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What Is Agent Orange?

By VVAW

We know a little about the effects of Agent Orange on the vets who were sprayed with it in Vietnam. Experimentation on the ingredients of Agent Orange have gone on at least since 1963; what follow is some of the chemical and medical facts that have been discovered. While VVAW doesn't have all the information, and probably couldn't handle it if we did since it is both scientifically complex and voluminous, what we present here is established fact. We believe it's important for vets to have some idea of what the stuff is so that we can better build the fight to get it tested and treated. People interested in going to the original sources should get in touch with the VVAW National Office and we'll give you the necessary information.

Agent Orange as used throughout Southwest Asia was a 50/50 mixture of two chemicals—2,4-D and 2,4,5,-T. Between 1961 and 1970, at least 10% of all the forested land in South Vietnam (which amounts to 6.5% of the total area) was sprayed at least once with the herbicide.

2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were developed at the U.S. Center for Chemical and Biological Warfare at Fort Dietrich, Maryland, during World War II. Widespread manufacture began in the late 1940's. They are officially described as "chlorinated phenoxy compounds," with 2,4,5-T having one extra atom of chlorine in its chemical make-up. For the purpose of looking on labels to see what you're getting, 2,4-D is an abbreviation for 2,4 dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. 2,4,5-T is 2,4,5 trichlorophenoxypropionic acid. Their chemical basis is what's known as the benzene ring, made up of hydrogen and chlorine atoms. When applied to plants, both of these compounds kill by disrupting plant cell growth, promoting uncontrolled expansion and division cells (which is also a description of the way cancer works in humans).

A by-produce of the production of 2,4, 5-T is tetra-dioxin, one of the most deadly poisons known to man. When 2,4,5-T is produced, the chemicals require a temperature dioxin is created. 2,4-D is produced at a lower temperature and does not have the same by-products. Up to a certain point, the higher the temperature, the more dioxins are created; forest rangers fighting California forest fires, in places where the forests have been sprayed, have come up with chloracne, one of the most direct symptoms of Agent Orange poisoning. The implications for food which has 2,4-D or 2,4,5-T on it, once that food is cooked, have only been touched on, not investigated.

EVIDENCE

While statistics from Vietnam are hard to come by (the Vietnamese had more important tasks in the late 1960's and early '70's), some are available. In Tay Ninh a heavily sprayed area, there were 58 still births per 1000 hospital births. In Saigon, not sprayed, during the same period of time, there were 29 stillbirths 1000. Interviews with refugees in Hanoi in 1970 showed 22 women of 73 asked had miscarriages shortly after their areas were sprayed with Agent Orange. Around Hue in 1969-70 where Agent Orange was repeatedly used, stillbirths at hospitals were up to 48.5%; 7.4% of the children born had serious deformities. Chromosome breakdowns were six times greater than in the survivors of Hiroshima. In 1972 a groups of 30 workers was hired to spray brush along the Swedish National Railway; 5 died. A sixth died a year later. Survivors reported headaches, loss of taste, poorer vision and impotency. The Swedish government stopped spraying with Horoslyr, a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D.

2,4-D, 2,4,5-T and dioxin have all been tested on laboratory animals under a wide variety of conditions. While there are some differences in the results reported, deformed offspring, cancers, cleft palate, and brain malformations have all been noted in high numbers.

After the American "experiment" in Southeast Asia, the most famous case of dioxin poisoning among humans happened in Seveso, Italy, on July 10, 1976, when a chemical factory which produced the ingredients for hexachlorophene (a supposedly antiseptic ointment used in hospitals) exploded, emitting a dioxin-filled smoke into the area. The resulting bureaucratic confusion and criminal mismanagement, plus the corporate refusal to admit what had happened for weeks afterwards, resulted in people in the most affected being left in their homes for two weeks. Meanwhile, animals died, birds fell from the skies, trees withered and died, children got sick and were hospitalized, residents got skin growths. Finally the area was evacuated—and is still barren today. One hundred and seventy-nine people who lived in the immediate area were sent away, forbidden to take anything with them. By that time 36 people had been hospitalized; bird life was devastated; carcasses of birds were everywhere along with thousands of rats, moles and mice; rabbits died by the hundreds, chickens by the thousands. And the long range physical effects, to say nothing of the economic dislocation of the population, are still to be discovered.

2,4-D is still widely used in the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for regulating production and use of herbicides, has done nothing to stop its use. 2,4,5-T because of its association with dioxin, drew much attention from the EPA and from Congress; this was in 1970 and, though it is less used today, it is still not banned. It is an effective herbicide (timber interests particularly use it to cut out under-growth in forests) and there is an effective chemical lobby—particularly Dow Chemical which goes to great lengths to show how "safe" their herbicides are. There is a long history of the EPA sidestepping the issue; hearings scheduled and then cancelled. They call on all the "mysteries" of science, saying there is not yet enough evidence, but after one more test...and one more...

Facts add up to the simple conclusion that 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T kill people—if not immediately, then over a period of time. Veterans, directly and indirectly exposed to both chemicals through Agent Orange have a particular interest in seeing that the people who run this country don't get away with any more of poisoning us for their profits.