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thedrifter
06-03-03, 06:39 PM
More info on Thailand AND Agent Orange

The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in
Vietnam

Thanks to USDR.s NATIONAL 1ST VICE PRESIDENT NOEL PRITZL
for the heads up on this article....article in Nature April 2003 Vol 422.1
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v422/n6933/i
ndex.html
down near bottam of page
local library may have a copy of this magazine

http://www.nature.com/nature/ search for Thailand AND Agent Orange

Full article at: use full URL
http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v422/n6933/f
ull/nature01537_fs.html

partial reprint below

The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in
Vietnam

JEANNE MAGER STELLMAN*, STEVEN D. STELLMAN??, RICHARD CHRISTIAN§, TRACY
WEBER* & CARRIE TOMASALLO*

* Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public
Health, Columbia University, 600 West 168th Street, New York, New York
10032, USA
? Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia
University, 600 West 168th Street, New York, New York 10032, USA
? Institute for Cancer Prevention, One Dana Road, Valhalla, New York 10595,
USA
§ 2102 Old Stage Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22308, USA

Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.M.S.
(e-mail: jms13@columbia.edu).

Herbicides including Agent Orange were sprayed by United States forces for
military purposes during the Vietnam War (1961-1971) at a rate more than an
order of magnitude greater than for similar domestic weed control. In 1974,
the US National Academy of Sciences published estimates of the extent and
distribution of herbicides sprayed. Here we present revised estimates,
developed using more-complete data. The spray inventory is expanded by more
than seven million litres, in particular with heavily dioxin-contaminated
herbicides. Estimates for the amount of dioxin sprayed are almost doubled.
Hamlet census data reveal that millions of Vietnamese were likely to have
been sprayed upon directly. Our identification of specific military
herbicide targets has led to a more coherent understanding of spraying.
Common errors in earlier interpretations of the spray data are also
discussed.

Between 1961 and 1971 herbicide mixtures, nicknamed by the coloured
identification band painted on their 208-litre storage barrels, were used by
United States and Republic of Vietnam forces to defoliate forests and
mangroves, to clear perimeters of military installations and to destroy
'unfriendly' crops as a tactic for decreasing enemy food supplies1. The
best-known mixture was Agent Orange. About 65% of the herbicides contained
2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), which was contaminated with
varying levels of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). Herbicide
mixtures are listed in Table 1.


********
A 1971 NAS-1974 analysis of six core soil samples collected from the central
calibration grid at Pran Buri, Thailand, over which all ARPA test flights
had flown, found TCDD levels ranging from non-detectable (<0.0012 p.p.m.) to
0.0233 p.p.m. and 2,4,5-T residue from non-detectable (< 0.02 p.p.m.) to
0.61 p.p.m.. NAS-1974 estimated the original herbicide to have contained <3
to 50 p.p.m. TCDD, consistent with the range observed in the Johnston Island
stockpile2. (The USAF documentation18 incorrectly asserts that NAS-1974 had
erred in attributing the TCDD to Agent Orange rather than to Agents Purple
and Pink. These misstated findings are used as further rationale for
assuming the four high TCDD values to have been Agent Purple.)

Although Agent Purple is, indeed, likely to have been more highly
contaminated with TCDD (an archived sample of Agent Purple at Eglin Air
Force Base contained 45 p.p.m. TCDD18 and historical TCDD contamination data
show early 1960s contamination levels to have been much higher)20, it is
also likely that mean TCDD levels in Agent Orange were far higher than 3
p.p.m. for much of the herbicide used. An average value closer to 13 p.p.m.
may be more realistic.

If 3 p.p.m., the mean associated with the 'low dioxin' series is
conservatively applied to the new inventory we have presented here, the
estimate for TCDD present in the spray grows to 221 kg from NAS-1974
estimates of 106-163 kg. Applying 32.8 p.p.m. and 65.5 p.p.m. as the average
TCDD in Agents Purple and Pink, we obtain an additional 165 kg, or 366 kg in
total (which still does not take into account the herbicides sprayed by RVN
forces, and possibly by US Army and Navy forces by trucks, boats, hand
sprayers and helicopters, nor the more than 400,000 l of Agent Pink shown in
procurement records but not found in any recorded missions). If, indeed,
dioxin contamination of Agent Orange could be fourfold or more higher, then
this increased dioxin load grows proportionally. It is also possible that
some missions recorded as having dispersed Agent Orange did, in fact, spray
the much more highly contaminated but unaccounted-for Agent Pink, but we
know of no way to determine this. It is more likely that the unaccounted-for
herbicides were used by Vietnamese troops, although about 50,000 l of Agent
Pink do appear on the 1965 inventory.




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Sempers,

Roger