On Sun, 6 Jan 2002, mattd wrote:

Agent orange news in Nam... http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=01/12/31/3456415

Scientists investigating the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam have found that people living in a so-called hotspot have the highest blood levels of its poisonous chemical dioxin ever recorded in the country. Agent Orange, which has the dioxin (TCDD - short for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) as one of its constituents, was last used in 1973.

Agent Orange is a 1-124-1 mixture of n-butyl esters, 245T 2-4-5-trichlorophenoxacetic acid (C8,H5,Cl3,O3), and 24D 2-4-dichloro-phenoxacetic acid (C8,H6,Cl2,O3). TCDD or, 2-3-7-8-tetrachlorodibenzo-P-dioxin (C12,H4,Cl4,O2), is a CONTAMINATE artifact of the heat exchangers used in the reaction process not a constituent as so often stated. None of this stuff is what any of us want in our dinner salad, however the differences between 245T,24D the most researched herbicides in the world and TCDD are huge. Currently, aside from dioxin like pcbs (which are no longer manufactured in the US, and wouldn't be around at all hardly if it weren't for the americans and computer users love of electricity and plastic lawn furniture) the only real use of dioxin is in bleaching paper pulp. The understanding of dioxin is still incomplete and with all the new studies in gene research on, folks are learning some pretty interesting stuff about some theoretical benificial capabilities of dioxin. In the short term, it's abilities to bind up lipophilic chemicals so they can be pissed out as urine, and in the long run, as a vector for non intrusive reprogramming of cells. Chlorinated herbicides have been around since the late 1800s, and have litterally made all the difference in the abilities to produce food in the last century. While the ability to produce food in the 20th century has produced all kinds of new global problems, and food is still used as a political tool, the problems of world wide starvation are problems of politics, not agriculture. The techology exists, and chemicals like 24D and 245T are among the reasons why. Bad shit happened in the land of bad things to a lot of people. I've lost friends, close friends, to health proplems resulting from exposure to agent orange, so I don't take this lightly. If the herbicide had been manufactured with a priority on quality instead of the usual gov focus on low bid and quantity, it is at least conceivable that this horror wouldn't be facing those folks now. As far as I know the only controlled studies done on agent orange were done by the principle contractor Dow chemical, and the studies were done in Midland Michigan. Those studies pointed heavily at TCDD contamination. As far as I know, those studies have not been refuted. I am not a biochemist, and I don't even play one on TV, but I do know how to read, and I wish that if folks wanted to report on this stuff, they would get their facts straight.

But today, some residents of Binh-Hoa, near Ho Chi Minh City, have 200 times the normal amount of dioxin in their bloodstreams. Agent Orange was widely used by the US military during the Vietnam War as a defoliant so that Vietnam's dense jungle could not provide cover for Viet Cong forces. 'Startling' results It was when US veterans started to become ill with a variety of health problems that investigations suggested that Agent Orange could be involved. The most dangerous ingredient was the dioxin, a pollutant that stays in the environment for decades. There are still about 12 dioxin hotspots in Vietnam, in areas where very heavy spraying took place. (cont)

Page 1 breaking news is apparent discovery of highly toxic batch in WA.(ex vietnam)Deaths suspected.