[CPEO-MEF] HERBICIDES: "Agent Orange’s reach beyond the Vietnam War"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Agent Orange’s reach beyond the Vietnam War

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post
August 3, 2013

Nearly three dozen rugged C-123 transport planes formed the backbone  
of the U.S. military’s campaign to spray Agent Orange over jungles  
hiding enemy soldiers during the Vietnam War. And many of the troops  
who served in the conflict have been compensated for diseases  
associated with their exposure to the toxic defoliant.

But after the war, some of the planes were used on cargo missions in  
the United States. Now a bitter fight has sprung up over whether  
those in the military who worked, ate and slept in the planes after  
the war should also be compensated. Two U.S. senators are now  
questioning the Department of Veterans Affairs’ assertions that any  
postwar contamination on the planes was not high enough to be linked  
to disease.

Complicating the debate is that few of the planes remain to be  
tested. In 2010, the Air Force destroyed 18 of the Vietnam-era  
aircraft in part because of concerns about potential liability for  
Agent Orange, according to Air Force memos documenting the destruction.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/agent-oranges-reach-beyond-the- 
vietnam-war/2013/08/03/803e57c0-e816-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html

You may need to copy and paste the link.

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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