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Joan A. Newberry, nee
Duffy
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA,
Joan was educated at the University of Detroit, Mercy. She received
her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing in 1967. Commissioned
a 2/LT in the United States Air Force, Nurse Corps, Joan was
assigned to the 12th USAF Hospital at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam
in 1969. Joan left the US Air Force in 1970 and moved to England
to protest American involvement in Vietnam. Married in 1971,
Joan had a daughter, Claire Elizabeth, who resides in Australia.
After her experience in Vietnam, Joan began a career in medical
communications, writing educational materials for physicians,
nurses and patients. For the past 25 years, Joan has an activist
in Agent Orange issues and these activities have included extensive
public speaking, testifying before congressional committees
and being interviewed by TV, radio, newsprint media. Joan was
also one of several Vietnam veteran nurses interviewed for three
documentaries produced in the US. Joan currently is an active
member of the Santa Fe, New Mexico, Chapter of Veterans for
Peace and works on many chapter issues, including Agent Orange.
Today, I will be speaking to you about one of the most devastating
materials that the United States military ever used: I am, of
course, referring to Agent Orange which contained the highly toxic
contaminant, dioxin. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam produced
unacceptable threats to life, violated international law, and
created toxic wastelands that continued to kill and injure civilian
populations long after the war was over. Agent Orange was a true
weapon of mass destruction and its use should be considered a
crime against humanity.
Before I begin my presentation, I would like to tell you a little
bit about myself.... I was commissioned a 2/LT in the United States
Air Force Nurse Corps shortly after graduating from college. I
was sent to a large military base called Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam
a year later. While there, I was too busy to notice that I never
heard a bird sing, and in fact, the only living things I remember
seeing (other than people) were roaches: not too reassuring considering
that roaches were reported to be the first things to crawl out
from under the rubble at Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atom
bombs were dropped. At the hospital where I worked, there was
a brick wall outside the emergency room that was covered in dead
vines. I learned years later that the perimeter of Cam Ranh Bay
was sprayed with Agent Orange on a regular basis because it was
considered such an important military installation. Like most
Vietnam Veterans, I knew nothing about Agent Orange until years
later when I read about veterans with health problems who had
begun to make the connection between Agent Orange exposure and
illness.
So how did this tragedy of Agent Orange begin?
During World War II, Prof Kraus, Chairman of the Department of
Botany at the University of Chicago, discovered that a chemical
named 2,4 D could kill vegetation within 24-48 hours by causing
plants to experience sudden, uncontrolled growth. Thinking this
discovery might be of some use in the war effort, Kraus contacted
the War Department, but Army scientists were not interested in
it at that time.
Civilian scientists, however, found Kraus’ discovery to be of
use in everyday life after the war. Chemical sprays that included
2,4 D were put on the market for use in controlling weeds in yards
and along roads and railroads.
The US Army continued to experiment with 2,4 D during the 1950's
and late in the decade, they found that mixing it with another
chemical resulted in the creation of an herbicide that had an
almost immediate toxic effect on foliage. What they didn’t realize
or what they chose to ignore, was that the second chemical, 2,4,5
T, contained dioxin, a molecule that the US Environmental Protection
Agency would later call one of the most potentially dangerous
known to man. The toxicity of dioxin is such that it is capable
of killing newborn mammals and fish at levels as small as 5 parts
per trillion (or one ounce in 6 million tons). It’s toxic properties
are enhanced by the fact that it can enter the body through the
skin, the lungs, or through the mouth. Once inside the body, dioxin
rapidly binds to protein molecules in the cell membranes called
receptors: the job of these receptors is to move substances into
the cells. By binding with these receptors, dioxin is rapidly
transported into the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell where it
then wreaks havoc for years to come. Dioxin literally modifies
the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell and affects
a wide range of organ and metabolic functions. It is a potent
multi-system poison that is virtually indestructible in most environments.
One of the most dangerous characteristics is that dioxin is not
water soluble, making it almost impossible to excrete: if it were
water soluble, it could be excreted in the urine and perspiration.
However, because dioxin crosses the placental barrier, levels
of dioxin in pregnant women are reduced, sadly for the unborn
baby. In laboratory animals, dioxin has been shown to cause cancer,
birth defects and genetic damage.
Considering how toxic dioxin is, it is truly shocking that after
extremely minimal experimentation, Agent Orange and other herbicides
were shipped to Vietnam in 1961 to aid in anti guerilla efforts.
These herbicides were used to destroy food sources and eliminate
foliage that concealed enemy troop movements. On January 13, 1962,
3 United States Air Force planes left Tan Son Nhut’s airfield
to begin Operation Ranch Hand to defoliate portions of South Vietnam’s
heavily forested countryside. Nine months later, by Sept 1962,
the spraying program had intensified, resulting in the defoliation
of almost 9000 acres of mangrove forests. Over the next 9 years,
an estimated 19 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed throughout
Vietnam at a rate 6 to 25 times that suggested by the chemical
manufacturers. The results of the spraying was there for all to
see: over the door of the ready room for Ranch Hand pilots at
Tan Son Nhut’s Airport in Saigon hung a sign that said "Only
you can prevent forests".
Unfortunately, the Agent Orange used in Vietnam was much more
highly contaminated with dioxin than that used in the United States.
This was the direct result of the US military pressuring the chemical
manufacturers to speed up production of Agent O range because
the military was using ever increasing quantities of the herbicide,
practically with abandon. In an effort to work faster and increase
production of Agent Orange, the chemical companies paid little
attention to quality control issues and the Agent Orange destined
for Vietnam became much more highly contaminated with dioxin as
the result of sloppy, hasty manufacturing.
Unknown to the millions of American soldiers and Vietnamese civilians
being exposed to the herbicides, the chemical manufacturers were
well aware of the long term toxic effects, but they sought to
suppress the information from the government and the public, fearing
a negative backlash. Of particular concern to the chemical companies
was Agent Orange which contained dioxin. Publicly they maintained
that dioxin occurred naturally in the environment and was not
harmful to humans. Privately they knew otherwise, as evidenced
by scientists involved in Operation Ranch Hand and documents uncovered
recently in the US National Archives which paint a disturbing
picture. There are strong indications that not only were the military
officials aware as early as 1967 of the limited efficacy of chemical
defoliation, they also knew of the potential long term health
risks of frequent spraying and they sought to keep that information
from the public. Dr, James Clary was an Air Force scientist in
Vietnam who helped to write the history of Operation Ranch Hand.
Clary wrote in a 1988 letter to a member of congress investigating
Agent Orange that
"we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin
contamination in Agent Orange. We were even aware that the military
formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the civilian
version due to the speed of manufacture . However because the
material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were overly
concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnel
would become contaminated with the herbicide."
While the debate over the danger of Agent Orange and dioxin heated
up in scientific circles, the United States Air Force continued
flying defoliation sorties. People on the ground continued to
live in a mist of toxic herbicides. They slept with it, drank
it in their water, ate it in their food, breathed it in their
lungs, absorbed it through their skin. Some of the US troops used
the empty Agent Orange drums as barbeques: others stored food
in them. Still others rigged the residue- laden drums for showers.
Finally in 1971, the US Surgeon General prohibited the use of
Agent Orange for home use and on June 30, 1971, all US defoliation
efforts in Vietnam were terminated.
As veterans attempted to settle back into civilian life, some
of them began to develop unusual health problems. There were skin
and liver diseases and what appeared to be an abnormal number
of cancers to soft tissue organs such as the lungs and stomach.
There also seemed to be an unusually high number of birth defects
among children born to Vietnam Veterans. Some veterans experienced
wild mood swings while others developed a painful skin condition
called cloracne. Many of these veterans were found to have high
levels of dioxin in their blood., but scientists, doctors and
the United States government insisted that there was no link between
their illnesses and their exposure to Agent Orange.
By the early 1980's, the denials of the US Government, the Veterans
Administration, the US military and the chemical companies regarding
Agent Orange/dioxin toxicity began to fall apart as communities
such as Times Beach, Missouri entered the public eye. Times Beach,
Missouri was an idyllic little community about 20 miles from St
Louis. Unknown to the residents of Times Beach, dioxin-laced oil
had been sprayed on the town’s roads to keep the dust down during
the 1970s. The contamination was so bad that the government decided
that the only way to save the town’s residents from further damage
was to buy them out and move them out. In early 1983, the US government
spent $33 million buying the homes and businesses in Times Beach
and relocating its 2200 residents. Three years later, in 1986,
the Centers for Disease Control released a report that showed
that mobile home residents located near Times Beach, were suffering
liver and immune system damage as a result of their exposure to
the dioxin-laced oil that had been sprayed on the dirt roads in
1971. Times Beach remains a ghost town even today because of dioxin
contamination. Other towns and cities became contaminated as a
result of chemical spills or manufacturing emissions: some of
them needed to be evacuated like Times Beach. Love Canal in Niagra
Falls, New York, Sevesco, Italy, Pensacola, Florida, and the entire
city of Midland, Michigan have very high levels of dioxin. While
the government was paying off residents of Times Beach because
of dioxin contamination, it continued to deny that Vietnam Veterans
who had been exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin were at risk.
All in all, many entities conspired to keep the truth about Agent
Orange and dioxin covered up: the Centers for Disease Control,
scientists, chemical companies, The White House, the Veterans
Administration, the US military, especially the United States
Air Force. In the end, the truth won out. The Veterans Administration
has been forced to admit that Agent Orange exposure/dioxin exposure
causes a multitude of health problems for which they must compensate
veterans. These conditions include: cancers such as leukemia,
soft tissue sarcoma, cancers of the lung, larynx, bronchus, trachea,
prostate, lymphomas, myeloma, Hodgkins and non Hodgkins lymphoma.
Other conditions for which veterans are compensated are: nervous
system disorders such as neuropathy and sensory impairment, metabolic
disorders such as Type II diabetes, liver and kidney damage, skin
problems such as cloracne, The Veterans Administration also must
compensate veterans’ children who suffer from mutations and birth
defects such as spina bifida and other neural tube defects, cleft
palates, hydrocephalus, esophageal and intestinal deformities,
clubfoot, fused fingers and toes, and congenital heart disease.
Agent Orange is NOT a conventional weapon: it is, instead, a
weapon of mass destruction. All international law on warfare for
the past 100 years has attempted to limit violence to combatants
and to prevent the use of cruel and unfocused weapons. International
agreements and conventions have tried to protect civilians and
non-combatants from the scourge of war, to outlaw the destruction
of the environment and to protect the food supply in order to
safeguard life on this earth. Agent Orange is precisely the kind
of weapon prohibited by international law for more than a century
because of its unconfined, death-dealing effects.
Surely it must be clear to any thinking human being that we can
no longer afford to seek violent solutions to the world’s problems
because our weapons have become so dangerous and toxic that they
kill soldiers and civilians both during the war and for years
and years after the war is supposedly over. I urge you as fellow
human beings to seek justice for the victims of Agent Orange.
I implore you to do this for the sake of Vietnam’s children
and grandchildren, but also for the sake of the world’s children
and grandchildren. What we do now, here, to seek justice for the
victims of Agent Orange could very well establish an international
precedent that will hold governments and corporations responsible
and accountable for their actions and protect future generations
from the horror of such weapons .
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International
Conference of Victims of Agent Orange