Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by Klaus Toepfer
- Introduction
- Part I General principles
- Part II The legal framework
- Part III Assessing the impacts – scientific methods and issues
- Introduction
- 11 Scientific assessment of the long-term environmental consequences of war
- 12 The Gulf War impact on the terrestrial environment of Kuwait: an overview
- 13 War-related damage to the marine environment in the ROPME Sea Area
- 14 War and biodiversity: an assessment of impacts
- Introduction
- 15 Tracking the four horsemen: the public health approach to the impact of war and war-induced environmental destruction in the twentieth century
- 16 Defoliants: the long-term health implications
- 17 The impact of military preparedness and militarism on health and the environment
- 18 War and infectious diseases: international law and the public health consequences of armed conflict
- Part IV Valuing the impacts – economic methods and issues
- Part V Prospects for the future
- Index
16 - Defoliants: the long-term health implications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword by Klaus Toepfer
- Introduction
- Part I General principles
- Part II The legal framework
- Part III Assessing the impacts – scientific methods and issues
- Introduction
- 11 Scientific assessment of the long-term environmental consequences of war
- 12 The Gulf War impact on the terrestrial environment of Kuwait: an overview
- 13 War-related damage to the marine environment in the ROPME Sea Area
- 14 War and biodiversity: an assessment of impacts
- Introduction
- 15 Tracking the four horsemen: the public health approach to the impact of war and war-induced environmental destruction in the twentieth century
- 16 Defoliants: the long-term health implications
- 17 The impact of military preparedness and militarism on health and the environment
- 18 War and infectious diseases: international law and the public health consequences of armed conflict
- Part IV Valuing the impacts – economic methods and issues
- Part V Prospects for the future
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Initial concerns about the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam focused on the herbicide's effects on ecology. In the autumn of 1969, however, the emphasis shifted to health effects. Reports in the Saigon press at that time claimed that an unusually high incidence of birth defects might be related to the herbicide-spraying program. These reports were married with experimental evidence from animal studies showing that one component of Agent Orange (a one-to-one mixture of two herbicides: 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T) caused birth defects in two species of mice and one strain of rat. The animal studies were performed by the Bio netics Research Laboratory on behalf of the United States National Cancer Institute, and they implicated 2,4,5-T as a teratogen (cause of birth deformities). In the face of this evidence, it was no longer possible for the US Department of Defense to claim that there would be no “seriously adverse consequences” of the military use of herbicides in Vietnam; the study signaled the demise of the herbicide-spraying program.
Defoliants had been sprayed over areas that were supposedly sparsely populated in concentrations of 3 gallons per acre – ten times higher than the concentration recommended for users of 2,4,5-T in the US. In addition, occasional intense enemy groundfire would force aircrews to dump 1,000 gallons of herbicides in 30 seconds, rather than the usual 3 to 4 minutes, resulting in even higher concentrations.
Residual stocks of Agent Orange, stored on Johnson Island in the Pacific, were later analyzed for the presence of contaminants.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Environmental Consequences of WarLegal, Economic, and Scientific Perspectives, pp. 402 - 425Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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