from George Claxton

George Claxton is one of the leading authorities on Agent Orange/Dioxin in the country. Although he is not a scientist he can go toe-to-toe with anyone on the subject of Dioxin contamination and its effects.

For many years industry has said that 2,4-D, which was half of Agent Orange, was safe. And that 2,4-D did not contain the most deadly dioxin which is called TCDD. A 1991 study from Russia clearly shows differently. The name of the study is "Determing Tetrachlorodibenzo-n-dioxins and Tetrachlorodibenzofurans iin the herbicide 2,4-D". The authors were N.A. Klyuev, et al. and it was published in "Doklady, Biological Sciences, vol. 316, no 1, p. 21-23, 1991".

The following statement is made in the study:

"The concentrations of the most toxic congeners were: 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (1746016) 0.10ng/g and 2,3,7,8 tetrachlorodibenzofuran (51207319) plus 1,2,6,9-tetrachlorodibenzofuran (70648189) 1.34ng/g".

The question that is obvious is Can 2,4-D contain TCDD? I think that the answer is yes.


The chemical industry has built 2 task forces with the purpose of keeping 2,4-D on the market. The reason is money and the poison is claimed to be safe. However, a study in 2007 titled "Herbicide 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) induced cytogenetic damage in human lymphocytes in vitro in presence of erythrocytes" points in a different direction. 2,4-D was half of Agent Orange and does contain some dioxins.

The study conclusion states the following:

"The results demonstrated that the presence of erythrocytes in the culture system modulated the DNA and cellular damage inflicted by 2,4-D and 2,4-D DMA into human lymphocytes in vitro as well as both 2,4-D and 2,4-D DMA were more potent genotoxic agents in the presence of human red cells"

This study was published in the journal 'Cell Biology International (vol 31, no. 11, p. 1316-1322, 2007). The authors were Sonia Soloneski, et al.
Faithfully submitted, George Claxton