Estimates of Dioxin Use in Vietnam Doubled

[Dragon Lady]

I just read this article and found it of interest. I thought it might be helpful to some of our fellow Patriots. It appears in the January 2004 edition of Discover Magazine, Page 70.

Estimates of Dioxin Use in Vietnam Doubled

Medicine ? How strong were Agent Orange and other herbicides that the United States dumped on Vietnam? It turns out they were far more toxic than anyone ha thought. A research team led by Jeanne Mager Stellman of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University reported in April that the herbicides used to defoliate battle zones contained two to four times the previously reported levels of dioxin, a poison linked to a high incidence of prostate cancer, diabetes, birth defects, and other ailments among American veterans, the Vietnamese, and their descendants.

The Air Force flew about 9,000 defoliation sorties. Cross-referencing previously unexamined data from operational folders with already-known mission information enabled the researchers to create time-specific maps of the spraying. By comparing these maps with records of U.S. and Vietnamese troop positions and civilian populations, the researchers determined that at least 3,181 villages were sprayed and that between 2.1 million and 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to dioxin. Meanwhile, American veterans can now find out their level of exposure?assuming they know where they were on any given day. ?Michael W. Robbins