It was twenty years ago this month that the Monsanto chemical company settled a lawsuit with residents of Anniston. Illnesses ranging from cancer to birth defects were blamed on a group of chemicals called PCB’s. But, this isn’t the only example of Alabama residents allegedly being made sick by big industry. Another group all have something in common. They all served in Vietnam. We begin our story with a man APR listeners met last week.
“Coretta Scott King…Danny Glover…Jesse Jackson…,” said David Baker as he showed off a wall full of photos at his home in Anniston. He led the effort to sue Monsanto over illnesses linked to the company’s chemicals called PCBs. It earned him something of a national fan club.
“This is the Prime Minister of Nairobi, Kenya. He and I and Jesse Jackson were coming out of a building,” Baker added.
Not every picture has a happy ending…
“Oh, yeah, my brother Terry was a young man that he was even my baby brother,” recalled Baker.
Terry Baker was one of earliest residents of Anniston to get sick, supposedly from PCB contamination. He died when he was sixteen. David Baker is 95% certain his brother died because of PCBs. But, he can’t prove it.
“He actually had an enlarged heart,” Baker said. “He had got as large as I have a gallon bucket and a brain tumor and cancer on the lungs.”
Terry Baker also died before he could qualify for compensation in the settlement with Monsanto. The chemical giant was known for more than just making PCBs. It was also a global leader in herbicides.
We’re at the VA Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. The facility has patriotic posters on the walls, and uniforms from all the branches of the U.S. military in glass display cases. And today, there are a lot of balloons, too…
The Veterans Administration is holding what it calls a carnival. There are games and free hot dogs, but there’s also paperwork. Vets are getting the chance to sign up for what’s called the federal Pact Act. It offers extra health benefits for servicemen and women exposed to toxic chemicals.
“I was in the ninth infantry division,” said seventy-five-year-old Woodie Washington of Tuscaloosa is already signed up.
“And we was called Charlie Company,” said Washington. “You know, you got to alphabets and you know, Alpha, Delta, Charlie…”
Washington fought in Vietnam for two years starting in 1968. He was a rifleman and that meant lots of time in the jungle, hacking his way through vines and foliage…
“And we would go through those with machetes cut down stuff to get through the jungle,” Washington recalled. “And it would be wet. We didn't know that it was full of herbicide. We had no idea whatsoever.”
And that herbicide is the point of this story…
“I didn't know that was Agent Orange,” said Washington. “Never did. I didn't think of it that way.”
Monsanto was a major producer of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Dow Chemical was another. The National Institutes of Health says eleven million gallons of Agent Orange was sprayed over Vietnam. The point was to kill vegetation where enemy soldiers could hide.
“Some of the earliest studies were for various forms of cancer,” said Doctor Ted Schettler is with the Science and Environmental Health Network. The Oregon based group studies the misuse of science and the harm it causes. Schettler is ticking off the list of illnesses linked to Agent Orange….
“…leukemia, some kinds of lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and soft tissue sarcoma,” he said.
Schettler is also a medical doctor. He says the suspected impact of Agent Orange doesn’t end with cancer.
“Then, it became apparent that some children who were born to veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam, were born with birth defects,” Schettler said.
Twenty thousand residents of Anniston had illnesses blamed on Monsanto’s PBC chemicals. The Veterans Administration in Washington, D.C. estimates the number of Vietnam Vets exposed to Agent Orange is one hundred and seventeen thousand, and that’s just in Alabama.
The line keeps moving at the sign-in desk at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center. The federal PACT Act doesn’t just cover illnesses due to Agent Orange. Toxic smoke from burn pits from the war in Iraq, or exposure to radiation are also included.
The VA says the PACT Act is an example of change, and how the agency is reaching out to veterans instead of waiting for vets to ask for help.
“I think it is not equivalent to an apology. It is taking responsibility at some level,” said Steve Taylor, the communication director with the Global Justice Ecology Project. That group in Buffalo, New York focuses on the link between social injustice and damage to the environment. Taylor says there are still questions on how much the military knew about the dangers of Agent Orange while U.S. soldiers were fighting in Vietnam…
“It would be very problematic for the United States government to say yes, sorry, veterans, we knew that this might be a problem for you,” said Taylor. “Because what that means, by extension is that we'd knowingly sprayed chemicals on rice fields that were known to be carcinogenic.
Veterans at today’s VA Medical Center carnival in Tuscaloosa are making their way from the hot dog stand to information tables on the federal PACT Act. Former members of the military who sign up will have to go through a screening process to see if they were injured by toxins during their service.
“I do have neuropathy, upper and lower extremities. I do have the sciatic pain in the lower left hip,” said Army vet Woodie Washington. We met him earlier in our story. He’s waiting for word on whether the VA will provide additional help for his list of ailments. Washington says all he and his fellow Alabama Vets can do is wait…
“I hope is that some of us get upgraded, you know, to be compensated for the risk that was taken by veterans of all wars,” he said.
APR gave Monsanto and Dow Chemical the chance to respond to questions on Agent Orange exposure among Alabama military veterans. Monsanto didn’t respond, but Dow did. In a written statement, the chemical company disputes the link between Agent Orange and Cancer. Dow said in a separate release, that it and Monsanto were required to make Agent Orange, and to supply it to the military, under the U.S. Defense Production Act.
Editor’s Note:
This is Dow Chemical’s email response to APR’s request for comment on Agent Orange exposure among Military veterans in Alabama.
“The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) greatly respects the men and women who served in Vietnam and all who were affected by it. During the Vietnam War, Dow and other companies were compelled by the U.S. government to produce military herbicides, such as Agent Orange. The government provided Dow and the other companies with specifications for Agent Orange and controlled its transportation, storage, and use. Agent Orange was produced strictly for military use and Dow never produced nor sold it as a commercial product. The U.S. courts have consistently ruled that the manufacturers bear no responsibility for their role in supplying the U.S. government with Agent Orange for its use during the Vietnam War and have dismissed all claims to the contrary. Moreover, the extensive epidemiological study of veterans who were most exposed to Agent Orange does not show that such exposure causes cancer or other serious illnesses.”
