copyright 1994
Agent Orange is a defoliant, a plant killer, that was used in Vietnam for "Territory Denial". The idea was that the VC wouldn't be so hard to kill if we could see them better by killing the jungle canopy that protected them. Specifically Agent Orange was a 50:50 mixture of two Phenoxy herbicides, 2, 4-D (2, 4 dichlorophenoxy acetic acid) and 2, 4, 5-T (2, 4, 5-trichlorophenoxy acetic acid). It is ironic that the Dioxin that makes Agent Orange so deadly isn't even an intended part of the plant killer. Dioxin is a man made by-product of the manufacturing process for making Phenoxy herbicides like Agent Orange. Actually, when 2, 4, 5-T is manufactured a "synthetic contaminant" TCDD (2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin) is an unwanted by-product that cannot be removed.
Dioxins are also created unintentionally during the manufacture of Chlorine containing products like the Polychlorinated Byphenal (PCB) oils used for years in the utility transformers that supply power to our homes. They are created by burning chlorine containing wastes, the plastic pipe Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) for example when burned creates and releases Dioxin. Because of this widespread use dioxins are present, albeit in trace amounts, in the body fat of nearly everyone in the civilized world.
Other factors that make Dioxin poisoning hard to prove is the fact that each individual seems to have their own tolerance to it and everyone has a certain background exposure to the chemical. It may be that this background level serves to hide the seriousness of the situation by clouding the exposure levels required to make a symptom manifest itself. It may also be that Dioxins like TCDD lie dormant in body fats until triggered by some internal stress.
The unpredictable reactions of the lab animals exposed to dioxins and the actual method by which they kill is one of the mysteries that medical science is still trying to solve. One thing is certain, exposure to Dioxins multiplies the chances of cancers, immune system disorders, liver problems, and a host of other complaints. Even more tragic is the fact that exposure to Agent Orange appears to multiply the chances of birth defects in the children of those exposed. Vietnam veterans and certain peasants in South Vietnam have the highest level of exposure of anyone tested.
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), for example is four times more likely to kill the children of Veterans exposed to Agent Orange than it is children of parents who were not exposed. This makes medical sense because it has been shown in the laboratory that Dioxin has an affect on the immune system and SIDS seems to be an immune system defect. Information and cases are sparse but they are there. And they are frightening.
In one case a platoon that operated in an part of Vietnam that had been heavily sprayed has had five of it's twenty members diagnosed as suffering from dioxin poisoning. That's twenty five percent. That's 500 percent above the national average for these types of disorders. This in itself is frightening but, the researcher was only able to locate six of the twenty members of his platoon! How many of those that weren't contacted had similar symptoms? Veterans tell story after story of Veterans who suddenly age. Their hair falls out in clumps, what remains turns white. They suffer from strange nerve disorders, irritableness, weight loss, palsies and finally, mercifully, death. In every case these men were exposed to Agent Orange.
In Vietnam, when the men in the field saw the effects of this chemical on the vegetation and questioned it's affects on them they were told not to worry. They were told that the spray was not harmful to humans. Despite the weight of evidence to the contrary the military and the Chemical companies continue to insist that Agent Orange is harmless. The Veterans Administration, Chemical Companies and the Department of Defense point to a study done with the personnel of Operation Ranch Hand that showed no correlation between Agent Orange and the problems associated with it by the Veterans. The critics of this study point out that the average "Ranch Hander" returned to base each night to shower and change clothes while the ground soldier walked through contaminated dust, drank contaminated water and wore contaminated clothes for weeks and months. The federal government refuses to conduct a study of Ground combat troops as a comparison.
Only in the last few years has that opinion begun to change. One of the projects that signify this change is the "Pointman" project. Under "Pointman" New Jersey has established an Agent Orange Commission to investigate the effects of exposure to Agent Orange. They examined people who served with the Second Battalion/ 8th Cav, 1st Cav Division, Companies A, B, C and D between January and December 1969. The report of their findings has not yet been published.
Other contact points for information on Agent Orange are;
State of California
Division of Veterans Affairs
P.O. Box 1559
Sacremento, Ca. 95807
P.O. Box 3218 A Non-profit Corporation of California