NYT/Reuters: Agent Orange Victims Gather to Seek Justice

[DeepModem Mom]

Agent Orange Victims Gather to Seek Justice
By REUTERS
Published: March 28, 2006

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam War veterans from the United States, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam gathered on Tuesday to call for more help for the victims of the Agent Orange defoliant used by the U.S. military.

Deformed children born to parents Vietnam believes were affected by the estimated 20 million gallons of herbicides, including Agent Orange, poured on the country were brought to the conference as dramatic evidence of its effects....

***

Last March, a federal court dismissed a suit on behalf of millions of Vietnamese who charged the United States committed war crimes by its use of Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, to deny communist troops ground cover.

The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) has filed an appeal, saying assistance was needed urgently as many were dying....

***

Dioxin can cause cancer, deformities and organ dysfunction. Manufacturers named in the suit included Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co....

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-vietnam-usa-orange.html?_r=1&oref=login

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Dow Chemical and Monsanto

My skin literally crawls when I hear those names. :mad:

[monktonman]

2. as a side note

I always thought it was odd that all these guys get sent to Viet Nam to fight in a war where nobody knows why we're there, they come home all screwed up only to get shit on by the government that sent them there, then they fight a decades long battle over being poisoned by a chemical agent they were told was harmless and the only thing lots of them remember is JANE FONDA.

[flamin lib]

3. Vietnam era vet here.

Didn't serve in country, so I don't have a dog in that fight.

Anyway, the troops who served and were affected by dioxin should receive treatment from the VA like any other service related injury.

I'm not so sure about the others in the suit. It would have to be proven that the chemical companies and the US government were negligent. Negligence means that they knew there was danger of injury and proceeded to use the defoliant anyway. I'm not sure that can be proven.

Agent Orange is 2-4-D, a very common herbicide in widespread use in the US at the time. I do not think that anyone was aware of the toxicity of dioxin at the time nor the results of long and continued exposure to the chemical, a result of using it in a way not consistent with designed use.

Don't get me wrong, the results of it's use are terrible and those people deserve help, I just don't see a winnable case here.

That said, Depleted Uranium may be a whole different item in a few years. I believe the Pentagon KNOWS how bad that stuff is--it makes Agent Orange look like a vitamin suppliment.