects.org.

Agent Orange & Birth Defects

http://www.birthdefects.org/registry/main.asp

http://www.agentorangebirthdefects.blogspot.com/

www.birthdefects.org

The National Birth Defect Registry is a data collection and research project sponsored by Birth Defect Research for Children. The registry collects information about birth defects, learning and attention disorders, childhood cancers and other childhood disabilities.

According to the National Research Council, 3% of all birth defects and developmental disabilities are caused by environmental exposures and another 25% or more may be caused by an interaction between genes and the environment. To assess these associations, the registry asks about the mother's and father's prenatal and pre-conceptual exposures to a variety of factors.

The questionnaire is in a secure section of our web site protected by Verisign. After you complete and submit your questionnaire(s), our staff will download the information into the main registry at our offices and your information will be completely removed from the server.

To participate, please enter your email address in the designated box and type in a password. You will then be able to create a unique profile for each child that may be accessed with this email address and password until your information is downloaded to the main registry.

If you would like to participate in BDRC's parent-matching project, mark yes on the parent matching question. We will send you the names, addresses and phone numbers of other families who have children with disabilities similar to those of your child.

If you have any questions about participating in the registry and parent-matching project, please call Birth Defect Research for Children at (407)895-0802, or email our staff.

Privacy Statement

Birth Defect Research for Children is not a government agency. BDRC is an independent 501 (c) ( 3 ) nonprofit organization funded by public donations and grants. The registry is in a Verisign security protected area of our web site. All personal identifying information collected through the registry is confidential. Your name and personal information will never be released without your permission. If we use data from your case for birth defect cluster evaluation, your case will be identified by an ID code only. If we are collaborating with researchers on a study, we will contact you and ask you to sign a “Consent to Participate in Research” form if you wish to participate in the study. Since it is important to be able to get in touch with you for further research, we will contact you quarterly by e-mail to update you on the progress of the National Birth Defect Registry. We will also ask for address updates or if you want to add new conditions your child may have been diagnosed with since you first filled out the questionnaire. Please make sure that the address and e-mail information you provide in the questionnaire is complete and accurate, so that we can get in touch with you if a research study is underway involving birth defects like those of your child.

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Public release of Hatfield's Da Nang dioxin report.

The latest report from Hatfield Consultants regarding dioxin levels in the environment and human population on/near the Da Nang airbase, Viet Nam , will be ready for public distribution at the beginning of October. Those who wish to receive a CD copy of the complete report are asked to contact Ms. Gerry May ... gmay@hatfieldgroup.com ... requesting the report. Please provide a complete mailing address. There will be no charge for the report.

Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk
Sr. Scientist/Advisor
Hatfield Consultants
(Retired)

http://www.hatfieldgroup.com/services/contaminantagentorange.aspx


Contaminant Monitoring/Agent Orange

Hatfield is a world-recognized leader in the field of Agent Orange contamination resulting from historical spraying of dioxin-contaminated herbicide in Viet Nam. Since the 1980s, Hatfield has worked closely with regulatory and medical authorities to measure and monitor ultra-trace levels of contamination in fish and wildlife, human tissue and sediments not only in Viet Nam, but also in Lao PDR, Thailand, the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Mongolia and British Columbia.
Services

* Chemical contamination monitoring – measuring and monitoring existing and proposed industrial development projects.
* Monitor trends in bioaccumulation – dioxin and furan monitoring in sediments and biological tissues.
* Environmental Effects Monitoring – integrated assessments of pulpmill water and sediment quality, invertebrate communities, fish health, and sub-letahl effluent toxicity.
* Inventory of dioxins and furans – compliance with the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
* Capacity building – training in the collection, preparation and analysis of various environmental media and training in site identification and prioritization for remediation.
* Health Risk Assessment - identifying environmental pathways and human exposure.

Projects

Agent Orange investigations
Since 1994, Hatfield has been at the forefront of research, studies, and mitigation work related to Agent Orange Dioxin in the environment and human population of Viet Nam. From 1994–2009, Hatfield conducted an investigation of residual dioxin and other contamination around key former military sites, and developed mitigation measures to help prevent the local population from future exposure. more>>

Regional Capacity Building Program in South East Asia Hatfield is implementing the Regional Capacity Building Program for Health Risk Management of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in South East Asia. The key objective of the program is to improve the ability of government agencies in the South East Asia Region to manage POPs and POPs-like chemicals using a health risk-based approach. A second objective is to improve inter-governmental cooperation on hazardous chemicals issues in the region. more>>

Coastal dioxin and furan monitoring programs
Since 1989, Hatfield has understaken annual dioxin and furan trend monitoring programs for the pulp and paper industry in British Columbia, Canada. Trends in the concentration of dioxins and furans in biological tissues and sediments were correlated to changes in effluent treatment and the bleaching process. more>>
Detailed Information

* Agent Orange reports and presentations from Hatfield and other organizations
* Hatfield Agent Orange work in the news
* Useful Agent Orange websites, videos, books & studies

Agent Orange: The Damage Lives On In Vietnam

photo: vi.wikipedia.org

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/september162009/agent_orange_cp_9-16-09.php

Chuck Palazzo Salem-News.com
The damages continue, relief is possibly in sight, but there is so much more to do and so little time
The lasting legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam
A legacy of Agent Orange and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

(DA NANG Vietnam) - It’s absolutely no surprise that even to this day, environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient that made Agent Orange what it was – an insidious poison that was sprayed for years in Vietnam as well as other countries for a variety of reasons– but especially in Vietnam.

The base referred to in this article is Da Nang. That’s where so many of us flew in and out of, were stationed in or around, and where this poison was mixed, stored and loaded onto aircraft for eventual spraying in Vietnam.

The earth was sprayed and contaminated, trees and plants defoliated, wildlife sprayed and killed, and worse, Americans as well as Vietnamese have suffered premature deaths, diseases they would not have been stricken with if not exposed to Agent Orange.

They as well as their offspring continue to suffer as this toxic cocktail continues its journey from generation to generation. Dioxin levels at this location, to this day, continue to exceed ALL international standards and guidelines for toxic chemicals.

"The work we have done really demonstrates that this is a manageable problem," said Thomas Boivin, president of Hatfield. "We now know where the contamination is coming from; we just need the international financial support to get on with the cleanup."

We have known for years. It’s been well documented. In fact, the US Government, while they still contend they did no wrong in spraying Agent Orange on the Vietnamese as well as Americans and our allies, actually outlawed the use of Dioxin in the US for that very same reason.

After years of disagreement on how to handle the ongoing problem, the US and Vietnam finally agreed to work together and come up with a solution in 2006. Yep, that’s not a typo folks – 2006. 31 years after the fall of Saigon.

How toxic is toxic?

Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. military released more than 19 million gallons of herbicides in South Vietnam to destroy enemy crops and deny a very formidable foe cover by defoliating dense mangrove forests and triple canopy jungles.

What some people knew at the time and people at the very top of the US Government and War Machine was that some of the herbicides contained a highly toxic form of dioxin, known as TCDD. The toxin was a byproduct created while manufacturing mixtures such as Agent Orange, the most widely used of a handful of herbicides contaminated with TCDD. Unintended? Perhaps. But known to be toxic and by more than just a few folks? Absolutely!

Environmental scientists from a Canadian firm (Hatfield) last week presented the findings from the study, which documents that high levels of TCDD from the herbicides still contaminate soil inside a former U.S. airbase in Da Nang as well as sediment from a lake that abuts it. And this is just Da Nang – one of 3 hotspots identified within South Vietnam that was sprayed and that is still contaminated. Approximately 10 percent of South Vietnam was sprayed during those years.

The study uses TCDD's chemical fingerprint to trace its movement through the food chain, from the soil and lake sediment to the fat of fish and ducks to the blood and breast milk of humans.

Where are we today?

Plain and simple, we are worse off than we were when we started a series of lawsuits, blogs, demonstrations and everything else we possibly could do to seek justice from the US Government.

The VAVAO brought suit, after numerous other failed attempts to make things right against the US Federal Government. The arrogance of successive administrations in Washington was nail after nail in the coffins of those who suffered and eventually died.

The then President of the Veterans For Peace (VFP) David Cline, was quoted by stating:

“While the chemical companies had responsibility and should be held liable, the primary responsibility lies with the U.S. government which ordered the continued use of these poisons” after they were known to be toxic. “Our demand has always been testing, treatment and compensation for Agent Orange victims” by the U.S. government.

Progress was made with passage of the Agent Orange Act in 1991 admitting that these chemicals cause a long list of diseases, he continued. Unfortunately, David succumbed to his many ailments, primarily directly linked to Agent Orange before any major laws were enacted, and funds granted to help us all – which we still await. David was a dedicated activist as well as a decorated combat hero. His mission, and his legacy, were and are to make things right and make the US accountable for these and so many other wrongs.

Judge Jack

That brings us to recent days. On March 10, 2005 Judge Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn Federal Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against producers of chemicals defoliants/herbicides, denying millions to those poisoned by the rainbow defoliants.

Good ole boy, Judge Jack Weinstein threw out the lawsuit that was initiated by the VAVOA, rejecting their argument that Agent Orange was a weapon subject to the Geneva Convention and their use against civilians was a war crime. Weinstein held that Agent Orange did not target people in Vietnam but was instead a “defoliant” aimed at Vietnam’s jungle.

Judge Jack, please allow us to spray you from head to toe with Dioxin – an eye for an eye? Certainly not. But The Honorable Judge needs to feel it and needs to pass it on to his offspring – then perhaps his head will come out of the sand. And guess who appointed Judge Weinstein?

Our old friend and former US President, Lyndon Johnson. Starting to see a pattern evolve here brothers and sisters? Gulf of Tonkin lie and farce – thank the former President for that lie that caused the US to become more deeply involved in the Vietnam War.

An additional case against the manufacturers filed by US veterans in the mid-1990s was dismissed at the same time. Both dismissals were upheld by an appeals court in 2008 and an appeal of the Vietnamese case to the US Supreme Court was dismissed in March 2009.

The Recent International Tribunal

Most recently, an International Tribunal convened in Paris. Rena Kopy, our sister member of the VVAW was selected to represent our organization as well as all of those affected by Agent Orange – US Veterans, allied Veterans as well as the Vietnamese and of course their offspring. The Tribunal, amongst other things, found in our favor:

The US government is guilty of crimes against humanity for using Agent Orange in Vietnam according to a ruling by the International People’s Tribunal of Conscience announced in Paris on May 18. The verdict, reached after a two-day trial held May 15 - 16, found the US guilty of violating International Law by using Agent Orange to conduct illegal chemical warfare. Millions of gallons of the chemical were sprayed over Vietnam despite knowledge that it contained dioxin, one of the deadliest substances known to science. Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Uniroyal Chemical and 29 other chemical manufacturers were found guilty of collusion with this criminal act.

After hearing testimony from 27 victims and expert witnesses, the tribunal ruled that Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and their families are entitled to full compensation from the US government and the companies that manufactured and supplied the chemical. The judgment also requires the defendants to restore the environment to pre-war conditions and remove all traces of dioxin from Vietnam. Additionally, it concluded that the Vietnamese State should be compensated for the costs of caring for victims and restoring the environment.

To implement the verdict, the tribunal advised formation of an Agent Orange Commission to determine the amount of compensation for individual victims as well as their families and communities; to assess the amount needed to provide victims with health care, counseling, and other social services; and to project the cost of studying contaminated areas and conducting clean up operations. The amounts would be paid into a trust fund by the US government and the chemical companies. The defendants were not present at the trial, having ignored the summons and complaint sent to them by the Peoples’ Tribunal.

The People’s Tribunal was organized to keep the issue of justice for Agent Orange victims alive in the court of international public opinion despite legal roadblocks erected by US courts. The tribunal was formed under auspices of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, a non-governmental organization of progressive lawyers and judges founded in 1946. The IADL has consultative status with UNESCO and ECOSOC.

Next Steps

Indeed a good question and sadly, not an easy one to answer. We must continue our fight, brothers and sisters, and never give up. Write and call your congressional representatives, the press, the President himself. I leave you with this tidbit of information. The US has allocated $3million in funds earmarked for the cleanup of Da Nang and the surrounding area of the former airbase. Earlier this year, President Obama signed a bill allotting $6million in assistance for dioxin cleanup efforts – it’s not clear to me, however, if the $6million includes the original $3million or is an additional $3 million to the already allocated $3million. In either case, it’s a pittance of what is really required. Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but Vietnam has not seen a penny of this funding to date. I hope I am wrong, but I can’t find any evidence indicating otherwise. As my good friend and fellow activist who lives here in Vietnam as well, points out to me, the boondoggle that Bush Jr. orchestrated as a “good will” gesture towards the citizens of Vietnam cost the United States a $3million hotel and related expense bill. Thank you Chuck S. for continuing to remind us of that fact – as sad as it is, it's fact.

The US remains an imperialistic and arrogant country and refuses to admit its wrongs and remain true to its commitments – to its own veterans, our allies, and the people and environment that we so wrongly maimed, killed and destroyed.

Special thanks to The Associated Press: Survey: Dioxin levels high in Vietnam near US base by Ben Stocking for information used in this report.

===================================================

Chuck Palazzo is a Marine Corps Vietnam Veteran, the Interim Editor for Agent Orange, and a longtime member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Chuck has spent years since the war studying the impacts and effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant chemical sprayed by the U.S. government on the jungles of Vietnam. He says Dioxins have been re-discovered to cause all sorts of damage to humans. These include Heart Disease, Parkinsonism, Diabetes etcetera. Dioxins are already known to produce serious birth defects and a variety of cancers. The chemical is still sold in Third World Countries and causing the same problems.

We at Salem-News.com welcome Chuck aboard and look forward to sharing more of his stories with our readers in the future.

In Memory Of Agent Orange Victims - The 2nd Annual Veterans Day Agent Orange Balloon Release November 11th, 2009

www.agentorangequiltoftears.com

Why?
To recognize, remember & honor all the Veterans that have been affected by Agent Orange

Who Is Invited?
Everyone is invited to participate in this joint effort of coordinating balloons, doves or butterflies to be released all across the nation.
In an effort to coordinate this:


**The amount of items you choose to release is totally up to you!
**If you choose not to actually release the balloons please join with us by flying or decorating with them on this day.
**We ask that everyone releases their items at 1 p.m.est
**If you choose balloons they should be Orange in color & preferably made of latex due to environmental concerns.
*** (Please check with your local agencies about any laws or regulations) ***


A/O Victims & Widows Support Network, Inc.
P.O. Box 90 Davenport, Florida
www.agentorangequiltoftears.com

VND 1.2 Billion for Agent Orange Victims

http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/?q=node/5421

VND 1.2 Billion for Agent Orange Victims

A total of VND 1.234 billion has been mobilised, together with medicine and other supplies donated by philanthropists, social organisations, and businesses inside and outside the country, for Agent Orange victims in Vietnam.
This was announced at a ceremony held on November 30 to mark the first anniversary of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)’s fund for Agent Orange victims.
The amount was contributed by hundreds of agencies, organisations and individuals. VNA officials, reporters and editors alone contributed VND 312 million to the fund.
The VNA’s fund to support AO victims, entitled 'For Easing the pain of Agent Orange Victims, has reached out to more than 1,000 families of Agent Orange victims across the country.
Also on this occasion, the fund received the Greek Government’s EUR 20,000 donation, handed over to Tran Mai Huong, VNA vice general director and head of the fund’s management board, by Greek Ambassador to Vietnam Platon Alexis Hadjimichalis.
The fund operators on this occasion also received EUR 10,000 from the Greek Embassy in Vietnam, which will be for the Da Nang city’s Association of Agent Orange Victims (EUR 5,000) and the Vietnamese Disabled Association (EUR 5,000).
The overseas Vietnamese community in Greece sent VND 18 million and Australia’s Rotary International also donated 20 wheel-chairs.

*

Greek Ambassador Donates to Agent Orange Fund

Vietnam News Agency Fund Aids 1,000 Agent Orange Victims

http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/?q=node/5422

The Vietnam News Agency’s (VNA) AO/Dioxin Relief Fund has helped over 1,000 AO/Dioxin victims’ families in cities and provinces across the country since its establishment last December 1. More than VND1.23 billion (US$77,100) has been raised. Wheelchairs and drugs have also been donated to the fund in an effort to relieve the enduring pain of AO/Dioxin victims.
"I am very happy to receive a wheelchair today for my daughter – the first one in her life," said 66-year-old war veteran Nguyen Van Hoa at a ceremony to celebrate the fund’s first birthday yesterday.
His 23-year-old daughter, Nguyen Thi Huong, can neither move her body nor communicate with others – the result of toxic chemicals sprayed by US troops on Hoa’s body when he fought on Quang Tri battlefield in 1972.
Like Hoa’s family, many AO/Dioxin victims have received a total sum of VND720 million ($45,000), among other assistance. The fund has also helped various provincial AO/Dioxin victim organisations and educational centres for disabled children.
"One year is not a long time, but the fund has received donations and support from hundreds of organisations and individuals. The support comes not only from our nation, but from many other countries throughout the world," said the fund’s chairman, VNA Deputy General Director and VNS Editor-in-Chief Tran Mai Huong.
At yesterday’s ceremony, Greek Ambassador to Viet Nam, Platon Alexis Hadjimichalis, on behalf of his president and government, presented EUR 20,000 to the fund and another EUR10,000 to the Da Nang AO/Dioxin Victims Association and the Viet Nam Association for the Handicapped.
Famous Vietnamese pianist Dang Thai Son and the National Symphony Orchestra donated all VND48 million ($3,000) they earned from their two-day classical concert earlier this year to the fund.
Viet Nam has recorded over 3 million AO/Dioxin victims so far.

Toxin in Agent Orange still polluting South Vietnam, study says

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-tc-nw-vietnam-0912-0913sep13,0,7307758.story

By Jason Grotto Tribune reporter

September 13, 2009

HANOI, Vietnam - -- Results from a new study show that herbicides used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War continue to pollute the environment and pose a health threat more than three decades after the last shots were fired.

Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. military released more than 19 million gallons of herbicides in South Vietnam to destroy enemy crops and deny an elusive adversary cover by defoliating dense mangrove forests and triple canopy jungles.

What few knew at the time was that some of the herbicides contained a highly toxic form of dioxin, known as TCDD. The toxin was an unintended byproduct created while manufacturing mixtures such as Agent Orange, the most widely used of a handful of herbicides contaminated with TCDD.

Environmental scientists from a Canadian firm last week presented the findings from the study, which documents that high levels of TCDD from the herbicides still contaminate soil inside a former U.S. airbase in Da Nang as well as sediment from a lake that abuts it.

The study uses TCDD's chemical fingerprint to trace its movement through the food chain, from the soil and lake sediment to the fat of fish and ducks to the blood and breast milk of humans.

In the most extreme cases, the study found TCDD levels in Da Nang residents that were more than 50 times the World Health Organization standards. Because infants and expectant mothers appear to be the most susceptible, the high levels in breast milk are considered especially troubling.

Conducted by Vancouver-based Hatfield Consultants with funding from the Ford Foundation and assistance from the Vietnamese government, the study is the most definitive evidence to date that dioxin from the herbicides remains in the environment and threatens the health of those living close to the airbase, many of whom weren't even alive during war.

The findings may help focus the concern over toxic chemicals that were dispersed over roughly 10 percent of South Vietnam.

"The work we have done really demonstrates that this is a manageable problem," said Thomas Boivin, president of Hatfield. "We now know where the contamination is coming from; we just need the international financial support to get on with the cleanup."

Since the end of the war, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Institute of Medicine and hundreds of scientific studies have linked TCDD to numerous cancers and other illnesses.

jgrotto@tribune.com

'Hot spots'
Da Nang is one of three major "hot spots" identified by Hatfield Consultants and Vietnamese scientists during the past 15 years, areas where millions of gallons of herbicides were stored and loaded onto planes and helicopters that blanketed huge swaths of Vietnam with mixtures now outlawed in the U.S. because of their threat to human health.

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

US, Vietnam in joint study of Agent Orange health damage

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZKHov-GCQvw1YkghN5b0FZXBIsw

(AFP) – 1 day ago

HANOI — US and Vietnamese experts will jointly study the impact of the wartime herbicide Agent Orange on the health of people living in three major "hotspots," officials said Thursday.

A decision to establish the health task force came during annual talks at which officials from the two nations discussed Agent Orange and its cancer-linked component dioxin, they said.

The first job of the task force will be to collect information on "the negative impact" of dioxin on people living around former US airbases in Danang, Bien Hoa and Phu Cat, said Le Ke Son, co-chair of the Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) meetings.

During the Vietnam War, US forces stored Agent Orange at the bases and loaded it onto airplanes for defoliation missions.

"The goal of the task force is to prevent exposure in the hotspot areas and... propose ways to help people who were exposed in the hotspots in the past," Son said.

Asked how many people had been exposed in Danang, he said "it's a difficult question" that requires costly further study.

"But in principle we still list the people who live around the hotspot area as subjects who need attention and care," Son said.

Since last year's JAC meeting the United States has begun assisting disabled people in the Danang area, US ambassador Michael Michalak said.

"As we continue to work on those projects we look forward to receiving the advice from the health task force of the JAC," Michalak said, adding he was pleased that terms of reference for the task force had been agreed to.

At Vietnam's request, the US is focusing its assistance on the Danang site.

Both sides last year established an environmental task force, and in June they began testing "bio-remediation", the use of biological organisms to destroy dioxin at the Danang airport, Michalak said.

Vietnam has blamed dioxin for a spate of birth deformities and says about three million of its citizens are victims of herbicides sprayed by US forces.

The US has said there has been no internationally-accepted scientific study establishing a link between Agent Orange and Vietnam's disabled and deformed.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Vietnam after Agent Orange - 10 Sept 09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vybg5NHnT8E

Al Jazeera - ‎Sep 10, 2009‎
As children across Vietnam continue to be born with genetic defects, this edition of 101 East discusses the legacy of Agent Orange...

4th meeting on Agent Orange between U.S., Vietnam ends

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-09/10/content_12031686.htm

HANOI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- The fourth annual meeting of the United States-Vietnam Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) on Agent Orange (AO) ended here on Thursday. Full Article at Xinhua

Survey: Dioxin levels high in Vietnam near US base

Survey: Dioxin levels high in Vietnam near US base

http://www.ap.org/

By BEN STOCKING (AP) – 11 hours ago

HANOI, Vietnam — New environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near a former U.S. air base where American troops stored the herbicide during the Vietnam War.

"Time is of the essence" to finish cleaning up the site, now home to the Danang airport, where dioxin levels in the soil, sediment and fish were 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, the survey by the Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants said.

The survey also found that temporary containment measures jointly implemented by the U.S. and Vietnam in 2007 have apparently resulted in lower dioxin levels in people who live near the site.

Agent Orange is perhaps the war's most contentious legacy. Vietnam says 1 million to 4 million of its citizens were exposed to it and many suffered serious health consequences. The United States, which sprayed the herbicide on jungles to deprive Vietnamese troops of ground cover, says further scientific study is needed to fully understand the health links.

The new survey was shared this week with members of a joint U.S.-Vietnam advisory committee on Agent Orange, which held its fourth annual meeting in Hanoi this week.

The Associated Press obtained a copy. The firm released the findings to Vietnamese officials on Friday. Vietnamese officials declined to comment, and US officials could not be reached.

"Dioxin levels at this location continue to exceed all international standards and guidelines for these toxic chemicals," said Thomas Boivin, president of Hatfield, which conducted the study with the Vietnamese government.

The survey said dioxin poses a potential health risk to roughly 100,000 people who live in neighborhoods next to the airport, but it poses no immediate threat to the vast majority of the city's nearly 1 million people or the Danang International Airport terminal, which sits on the sprawling site.

Hatfield first conducted tests at the site in 2006, but took another round of samples earlier this year after learning that Agent Orange had been stored in a section of the airport that had previously been untested.

The study was funded by the Ford Foundation and commissioned by Vietnamese environmental officials, who are working with their American counterparts to address the environmental and health effects of dioxin at several Agent Orange "hotspots" in Vietnam.

After years of disagreement, the two sides began working together in 2006 to address problems linked to the herbicide, and they began their efforts in Danang.

The Hatfield study found that people who work at the Danang airport or eat fish from lakes near the former Agent Orange storage sites were the most likely to have elevated dioxin levels in their blood.

In all, Hatfield took 410 samples of soil, sediment and fish at the Danang site, as well as 171 samples of human blood and breast milk from people who live near it.

The results showed about 50 people who previously lived on the site and ate fish from a contaminated lake there had extraordinarily high levels of dioxin.

People who live in neighborhoods adjacent to the airport also had elevated dioxin levels but not nearly as high as those who lived on the site, the study found.

Two years ago, Vietnamese officials warned people to stop fishing at the Danang site.

Dioxin attaches itself to soil and sediment and remains in the environment for generations. Although not absorbed by crops such as rice, it concentrates in the fat of fish and other animals that ingest it and can be passed to humans through the food chain.

Earlier tests by Hatfield showed that dioxin levels were safe across most of Vietnam with the exception of about a half-dozen Agent Orange hotspots where U.S. troops used to mix, store and load Agent Orange onto planes.

The Hatfield report said Agent Orange areas at former air bases in Bien Hoa and Phu Cat also require cleanup.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Oregon's plans for Alkali Lake herbicide dump raise concerns

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/oregons_plans_for_vietnamera_h.html

by Scott Learn, The Oregonian
Wednesday September 02, 2009, 7:39 PM

Oregon environmental regulators have cut a tentative deal with a herbicide manufacturer that makes taxpayers responsible for roughly three-quarters of monitoring and cleanup costs at Alkali Lake, one of Oregon's most contaminated dump sites.

The proposed agreement between Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality and the company would also keep in place up to 1.4 million gallons of herbicide production waste and a current gravel cap over the waste. That's instead of paying millions to clean up the site as favored by Lake County commissioners and the Oregon Natural Desert Association.

• For video of waste drums being bulldozed, go to this site:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVHMoeV597c

If a cleanup ends up being required down the line, expenses could go as high as $49 million, costing taxpayers up to $39 million.

As the Vietnam War raged, a Portland herbicide manufacturer now owned by Bayer CropScience shipped 25,000 barrels of highly toxic and in some cases carcinogenic waste to southeast Oregon's high desert from 1969 to 1971, including components of the Agent Orange herbicide widely used in the war.

In 1974, the state took over the site, later crushing and burying the leaking barrels, a low-cost option that scientific advisers opposed. Shallow groundwater at the site has since been contaminated, with a plume covering 40 acres.

DEQ officials said the proposed deal was the best Oregon could get without suing Bayer CropScience, in part because Oregon regulators signed off on using the Lake County site, now owned by the state, as a herbicide dump four decades ago.

The remoteness of the site also greatly reduces risks to people and animals, the state says, eliminating the need for expanded cleanup.

But critics call it a sweetheart deal for Bayer CropScience, which reported more than $8 billion in sales last year. They also want the dump cleaned up.

"The whole purpose of the hazardous waste remediation statute is to clean up hazardous sites and put the polluter on the hook," said Dave Becker, staff attorney for the desert association. "Instead, Bayer is only on the hook for a quarter of the costs, and they are immunized from having DEQ go back after them if 10 to 15 years from now it turns out original cleanup wasn't sufficient."

The proposed agreement would have Bayer CropScience pay $700,000 of a $2.45 million tab for state's past work at the site and expected future work.

The future work, estimated to cost about $200,000, is limited to monitoring groundwater at the site and maintaining an existing gravel cap over the 10-acre contamination zone.

If additional costs arise -- either through damage claims or a more complete cleanup of the site -- the state would pick up more than three-quarters of the bill.

Cost estimates to clean up or remove the soil range from $33 million to $49 million, a DEQ consultant said. Under the terms of the consent agreement, Oregon would pay $39.3 million of cost for the most expensive option, trucking soil to an offsite landfill.

The arrangement doesn't sit well with many in Lake County, said County Commission Chairman Bradley Winters, who noted that monitoring wells pull up groundwater samples the color of cherry Kool-Aid.

A 2005 risk assessment by a DEQ consultant concluded that risks from exposure to contaminated groundwater or wind-blown dust from the site fell below state and federal standards for people and animals, in part because of the site's remote location.

The state owns nearly 400 acres around the contaminated area, which sits 35 miles from Christmas Valley, the nearest town. It's surrounded with just under 4 miles of barbed wire fence. The groundwater plume does not appear to have moved for a decade, said DEQ project manager Bob Schwarz. And off-site tests indicate the gravel cap is containing contaminated dust.

The state initially asked Bayer CropScience to cover half the costs, said Jeff Christensen, manager of DEQ's emergency response and environmental cleanup program.

But the negotiations were complicated, Christensen said. The contamination happened long ago, many facts are contested, the state played a role and Bayer was unwilling to admit legal liability under state and federal cleanup laws.

"In my judgment, this is probably the best we can hope for through a negotiated process," Christensen said.

In a statement, Bayer CropScience called the proposed agreement "fair and appropriate."

The Crag Law Center, which represents the desert association, wants DEQ to hold public hearings in Portland and Lake County, and to conduct a more in-depth evaluation of potential harm from the site.

The public comment period on the proposed consent order ends today. Dick Pedersen, DEQ's director, would have to sign it, and a Lake County circuit judge would have to approve it.

Scott Learn: scottlearn@news.oregonian.com

Subject: Proposed Rule - Herbicide Exposure and Veterans With Covered Service in Korea

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#documentDetail?R=09000064809fa168



SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its
adjudication, medical, and vocational rehabilitation and employment
regulations to incorporate relevant provisions from the Veterans Benefits
Act of 2003. Specifically, this document proposes to amend VA’s regulations
regarding herbicide exposure of certain veterans who served in or near the
Korean demilitarized zone and regulations regarding spina bifida in
their children. It also proposes to amend VA’s medical regulations by correcting
the Health Administration Center ’s hand-delivery address.

DATES: Comments must be received by VA on or before September 22, 2009.

Agent Orange Causes Genetic Disturbance In New Zealand Vietnam War Veterans, Study Shows

This is a small sample study reported in Science Daily in 2007. While it is a small sample and does not have the 'power' of a study with a large sample, the results are interesting


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070419103733.htm


ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2007) — A study published in the journal "Cytogenetic and Genome Research" shows that exposure to Agent Orange, and other defoliants, has led to genetic disturbance in New Zealand Vietnam War veterans which continues to persist decades after their service.

From July 1965 until November 1971, New Zealand Defence Force Personnel fought in the Vietnam War. During this time more than 76,500,000 litres of phenoxylic herbicides were sprayed over parts of Southern Vietnam and Laos to remove forest cover, destroy crops and clear vegetation from around military installations. The most common of these defoliant sprays is known as 'Agent Orange', and has been shown to lead to adverse health effects and cause genetic damage in humans. The current study aimed to ascertain whether or not New Zealand Vietnam War veterans show evidence of genetic disturbance arising as a consequence of their now confirmed exposure to these defoliants.

A sample group of 24 New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and 23 control volunteers were compared using an SCE (sister chromatid exchange) analysis. The results from the SCE study show a highly significant difference (P < 0.001) between the mean of the experimental group (11.05) and the mean of a matched control group (8.18). The experimental group also has an exceptionally high proportion of cells with high SCE frequencies above the 95th percentile compared to the controls (11.0% and 0.07%, respectively).

The study therefore concludes that the New Zealand Vietnam War veterans studied here were exposed to a harmful clastogenic substance(s) which continues to exert an observable genetic effect today, and suggest that this is attributable to their service in Vietnam.

From July 1965 until November 1971, New Zealand Defence Force Personnel fought in the Vietnam War. During this time more than 76,500,000 litres of phenoxylic herbicides were sprayed over parts of Southern Vietnam and Laos to remove forest cover, destroy crops and clear vegetation from around military installations. The most common of these defoliant sprays is known as 'Agent Orange', and has been shown to lead to adverse health effects and cause genetic damage in humans. The current study aimed to ascertain whether or not New Zealand Vietnam War veterans show evidence of genetic disturbance arising as a consequence of their now confirmed exposure to these defoliants.

A sample group of 24 New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and 23 control volunteers were compared using an SCE (sister chromatid exchange) analysis. The results from the SCE study show a highly significant difference (P < 0.001) between the mean of the experimental group (11.05) and the mean of a matched control group (8.18). The experimental group also has an exceptionally high proportion of cells with high SCE frequencies above the 95th percentile compared to the controls (11.0% and 0.07%, respectively).

The study therefore concludes that the New Zealand Vietnam War veterans studied here were exposed to a harmful clastogenic substance(s) which continues to exert an observable genetic effect today, and suggest that this is attributable to their service in Vietnam.

Agent Orange Causes Genetic Disturbance In New Zealand Vietnam War Veterans, Study Shows

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070419103733.htm


ScienceDaily (Apr. 21, 2007) — A study published in the journal "Cytogenetic and Genome Research" shows that exposure to Agent Orange, and other defoliants, has led to genetic disturbance in New Zealand Vietnam War veterans which continues to persist decades after their service.

From July 1965 until November 1971, New Zealand Defence Force Personnel fought in the Vietnam War. During this time more than 76,500,000 litres of phenoxylic herbicides were sprayed over parts of Southern Vietnam and Laos to remove forest cover, destroy crops and clear vegetation from around military installations. The most common of these defoliant sprays is known as 'Agent Orange', and has been shown to lead to adverse health effects and cause genetic damage in humans. The current study aimed to ascertain whether or not New Zealand Vietnam War veterans show evidence of genetic disturbance arising as a consequence of their now confirmed exposure to these defoliants.

A sample group of 24 New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and 23 control volunteers were compared using an SCE (sister chromatid exchange) analysis. The results from the SCE study show a highly significant difference (P < 0.001) between the mean of the experimental group (11.05) and the mean of a matched control group (8.18). The experimental group also has an exceptionally high proportion of cells with high SCE frequencies above the 95th percentile compared to the controls (11.0% and 0.07%, respectively).

The study therefore concludes that the New Zealand Vietnam War veterans studied here were exposed to a harmful clastogenic substance(s) which continues to exert an observable genetic effect today, and suggest that this is attributable to their service in Vietnam.

Adapted from materials provided by Karger Medical And Scientific Publishers, via AlphaGalileo.