CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa – Okinawa City officials said Wednesday that
independent tests on barrels unearthed on former U.S. military land
showed much higher levels of toxic herbicide components than test
results released earlier by the Japan Ministry of Defense.
The city test results were eight times higher than the ministry’s
results for dioxin – a toxin known to cause cancer, reproductive and
developmental problems, immune system damage and hormone imbalances – in
soil and water collected from around about two dozen rusted Dow
Chemical Company containers found buried under a soccer field, according
to an Okinawa City report released Wednesday.
Higher levels of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid — an herbicide that
was discontinued in the United States because of health concerns – were
also discovered by the municipal testing of the site, which was once
part of Kadena Air Base, the report said.
Last week, the Ministry of Defense reported finding two of the three components of Agent Orange defoliant
after testing the buried Dow containers, raising local suspicions that
the U.S. military may have stored or used the dangerous substances on
the island during the Vietnam War.
Dow Chemical was one of the manufacturers of defoliants used to kill
jungle and crops in Vietnam. But both the ministry and Okinawa City said
they could not definitively link the herbicides to Agent Orange.
Meanwhile, the United States has long denied dioxin-laden defoliants
were ever present on Okinawa. Dow also recently said the rusted barrels
do not match containers used for Agent Orange.
Okinawa City said it will excavate the rest of the soccer field in search of any more containers.
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