Ft. Detrick linked to Agent Orange testing

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October 13, 2010 - 5:01pm
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FORT DETRICK, Md. - Army researchers at Fort Detrick sprayed the dangerous herbicide Agent Orange at various locations outside the fort, a four-year-old report reveals.

The Department of Defense has evidence that Fort Detrick worked to develop Agent Orange -- a defoliant sprayed on forests to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam War -- beginning in the 1950s.

The poison reportedly was sprayed on grass around Fort Ritchie, Md. and other locations.

The information comes as Frederick County residents express increasing concern that experiments at Fort Detrick may have raised their risk of cancer. After the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was linked to cancer and birth defects in Vietnamese and Americans who served in the war.

A Fort Detrick scientist tells The Gazette he and his colleagues are "trying to get their hands" around the idea that Agent Orange was tested outside and not just in greenhouses as they previously thought.

Bob Craig tells the Gazette he and other scientists only recently discovered the 2006 report along with other documents.

FORT DETRICK, Md. - Army researchers at Fort Detrick sprayed the dangerous herbicide Agent Orange at various locations outside the fort, a four-year-old report reveals.

The Department of Defense has evidence that Fort Detrick worked to develop Agent Orange -- a defoliant sprayed on forests to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam War -- beginning in the 1950s.

The poison reportedly was sprayed on grass around Fort Ritchie, Md. and other locations.

The information comes as Frederick County residents express increasing concern that experiments at Fort Detrick may have raised their risk of cancer. After the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was linked to cancer and birth defects in Vietnamese and Americans who served in the war.

A Fort Detrick scientist tells The Gazette he and his colleagues are "trying to get their hands" around the idea that Agent Orange was tested outside and not just in greenhouses as they previously thought.

Bob Craig tells the Gazette he and other scientists only recently discovered the 2006 report along with other documents.

For the full Gazette report click here:http://www.gazette.net/stories/10072010/frednew155356_32544.php

WTOP's Evan Haning contributed to this report.
WTOP's Evan Haning contributed to this report.
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