Agent Orange in the News/Indiana National Guard Poisoned

Len Aldis's open letter to Monsanto

Mr Len Aldis, Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society Secretary, has recently sent an open letter to Monsanto's president and Chief Excutive Officer, asking him to accept his responsibility for the manufacture of Agent Orange and its use on Vietnam, and make financial compensation to the victims, and their families. ...

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Toxic Exposure the Issue: Indiana National Guard Soldiers Were Exposed to a Cancer-Causing Toxin. Our View: These Current and Former Soldiers Deserve the Best Medical Treatment Available.

... Sadly, it now appears that some Indiana National Guard soldiers were exposed to a highly toxic chemical in Iraq in 2003 during the early months of the current U.S. invasion and occupation.

A total of 139 soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 152nd Infantry, based in Jasper, Ind., and Tell City, Ind., were stationed in Basra, Iraq, guarding a water treatment plant. A private firm, Kellogg, Brown and Root, was contracted by the Army to operate the facility, post-invasion.

According to a congressional investigation and published reports, the Qarmat Ali treatment plant was strewn with an orange-colored dust. Despite assurances it was only a "mild irritant," the substance turned out to be a highly toxic industrial chemical, sodium dichromate, which is used to remove corrosion from pipes. Amid dust storms, it likely was impossible for Indiana soldiers and KBR employees to avoid breathing in the toxin or getting it on their skin. Sodium dichromate is a known carcinogen that has been linked to cancers of the lungs and respiratory tract. ...

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Agent Orange package criticized
timestranscript.canadaeast.com
September 26th, 2008

FREDERICTON - Veterans and their families are taking their war to expand the federal government's Agent Orange compensation package to the politicians looking for votes.

Fredericton's Gerry McKay, who was posted at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown when the U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange there in 1960s, has talked to the candidates and has this message for them.

"I am going to vote for the individual who, at least, mentions this problem and tries to get it out in the open right now, while the election is going on," McKay said. ...

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ALSO SEE: Group protests lack of compensation from Agent Orange spraying, Canadian press
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US, Vietnam open annual Agent Orange meetings
Sep 8, 2008

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — The U.S. and Vietnam on Monday opened their third round of annual talks on ways to limit the environmental effects of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant the U.S. sprayed extensively during the Vietnam War.

Officials and experts from both countries convened a weeklong session that will include a visit to the former U.S. air base at Bien Hoa, one of several so-called Agent Orange "hotspots" where the U.S. military stored and mixed Agent Orange before loading it onto planes.

The two sides are expected to announce plans for using US$3 million the U.S. Congress set aside in 2007 for the cleanup of dioxin, a highly toxic element of Agent Orange. ...

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