[News] Vietnam Demands Compensation from Monsanto for Devastating Harm Caused by Agent Orange During War

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/09/vietnam-demands-compensation-from-monsanto-for-devastating-harm-caused-by-agent-orange-during-war/ 



  Vietnam Demands Compensation from Monsanto for Devastating Harm Caused
  by Agent Orange During War

/Beyond Pesticides/, September 4, 2018

Close on the heels of the recent landmark California decision against 
Monsanto, 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/08/groundskeeper-used-monsantos-herbicide-roundup-contracted-cancer-non-hodgkin-lymphoma-nhl-wins-289-million-jury-verdict/> 
maker of the glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup, Vietnam has demanded 
that the company pay damages 
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/vietnam-agent-orange-monsanto-victims-compensation-a8508271.html> 
to the many victims of its Agent Orange 
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange> herbicide and defoliant, 
which Monsanto supplied to the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. 
(Monsanto was not the only U.S. manufacturer of the compound; there were 
nine in total.) U.S. forces, in a program dubbed Operation Ranch Hand, 
<https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange> used more than 
13 million gallons of the compound in Vietnam — nearly one-third of the 
20 million gallons of all herbicides used during the war in Laos, 
Cambodia, and Vietnam. In Vietnam alone, 4.5 million acres were impacted 
by Agent Orange.

Nguyen Phuong Tra, a spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign ministry, said, 
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/vietnam-agent-orange-monsanto-victims-compensation-a8508271.html> 
“The [U.S.] verdict serves as a legal precedent which refutes previous 
claims that the herbicides made by Monsanto and other chemical 
corporations in the U.S. and provided for the U.S. army in the war are 
harmless. . . . Vietnam has suffered tremendous consequences from the 
war, especially with regard to the lasting and devastating effects of 
toxic chemicals, including Agent Orange.”

Around the world, 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/08/brazilian-judge-suspends-glyphosate-monsanto-stock-plunges-san-francisco-jury-orders-cancer-victim-paid-289-million/> 
the U.S. case may be sparking bolder actions 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/08/australia-germany-urged-to-restrict-glyphosate-after-u-s-court-ruling/> 
on the toxic weed killer. In that watershed decision, the jury in San 
Francisco County Superior Court awarded Dewayne “Lee” Johnson $289 
million in compensatory and punitive damages 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/08/groundskeeper-used-monsantos-herbicide-roundup-contracted-cancer-non-hodgkin-lymphoma-nhl-wins-289-million-jury-verdict/> 
for his exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup (whose active ingredient is 
glyphosate) that caused his subsequent development of non-Hodgkin’s 
lymphoma, as well as for the corporation’s deliberate and protracted 
cover-ups to keep the risks of exposure to glyphosate hidden from the 
public and regulators.

Agent Orange got its moniker because of the color of the band around the 
55-gallon drums in which the chemical was transported. Other herbicides 
used by U.S. forces in Vietnam were identified as Agents White, Blue, 
Purple, Pink, and Green. The Orange version 
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236351/> — comprising 2,4-D 
<https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/pesticides/factsheets/24D_Jul04.pdf> 
(2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid, still widely used as a broadleaf 
herbicide) and 2,4,5-T 
<https://www.beyondpesticides.org/assets/media/documents/pesticides/factsheets/Triclopyr.pdf> 
(2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) — was used to defoliate food crops 
and forest cover used by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops during 
the Vietnam War. 
<https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange> The toxic 
compound was sprayed heavily on forested areas, farmland and rice 
paddies, waterways, and roads. Military members — numbering 
approximately 2.6 million 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/agent-orange-act-was-supposed-to-help-vietnam-veterans-but-many-still-dont-> 
— were not the only people potentially exposed; crops and water sources 
used by non-combatant South Vietnamese people were also affected.

The compound contained significant amounts of the synthetic contaminant 
dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-/p/-dioxin), often called TCDD. 
Dioxins are highly toxic chemicals that persist for years in the 
environment (especially in soils, lake and river sediments, and the food 
chain), and accumulate in fatty tissues of animals. Dioxins are 
carcinogenic, toxic even at very low exposure levels, and responsible 
for both acute and long-term effects. They have been proven to cause not 
only cancer, but also, other grave health problems, such as birth 
defects, extreme rashes 
<https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/publications/agent-orange/agent-orange-summer-2017/skin-conditions.asp> 
(chloracne and related conditions), and severe neurological and 
psychological issues. This has been true for both Vietnamese military 
and civilian people who were exposed, and for U.S. Vietnam-era service 
members. It should be noted that those in the military are not the only 
workers impacted by TCDD; 
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236351/> workers in other sectors 
have registered health effects, including employees in pesticide 
manufacturing and transport facilities, farm and forestry operations, 
and pulp and paper mills.

Many Vietnam Era service members have long charged Agent Orange with 
responsibility for a host of maladies they suffered both in the field, 
and in the years after their return stateside. They began to link their 
exposures to Agent Orange with the myriad chronic health issues some 
were developing. In 1979, the first class action suit 
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236351/> was brought against five 
manufacturers (with more added to the suit later on) in the U.S. 
District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit was 
brought by the class comprising Vietnam veterans, and their spouses, 
parents, and children; it did not name the federal government as a 
third-party defendant. (A 1950 U.S. Supreme Court case gave rise to the 
Feres doctrine, <https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/feres_doctrine> which 
prevents claims against the federal government by armed forces members 
and their families for injuries arising from, or in the course 
of, activity incident to military service.) The outcome was a settlement 
in the form of a $180 million fund to be used to: (1) provide cash 
payments to totally disabled veterans and survivors of deceased 
veterans; (2) establish a class assistance foundation to help meet the 
medical, social, and legal service needs of members of the class; and 
(3) establish a trust fund for New Zealand and Australian class members. 
Because a settlement was made out of court, no determination of the 
causal relationship between Agent Orange exposure and veterans’ health 
outcomes was made.

Subsequently, beginning with the first claims the Veterans 
Administration (VA) received related to Agent Orange in 1977, veterans’ 
groups and other advocates have worked persistently to get recognition 
for the harms of Agent Orange to veterans — and in some cases, to their 
children — as well as coverage for medical needs and disability. It has 
been, no doubt, a maddening journey, with repeated delays 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/va-delays-key-agent-orange-decisions> 
in progress and glacially incremental expansion of coverages. 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/long-list-of-agent-orange-decisions-awaits-va-in-2017>

Any federal attempt to deal with coverage for exposed veterans started 
with the 1984 Congressional passage of Public Law 98-542, which 
<https://www.vetshq.com/agent-orange-timeline/> “provide[d] compensation 
to Vietnam veterans for soft tissue sarcoma and require[d] the VA [U.S. 
Department of Veterans Affairs] to establish standards for Agent Orange 
and atomic radiation compensation” (which law the VA has been charged 
with largely ignoring). This was followed by 
<https://www.vetshq.com/agent-orange-timeline/> a 1989 order, by a 
federal judge, that the VA reconsider 31,000 Vietnam Era vets’ claims 
related to health impacts of exposure, and the Agent Orange Act of 1991, 
which established that certain diseases tied to chemical exposure would 
be presumed related to a veteran’s military service and would make such 
veterans eligible for benefits.

This act really marked the beginning of at least passive 
acknowledgement, by the federal government, that its use of Agent Orange 
was causal of many health problems. The health issues covered by this 
“presumption policy” has grown over time to include: non-Hodgkin’s 
lymphoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, and chloracne (1991); multiple myeloma, 
respiratory cancers, Hodgkin’s disease, and porphyria cutanea tarda, a 
metabolic disease (1994); type II diabetes (2001); chronic lymphocytic 
leukemia (2003); AL amyloidosis (2009); chronic B-cell leukemias, 
Parkinson’s disease, and ischemic heart disease (2010); prostate cancer 
(2015); and peripheral neuropathy (2016). VetsHQ 
<https://www.vetshq.com/> is an online veterans’ community that 
describes its mission as “helping ensure America’s commitments to 
veterans and their families are honored.” Its website provides many 
tools for vets, and a very useful timeline 
<https://www.vetshq.com/agent-orange-timeline/> of significant events in 
the Agent Orange saga.

A 2018 update on coverage from the VA is available here. 
<https://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp> 
The agency reported in June of this year that its presumption policy — 
which sets out the diseases or syndromes that are assumed related to 
Agent Orange exposure — has resulted in increased utilization of VA 
healthcare benefits by veterans. The agency notes 
<https://www.research.va.gov/currents/0618-Agent-Orange-presumption-policy-leads-to-higher-VA-health-care-use.cfm> 
that a study by researchers from the War Related Illness and Injury 
Study Center <https://www.warrelatedillness.va.gov/> (WRIISC) at the VA 
New Jersey Healthcare System found that the “law passed by Congress 
nearly 30 years ago [the Agent Orange Act of 1991] has largely met its 
goal: helping affected Veterans get the care they need.”

Yet progress in veterans receiving the support they need has been 
interspersed with plenty of setbacks, including denials of claims, 
government statements of inconclusive causation, and delays or failures 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2017/11/veterans-coverage-agent-orange-related-diseases-delayed/> 
of potentially helpful legislation. For example, until 2015, military 
personnel who worked in, on, or around the C-123 — the aircraft that 
delivered Agent Orange in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia during or after 
the Vietnam War — were deemed ineligible 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2015/06/air-force-veterans-who-used-agent-orange-contaminated-aircraft-may-be-compensated/> 
for medical care and disability coverage for their exposures. These 
contaminated transport aircraft were never decontaminated after their 
Southeast Asia service, and some were repurposed, back in the U.S., for 
basic transport operations, such as cargo shipping and medical 
evacuation missions.

The VA had declared that “dried residues” of Agent Orange in these 
C-123s were likely not harmful, but a 2014 study showed 
<https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/aircraft-vietnam-identified-agent-orange-contamination> 
that people who worked on or around the C-123 were very likely to have 
been exposed to dioxin from those residues. Beyond Pesticides reported, 
in June 2015, 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2015/06/air-force-veterans-who-used-agent-orange-contaminated-aircraft-may-be-compensated/> 
that things were looking more hopeful, saying, “After years of denial 
and obstruction, Air Force and Air Force Reserve veterans now have the 
chance to receive compensation for their exposure to the highly toxic 
herbicide Agent Orange on contaminated aircraft used after the Vietnam 
War.” In that year, 1,500–2,100 service members did gain eligibility for 
coverage.

A further example of the difficulties veterans have had and continue to 
have: as /Pro Publica/ reported in 2015, 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/agent-orange-act-was-supposed-to-help-vietnam-veterans-but-many-still-dont-> 
the 1991 Agent Orange Act made eligible for benefits veterans with 
certain diseases who “‘must have actually set foot on Vietnamese soil or 
served on a craft in its rivers (also known as “brown water veterans”),’ 
according to the Congressional Research Service. . . . Those who instead 
spent time on deep-water Navy ships (called ‘Blue Water Navy’ veterans) 
do not qualify unless they can show that they spent time on Vietnam land 
or rivers.” Now, in 2018, a U.S. House of Representatives bill (HR 299) 
that would extend Agent Orange disability benefits and health care 
<https://www.military.com/militaryadvantage/2018/08/02/va-rips-blue-water-agent-orange-bill-urges-senate-sink-it.html> 
to 70,000–90,000 veterans who served aboard ships in territorial waters 
off Vietnam during the war, passed the House unanimously, but is being 
opposed by the VA, which is urging the Senate to quash it.

Paul R. Lawrence, VA Undersecretary for Benefits, testified that 
<https://www.military.com/militaryadvantage/2018/08/02/va-rips-blue-water-agent-orange-bill-urges-senate-sink-it.html> 
“There’s still no credible scientific evidence to support extending 
Agent Orange-related benefits to shipboard personnel who never went 
ashore in Vietnam or patrolled its rivers. Without such evidence, he 
said, it would be wrong, and would create a disastrous precedent, to 
award VA benefits.” Although David Shulkin, the first VA secretary under 
the Trump administration, had said, one year into the job, “These 
veterans have waited too long and this is a responsibility that this 
country has. . . .  It is a high priority for us,” the scorching comment 
from Mr. Lawrence came days after the subsequent secretary, Robert 
Wilkie, assumed the secretary post.

/Pro Publica offers a helpful guide 
<https://www.propublica.org/article/agent-orange-act-was-supposed-to-help-vietnam-veterans-but-many-still-dont->/ 
to which groups are covered for Agent Orange–related issues, or are 
seeking coverage. Those groups include: those who served in Vietnam; Air 
Force personnel exposed to contaminated C-123 aircraft; Blue Water 
veterans; those who served in or near the Korean DMZ (demilitarized 
zone), 1968–1971; Air Force personnel who worked in Thailand, 1961–1975; 
and children of veterans. Currently, kids of Vietnam Era vets with spina 
bifida qualify for benefits, and children of female vets qualify if they 
suffer from 18 other various conditions. There may be coming research on 
potential epigenetic effects on children of veterans that could add 
others to the coverage list.

Halfway across the world, people in Vietnam are dealing with many of the 
same health, never mind environmental (such as persistence of dioxin in 
the food chain) issues. In 2012, as Beyond Pesticides reported, 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2012/08/us-to-clean-up-sites-contaminated-with-agent-orange/> 
the U.S. launched its first major effort to address environmental 
contamination brought on by its use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam 
War — after decades of denying Vietnamese requests for assistance in a 
cleanup. Five years later, PBS reported a mixed picture, 
<https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/will-u-s-stay-committed-to-toxic-agent-orange-cleanup-in-vietnam> 
and perhaps waning commitment, on keeping on top of that task, given 
costs. Whether Vietnam’s latest attempt to achieve some justice 
<https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/vietnam-agent-orange-monsanto-victims-compensation-a8508271.html> 
for its affected people bears future fruit — in what may, in light of 
the recent California award, 
<https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2018/08/groundskeeper-used-monsantos-herbicide-roundup-contracted-cancer-non-hodgkin-lymphoma-nhl-wins-289-million-jury-verdict/> 
be a changing landscape on corporate culpability for harms to human 
health — will be a development eagerly awaited by that country, and by 
advocates for policies on toxic chemicals that will actually protect 
people and our environments.

For more information about the legacy of Agent Orange, see Beyond 
Pesticides’ Pesticide Induced Diseases Database 
<http://www.beyondpesticides.org/health/index.php>.

/All unattributed positions and opinions in this piece are those of 
Beyond Pesticides,/

Primary source: 
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/vietnam-agent-orange-monsanto-victims-compensation-a8508271.html

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20180904/80f187f1/attachment.htm>