Asia Times: US in no hurry to resolve Agent Orange legacy


	March 19, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

US in no hurry to resolve Agent Orange legacy
By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam

HO CHI MINH CITY - News that there was a conference in Hanoi this month on the health and environmental effects of Agent Orange did not impress Buddhist nun Ngoc Nga, who runs a boarding school for children affected by the defoliant in Dong Nai province, near this city in southern Vietnam.

For the 36-year-old nun, her students are sufficient proof of the birth defects and other diseases caused by Agent Orange and other dioxins, which were sprayed as defoliants over Vietnam to reduce enemy cover during the Vietnam War more than three decades ago. "What I am interested in is: Will the conference end up in some humanitarian aid for these young victims?" the nun said.

Pham Ngoc Tien, deputy director of social affairs in the northern province of Thai Binh, was more blunt. "We hope that through this sort of conference all those international scientists will help put pressure on the US to pay up. This thing is going on into the third generation - they've really got to start compensating our people for the damage they caused," he added.

By the yardstick set by Ngoc Nga and Pham Ngoc Tien, the three-day conference organized by Vietnam's Ministry of Health and the UN National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), has fallen short of being relevant to the needs of the Agent Orange victims: it resulted only in the establishment of a framework for joint Agent Orange research. Hanoi and Washington, the two former foes, agreed to set up a Joint Advisory Committee to conduct further research on the effects that AO and dioxins have on Vietnamese health and environment.

Vietnam has many times pointed out that the United States has a moral responsibility to Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and should help the country in its research efforts into the effects of this chemicals. Indeed, conferences like the last one this month aim to "to bring dioxin contamination across Vietnam down to internationally acceptable levels and do all that can be done to mitigate the health effects", Vice Minister of Science, Technology and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said.

Vietnam estimates that between 1961 and 1970, the US Air Force sprayed 72 million liters of toxic chemicals containing Agent Orange/dioxin on different areas in the country, with serious consequences to people's health and the environment to this day. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and groups such as the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society want the United States to be more forthcoming in helping Hanoi deal with the long-term effects of AO from the war.

"When you speak of AO and its effects, remember its source," said Len Aldis of the Britain-Vietnam Frienship Society. He said that a cleanup and extraction of the soil in the worst-affected areas in south Vietnam is needed - "but you cannot clean and extract AO from the bodies of the living victims of AO".

Vietnam estimates more than a million of its people were exposed to the Agent Orange spraying, which it blames for tens of thousands of birth defects. American war veterans also blame Agent Orange for numerous illnesses including cancer, diabetes and nervous disorders. Paul Sutton, head of the Vietnam Veterans of America's Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee, was quoted as saying his group believes in "fair and equitable compensation or an ability to solve the health problems" in Vietnam.

Sutton and Vietnam Veterans of America president Thomas Corey say it is difficult to say how much compensation might be in order, but described a US$184 million settlement reached by Dow Chemical Co and Monsanto Co with American war veterans in 1984 as "chump change". The two firms are the manufacturers of Agent Orange.

But Washington's scientists say that the conclusion that Agent Orange and dioxins are to blame for generations of birth defects and other diseases in Vietnam needs many more years of research. Scientists from the US Environmental Protection Agency and NIEHS said Vietnam's research needs to be reviewed and replicated.

"If you are talking about something as complicated as birth defects or cancer or other chronic diseases, especially a multigenerational potential disease, that is going to take years and years and years," said Christopher Portier, the director of the NIEHS's environmental toxicology program, who also chaired this month's meeting. "Findings have been presented [by Vietnam] that suggested some of those conclusions have been drawn and we are trying to understand better the basis for those. We need to look more closely at the information that underlies those conclusions," Portier said.

Vietnam lacks the means to provide absolute proof that each case is the result of the wartime defoliant. Tests still cost about $10,000 a go, far too much for the cash-strapped Vietnamese government.

William Farland, from the EPA's research office, said the United States is keen to provide technical assistance to bring down the costs of testing. He says the agency is taking part in a pilot project experimenting with a cheaper type of testing for dioxins in the central city of Danang, a major US base area during the war.

But the $400,000 pilot research project is focused strictly on soil and sediment testing. The EPA has been offering cleanup advice, but there had been no talk of the United States participating in such a program.

Vietnam Veterans of America officials add that research is needed into programs to prevent new contamination in hotspots and to mitigate adverse health conditions of those already sick. Corey believes that the issue of compensation for Vietnamese victims should be sorted out between the US and Vietnamese governments and between Vietnam and Dow Chemical Co and Monsanto Co.

"We feel ... we can have answers in less than a few years," Carey said. "I am talking no more than three years [within which time] there can be significant answers by joint research."

(Inter Press Service)