Word: dioxins
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Scientists have linked dioxin, the most toxic element in Agent Orange, to cancer in animals. Researchers in Italy and Viet Nam claim dioxin is tied to birth defects in humans. Veterans also blame the chemical for headaches, sexual dysfunction and organ damage. They say perhaps 80,000 soldiers were exposed to dioxin. The Federal Government says there is no way to tell, although some 45,000 soldiers have been tested and a federally financed study is under way at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Public Health...
...hope that gene splicing [March 9] produces happier results than the offspring of some previous discoveries of science and industry. We can do without the equivalents of thalidomide, vinyl chloride, PCB, dioxin, napalm and hydrogen bombs. Genetic engineers have not yet shown themselves to be more reliable or mindful of the outcome of their creations than their industrial predecessors...
During the Viet Nam War, Air Force planes sprayed the dioxin-laced defoliant Agent Orange on dense jungles to strip the ground of cover. American soldiers got sprayed too, and now thousands of veterans are sure that the exposure has caused them skin rashes, neurological disorders, cancer and birth defects in their offspring. Residents of the Love Canal area of Niagara Falls, N.Y., are no less distressed. They are convinced that the toxic wastes buried there have led to nerve damage, miscarriages and other ailments, including mental retardation among their children. Says Housewife Cynthia Bassett...
Analysis revealed that the dump contained more than 80 different chemicals, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBS), hexachlorocyclopentadiene (or C56 for short), benzene, toluene, tetrachloroethylene and other polysyllabic byproducts of pesticide production. Some, like the powerful solvent dioxin, are suspected carcinogens. Still others cause anemia, loss of hair, seizures and skin rashes...
...Government has refused any responsibility for the servicemen's plight. The veterans are especially bitter because they cannot get disability payments or free treatment from the Veterans Administration for the illnesses that they believe were caused by dioxin. Says Albrigtsen: "When you go in to a VA hospital and say you are an Agent Orange victim, they look at you as if you were nuts...