Wednesday, September 11, 2013

A timeline of chemical warfare

http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/07/4464771/a-timeline-of-chemical-warfare.html
Tonawanda News — Agent Orange, one of a host of highly toxic herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has returned with a vengeance, affecting many of the three million veterans who served in the war in Southeast Asia and their families.
Called “Agent Orange” because of the orange band painted on the drums that stored it, was used to defoliate hiding places of the Viet Cong, rice paddies and fields as well as around the military bases. 
“We were told it wasn’t harmful to humans,” said Jim May of North Tonawanda, who served in the Navy in Vietnam serving on a hospital ship off the coast, classified as “blue water.” 
From 1962 to 1971, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam, May explained. By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange had destroyed more than 5 million acres of land, roughly the size of New Jersey.
“Even though the government said it was safe, they were endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren,” May said. “It wasn’t just the spray, but the dioxin got into the water system, used for drinking, showering and food.”
But the terrible effects of the dioxin that caused cancers, diabetes and a host of other diseases and disabilities for the veterans, went beyond the veterans.
A case in point is May’s grandson, who at nine months old was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye. The baby had his eye removed and now has a prosthetic.
- See more at: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x312424834/Still-fighting#sthash.xTw30Cnr.dpuf
1915: Germany introduces lethal chemical warfare to the World War I battlefield, letting breezes carry chlorine to opposing trenches. French adapt artillery shells to deadlier phosgene.

1917: Germans employ first mustard gas, which blisters, blinds and burns through fabric and leather.
1918: Capt. Harry S. Truman’s field artillery unit fires poison gas against the German lines. Chemical weapons kill about 100,000 in the war, more than half Russians.
1925: Geneva Protocol prohibits use of poison gas as “justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world.” America signs, but U.S. Senate does not ratify until 1974.
1937: Nazi Germany discovers nerve agent tabun, follows up with sarin in 1939.
1939-45: World War II belligerents stockpile mustard gas (America the most), but it’s almost never employed.
1941-45: More than 1.2 million perish in Nazi extermination camp gas chambers using Zyklon B.
1952: British invent VX nerve agent, trade formula for U.S. nuclear knowledge.
1961-67: U.S. forces spray herbicide Agent Orange over 13 percent of South Vietnam; dioxin-related birth defects among Vietnamese children soar. Its use, as well as tear gas, is called a breach of Geneva Protocol by some.
1962-73: Pentagon’s Project SHAD’s chemical and biological weapon testing is at times used on unsuspecting military personnel.
Read More: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/09/07/4464771/a-timeline-of-chemical-warfare.html#storylink=cpy

Tonawanda News — Agent Orange, one of a host of highly toxic herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has returned with a vengeance, affecting many of the three million veterans who served in the war in Southeast Asia and their families.
Called “Agent Orange” because of the orange band painted on the drums that stored it, was used to defoliate hiding places of the Viet Cong, rice paddies and fields as well as around the military bases.
“We were told it wasn’t harmful to humans,” said Jim May of North Tonawanda, who served in the Navy in Vietnam serving on a hospital ship off the coast, classified as “blue water.”
From 1962 to 1971, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam, May explained. By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange had destroyed more than 5 million acres of land, roughly the size of New Jersey.
“Even though the government said it was safe, they were endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren,” May said. “It wasn’t just the spray, but the dioxin got into the water system, used for drinking, showering and food.”
But the terrible effects of the dioxin that caused cancers, diabetes and a host of other diseases and disabilities for the veterans, went beyond the veterans.
A case in point is May’s grandson, who at nine months old was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye. The baby had his eye removed and now has a prosthetic.
- See more at: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x312424834/Still-fighting#sthash.xTw30Cnr.dpuf
Tonawanda News — Agent Orange, one of a host of highly toxic herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has returned with a vengeance, affecting many of the three million veterans who served in the war in Southeast Asia and their families.
Called “Agent Orange” because of the orange band painted on the drums that stored it, was used to defoliate hiding places of the Viet Cong, rice paddies and fields as well as around the military bases.
“We were told it wasn’t harmful to humans,” said Jim May of North Tonawanda, who served in the Navy in Vietnam serving on a hospital ship off the coast, classified as “blue water.”
From 1962 to 1971, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam, May explained. By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange had destroyed more than 5 million acres of land, roughly the size of New Jersey.
“Even though the government said it was safe, they were endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren,” May said. “It wasn’t just the spray, but the dioxin got into the water system, used for drinking, showering and food.”
But the terrible effects of the dioxin that caused cancers, diabetes and a host of other diseases and disabilities for the veterans, went beyond the veterans.
A case in point is May’s grandson, who at nine months old was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye. The baby had his eye removed and now has a prosthetic.
- See more at: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x312424834/Still-fighting#sthash.xTw30Cnr.dpuf
Tonawanda News — Agent Orange, one of a host of highly toxic herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has returned with a vengeance, affecting many of the three million veterans who served in the war in Southeast Asia and their families.
Called “Agent Orange” because of the orange band painted on the drums that stored it, was used to defoliate hiding places of the Viet Cong, rice paddies and fields as well as around the military bases.
“We were told it wasn’t harmful to humans,” said Jim May of North Tonawanda, who served in the Navy in Vietnam serving on a hospital ship off the coast, classified as “blue water.”
From 1962 to 1971, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam, May explained. By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange had destroyed more than 5 million acres of land, roughly the size of New Jersey.
“Even though the government said it was safe, they were endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren,” May said. “It wasn’t just the spray, but the dioxin got into the water system, used for drinking, showering and food.”
But the terrible effects of the dioxin that caused cancers, diabetes and a host of other diseases and disabilities for the veterans, went beyond the veterans.
A case in point is May’s grandson, who at nine months old was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye. The baby had his eye removed and now has a prosthetic.
- See more at: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x312424834/Still-fighting#sthash.xTw30Cnr.dpuf
Tonawanda News — Agent Orange, one of a host of highly toxic herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War has returned with a vengeance, affecting many of the three million veterans who served in the war in Southeast Asia and their families.
Called “Agent Orange” because of the orange band painted on the drums that stored it, was used to defoliate hiding places of the Viet Cong, rice paddies and fields as well as around the military bases.
“We were told it wasn’t harmful to humans,” said Jim May of North Tonawanda, who served in the Navy in Vietnam serving on a hospital ship off the coast, classified as “blue water.”
From 1962 to 1971, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam, May explained. By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange had destroyed more than 5 million acres of land, roughly the size of New Jersey.
“Even though the government said it was safe, they were endangering our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren,” May said. “It wasn’t just the spray, but the dioxin got into the water system, used for drinking, showering and food.”
But the terrible effects of the dioxin that caused cancers, diabetes and a host of other diseases and disabilities for the veterans, went beyond the veterans.
A case in point is May’s grandson, who at nine months old was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, cancer of the eye. The baby had his eye removed and now has a prosthetic.
- See more at: http://tonawanda-news.com/local/x312424834/Still-fighting#sthash.xTw30Cnr.dpuf

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