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Best veiw with
Firefox 3
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Military used Dioxin
Dioxin is by far one of the most dangerous toxins now being released
into the environment. Even small amounts once breathed enter the body
and remain for a lifetime causing great damage. Here, the U.S.
government has used a toxin loose in the environment without any respect
for life of future generations.
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Dioxin levels high at old U.S. air base
15 June 2007 - By Ben Stocking - star-telegram.com
DANANG, Vietnam -- More than 30 years after the Vietnam
War ended, the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange has emerged anew with
a scientific study that has found extraordinarily high levels of
health-threatening contamination at the former U.S. air base at Danang.
"They're the highest levels I've ever seen in my life," said Thomas
Boivin, the scientist who conducted the tests this spring. "If this
site were in the U.S. or Canada, it would require significant studies
and immediate cleanup." |
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Comment: Yeah, those spooks aren't worth
the life of the American, and obviously don't get the regard deserved.
Soil tests by his firm, Hatfield Consultants of Canada, found levels
of dioxin, a highly toxic chemical compound in Agent Orange, that were
300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted limits.
The report has not yet been released, but Boivin and Vietnamese
officials summarized its central findings for The Associated Press.
Earlier tests by Hatfield, which has been working in Vietnam since
1994, showed that dioxin levels were safe across most of Vietnam. But
until the study of the old air base at Danang, the consulting firm had
never had access to some half-dozen "hotspots" where Agent Orange, a
defoliant designed to deny Vietnamese jungle cover, was stored and
mixed before being loaded onto planes.
The study is the product of a new spirit of cooperation between
Washington and Hanoi -- after years of disagreement -- toward
resolving this contentious leftover of the war that ended in 1975. |
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Comment: Imagine the damage being done
now in Iraq and the innocent people who will suffer for generations
from all the bombing.
On a visit to Vietnam last fall, President Bush and Vietnamese
President Nguyen Minh Triet agreed to work together to address dioxin
contamination at old Agent Orange storage sites. They are expected to
discuss the issue further when Triet visits Washington next week.
The worst contamination in Danang is confined to a small section of
the 2,100-acre base, the former Agent Orange mixing area.
The dioxin poses no immediate threat to the vast majority of the
city's nearly 1 million people or the Danang Airport terminal, which
sits on the sprawling site and is widely used by tourists headed for
Danang's beaches. |
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Comment: That is a paramoralistic
response. Dioxin is much more dangerous that realized. See
Blue Vinyl
But blood tests found elevated dioxin levels in several dozen people
who regularly fished or harvested lotus flowers from a contaminated
lake on the site. |
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Comment: As verified and those affected
are in big trouble.
Tests also confirmed that rainwater has carried dioxin into city
drains and into parts of a neighboring community that is home to more
than 100,000 people, Boivin said. Levels there could rise if the
dioxin isn't properly contained. |
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Comment: If this dioxin has been there
since 1975, how far do you think it has spread?
The Vietnamese military has taken some steps to contain the dioxin,
but Le Ke Son, Vietnam's top Agent Orange official, said cleaning up
Danang and other Agent Orange hotspots is likely to cost at least $40
million, far more than the developing country can afford. |
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Comment: The U.S. government is
responsible for cleaning up this mess and should also pay the health
costs for all those harmed.
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The
The
Labors in the Spirits of
Science
Living on the Lost Planet 
