Fred Wilcox - Waiting for an Army to Die

In 1970 when the order to stop using Agent Orange in South Vietnam was issued, the US military was left with thousands of fifty-five-gallon drums containing this herbicide. Some of these barrels were stored on Johnston Island in the Pacific, while others went to the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Gulfport, Mississippi. But the drums started to rust and their contents began leaking, making it imperative that something more “final” be done about the surplus stocks of herbicide Orange. In February 1972, the Mississippi Air and Pollution Control Commission ordered that the Agent Orange stored at Gulfport be removed immediately. Faced with this, the Air Force tried returning the remaining stocks of Agent Orange to its manufacturers, who refused to accept the offer. Air Force officials also suggested that the surplus herbicide be disposed of “by the prudent disposition of herbicide Orange for use on privately owned or governmentally owned lands.” This plan also failed and, seven years after the barrels were removed from Vietnam, the EPA finally granted the Air Force a permit to incinerate the remaining stocks of Agent Orange on the German-built ship Vulcanus in the South Pacific. By the time the permit was granted, more than five thousand drums containing over a quarter million gallons of Agent Orange had rotted through.

According to Harvard researcher Matthew Meselson, dioxin is also much more poisonous than the most toxic military nerve gases, which also consist of small molecules.

“What appears to be happening,” says Matthew Meselson, “is that cell division stops. Spermatogenesis stops, the replacement of red blood cells stops, the regeneration of the epithelial lining of the gut stops. After a few days or weeks without cell division the animals simply fall apart.”

A molar pregnancy is one characterized by the presence of a uterine mole, a fleshy mass formed in the uterus by the degeneration or abortive development of an ovum.

The most readily observable symptom or marker of dioxin exposure is chloracne.

See Appendix, Letter to the Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association , 195–196.

It is interesting that other substances, including the artificial sweeteners, cyclamates, have been banned under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act on the basis of studies showing they were carcinogenic in animals. And although scientists know less about the effects of formaldehyde than the components of Agent Orange on human health, at least three federal agencies have proposed regulating formaldehyde, while the Consumer Product Safety Commission believes it should be banned in certain home products.

Used extensively as a wood preservative.

See appendix for a history of 2,4,5-T, 183–185.

Although the EPA passed its suspension order on certain domestic uses of 2,4,5-T in February 1979, there is evidence that the use of this herbicide has actually increased each year since the suspension order was passed.

The total number of dead horses was approximately sixty-two.

Ronald Anderson is a composite portrait.

From Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides.