Document jyKBbVRR3wK99xXRn2qG4x9xk

------------ B-.--( N A M E -- L O C A T I O N -- P H O N E i Rr--_B.is, hop - _F3- EB DATE March 23, 1983 REFERENCE TO R. T. Berendt - E2ND T. M. Bistline - E2ND D. L. Coleman - G2WF A. M. ~Ford - A2SA G. F. Fort - F3EC J. F. Hussey - F3EA G. D. Ingenthron - F3EB F. E. Kearney - E2SA W. J. McCarville - G3WG P. S. Park - G3WB G. Roush - G2WG J. H. Spraul - G2WF" M. C. "'Fnrodahl - DID E. TiiJLma-n - G2WF J. D. Wilson - G3WG cc. lcr ro CT,^ n ^ C F.Y.I., attached letters were messengered today. Attachments Dan R. Bishop IN . IO <REV 8 7 7 > 0 Oo 0 54 Monsanto Monsanto Company 8 0 0 N Lindbergh Boulevard St Louis. M issouri 63167 Phone (314) 6 9 4 - 1 0 0 0 PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT March 23, 1983 Mr. Eric Newhouse Associated Press 900 N. Tucker Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63101 Dear Mr. Newhouse: The Associated Press told half a story about Agent Orange and dioxin as it appeared in the March 18 front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The AP story concerned Vietnamese research suggesting that the offspring of men exposed to dioxin run an abnormally high risk of being born with birth defects. What was the half of the story left untold? It was that recent Australian research on its Vietnam veterans found "no evidence that army service in Vietnam relates to the risk of fathering a child with an anomaly." Did the AP not know of this work? Other news media did. The March 18 New York Times discussed both the Vietnamese and Australian studies in the same story and correctly pointed out that "conflicting conclusions" were reached. Apparently a conflict also exists on the reaction of American scientists who reviewed the Vietnamese research. The AP story said that these scientists "are impressed" by the work. But a February 27 article in the Washington Post stated that the U.S. researchers "concluded that none of the Vietnamese reports was scientifically valid." I obviously don't know why the Associated Press told only half a dioxin story, but I regret that it missed the opportunity for balanced coverage of a subject so vital to our Vietnam veterans and the public, especially Missourians. Sincerely, D R B :ec Enclosures Dan R. Bishop Director, Environmental Communications J 6 0 G5 Monsanto Monsanto Company 8 0 0 N. Lindbergh Boulevard St Louis. M issouri 63167 Phone (314) 8 9 4 - 1 0 0 0 March 23, 1983 PUBLIC RELAVONS DEPARTMENT Letters to the Editor St. Louis Post-Dispatch 900 N. Tucker Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63101 Dear Sir: The Post-Dispatch told half a story about Agent Orange and dioxin on its March 18 front page. The paper carried an AP story about Vietnamese research suggesting that the offspring of men exposed to dioxin run an abnormally high risk of being born with birth defects. What was the half of the story left untold? It was that recent Australian research on its Vietnam veterans found "no evidence that army service in Vietnam relates to the risk of fathering a child with an anomaly." Did the Post-Dispatch not know of this work? Other papers did. The March 18 New York Times discussed both the Vietnamese and Australian studies in the same story and correctly pointed out that "conflicting conclusions" were reached. Apparently a conflict also exists on the reaction of American scientists who reviewed the Vietnamese research. The AP story used by the Post-Dispatch said that these scientists "are impressed" by the work. But a February 27 article in the Washington Post stated that the U.S. researchers "concluded that none of the Vietnamese reports was scientifically valid." I obviously don't know why the Post-Dispatch told only half a dioxin story, but I regret that it missed the opportunity for balanced coverage of a subject so vital to our Vietnam veterans and Missourians generally. Sincerely, J tl a 7 Dan R. Bishop Director, Envir D R B :ec Enclosures CC: Mr. Bruce Sankey City Editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Communications J6 Sunday, Fr i m ary 27, 1983 THE WASHINGTON POST Dioxin Is Still a Mystery A $33-million decision despite scientific confusion By P*te Earley ARMY MAJ. Charlie Hubbs used to drink Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to convince report ers it was harmless. "It tasted terrible," recalls Hubbs, now a 52-year-old resident of Camp Springs, Md., "but I haven't changed my mind." He still believes the herbi cide, used to clear jungle and kill crops, hasn't damaged anyone's health, including his own. Michael Ryan never drank Agent Orange, but the Long Island police man was exposed to it in Vietnam. He believes it caused his I2-year-old daughter, Kerrie, to be bofn with 18 birth defects, including missing bones, twisted limbs, a hole in her heart and no rectum. Their conflicting views are not only at the core of the Agent Orange dis pute but central to the Environmen tal Protection Agency's $33 million political decision last week to buy out the entire town of Times Beach, Mo. The chemical that made Times Beach unfit for its 2,400 inhabitants is dioxin. Dioxin -- found in Agent Orange at levels more than six times greater than that detected in Times Beach -- is what many Vietnam vets charge has caused them everything from headaches to cancer to birth de fects in their children. So far 16,102 vets have filed disability claims. Moreover, some estimates have claim that as many as 165 million Americans may have been exposed to dioxins in the years they have been sprayed on forests, crops and road sides and home gardens. The herbi cides have been used to control weeds at the Washington Monument and on the White House lawn. In yet another twist, EPA still lets chemical manufacturers sell dioxinridden herbicides for use on rangeland and rice -- 1.3 million gallons were sprayed on rangeland last year. In fact, EPA has moved recently to ease restrictions on the dioxin con taminated herbicide, 2,4,5-T. All these contradictions simply un derscore the key point about the gov ernment's conflicting stands on diox in: political decisions are being made more on headline appeal than on scientific evidence. The bulk of repu table science indicates simply that no one knows whether dioxin is toxic to humans and if so, how much. Strange as it may sound after a week of reports describing dioxin as a threat to humankind, scientists are deeply divided over whether expo sure to dioxin causes health problems in humans. Consider these comments by two experts on dioxin: Drs. Samuel Ep stein. a cancer researcher at the Uni versity of Illinois, and Matthew Meselson of Havard, considered a pioneer in dioxin research. Epstein: "The evidence is over whelming that dioxin is carcinogenic [causes cancer] in humans.'' Meselson: "Anyone who says that it is a clear and present danger can not prove it, and anyone who asserts that it is not a danger cannot prove that either. We simply don't know." Dioxin is formed as an unwanted byproduct when "phenoxy" herbi cides are made. Just how much dioxin is formed depends upon how well the manufactuer controls the temperature and pressure when mak ing a herbicide. In 1979, the President's Council on Environmental Quality announced that dioxin had caused cancer in test animals when 2.2 parts per billion of their normal diet consisted of dioxin. Pete Earley is a Washington Post national staff writer. It caused birth defects in monkeys at doses of 2.5 parts per trillion. The council called dioxin "one of the most toxic substances ever studied." The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta now says dioxin at levels higher than one part per billion may be dangerous to humans. But dioxin effects animals differ ently, making some scientists skepti cal of comparisons with humans. For instance, the dosage needed to kill a hamster is 5,000 times greater than that needed to kill a guinea pig, ac cording to Dr. Barclay M. Shepard, the VA's expert on Agent Orange. Epstein claims other chemicals have been banned after causing can cer at much lower doses than dioxin. The government is stalling to avoid paying compensation, he charges. Most of what is known about the effect of dioxin on humans is based on studies of industrial accidents, primarily one in 1949 at a chemical plant in Nitro, W. Va., and another in 1976 in Seveso, Italy. The Nitro accident occurred when a value popped, spraying fumes in side a building. After that mishap 121 workers developed chloracne, a skin problem caused by dioxin. Stud ies have documented numerous short-term effects after the accident, including nausea, headaches, blood disorders and impaired nerve func tion. But the symptoms diminished over a period of time and eventually disappeared. Recent studies show the death rate among the 121 men actu ally was lower than normal. There also were no signs that the men had developed higher rates of cancer. At Seveso, an explosion spewed an estimated 10 ounces of dioxin over 700 acres. Within six days, 11 chil dren had been hospitalized with skin inflammation and 175 cases of chlo racne had been diagnosed. The gov ernment evacuated 212 families from homes near the plant after the dioxin level was found to be 50 parts per million. Two months later more than 2,000 small animals had died, mostly rabbits. Another 78,000 animals had to be slaughted to prevent dioxin from entering the food chain. Officials reported a significant in crease in birth defects in Seveso and a higher rate of spontaneous abor tions. But both rates were lower than the country'9 national average. In .January, Vietnam invited 21 na tions to send scientists there to re view 60 herbicide studies by the Viet namese. Fourteen scientists from US. universities attended, but they concluded that none of the reports was scientifically valid. The only U.S. study linking a her bicide with dioxin to human health problems was issued in 1079 by the EPA. It was prompted by Bonnie Hill of Alsea, Ore., after she and seven other women in the Alsea area suffered miscarriages several weeks after 2,4,5-T was sprayed near their homes. The study said the miscar riage rate "appears to be correlated to the amount of 2,4,5-T sprayed," prompting EPA to limit 2,4,5-T use to rangeland and rice. More than 18 critiques of the Alsea II study have been published in scientific journals. In 1979, the Brit ish medical journal The Lancet de scribed the sentiment among scien tists like this; "Independent statisti cians have been unable to find any evidence in the [Alsea II] data of a link between abortion and 2,4,5-T." In 1980, the VA hired a consulting firm to review some 1,200 scientific articles about phenoxy herbicides. The study found "no evidence" that the chemicals pose "a potent carcino genic risk" to humans. It also found no evidence that dioxin caused repro ductive damage in humans. Last October, the American Medi cal Association issued its 2,4,5-T and dioxin studies. It said "there is still little substantive evidence for the many claims that have been made against these compounds." Dow has even given volunteer em ployes doses of 2,4,5-T to see how long it took to go through their bodies. The VA is involved in 50 studies alone this year of Agent Orange, at a cost that will exceed $100 million. EPA will spend another $495,000 to study residents of Times Beach and other areas exposed to dioxin. Suspicion remains, of course, about the VA's objectivity. Congress last year forced VA to surrend its most important study to the CDC because it said the VA had lost credibility with Vietnam veterans. The scientific dispute, however, may now be mute. "We're simply beyond that now," says Frank McCarthy, president of Agent Orange Victims International, a privately funded self-help group. How can the government pay $.'W million to 2,400 residents of Times Beach and not feel responsible for "the healthy young men it sent to Vietnam who came back sick and dis eased?" he asks. r" TH E N E W YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1983 Studies by Vietnam andAustralia ConflictonAgent Orange'sEffects rrmUPBOFFEY WASHINGTON, M arch 17 -- TWo m id of tbe Vietnamese re su lts,' 'T h ere1 s tu d ia aad u cted abroad bave rcacted ts no preceded for ft In the interna confiicttng emehtaiopa an w bstber tionalliterature." Birth defects from by Agent Orange. tbe btxbidde ured in toxic cents usually tbe m other, V ietnam , caused U rth dtecta te r ebik T t th in thn fnthnr tin hnr n r ip a r il d m of nnn-Vietnaineaa faafh l in Vietnam. troopa tan Am erican experts on Agent Orange aid they were withhoJding Judgment A Rudy hy Vietnam ese scientista re- until they saw the full data end analysis p o ru d an lam ag e in abaannalitlra in cfaUdren of N anb Vietnam ese am en for both studies. Tbe Veterans Adminis tration aid the A ustralian study ap b a s iiw handa aervod in Sarah Vlra- peared wall conducted. It repotted aam and tbuB am potatU ally opoaad "persuasive evidence th at Vietnam to A |B tO T U |S . But a study t A ustralien vtran at Vietnam Sound "no vidence th at anny asrvica ln Vietnam r e la ta to the risk at service bas not been areoriated with aoy Im portant tar ream la the risk of birth defects." , ttlh arin g a cfid witb an aoom aly." T ba A satfaU as G o n m a n t paatead tbe It w as aot d e a r to dantis ti la this country wky the stadias reached such n m d either m ight be to whether Agees Orapge enured birth defect tor A m erican rerviccm an's children. , ' . U A K w dyB ri-- C re k srlil The n a tim i Centre for Bisenso Ccptrtd In A tlanta ts trying to datennfne If th a n w as any increase In dr iaettve A m erican cfciidrenof veterans. - The Vietnam ese tody dli cuared In January in Ho Cfal Mtab City a t a sym posium attended by American ad m d sta. A report of th at conference, aw rim iU tln g la American kdeutlflc cficlre, a a (fangnaw was "vary much hnpreaan t " te l stona abort of endow^ g thaV ietnam ese findings. A rtte r H. W esttag, a n ecologist b a n H am pshire CoQege in Ambeaat, Maaa., m nqnD u p o v m F ri., M ar. 1 8 , IB S ) StlflUIS POST-DISWTCH Vietnamese Link Dioxin, Birth Defects WASHINGTON (AP) -- American scientists say they are Impressed by Vietnamese research suggesting that the offspring at men wbo are spaaed to dioxin run an ahoocmatly high risk o( bring bora with U rth defects. Hep Thomas A. Daschle, D 5.D ., chairman of Vietnam Veterans hi Congress, sild that the Vietnamese Investigationi strengthen the esse tor legislation be has prepared. It would sw ard disability benefits to vetsnns suffering certain dim es they baheve a f t related to the dlcaln la A jsnt Orange. Published American research has gat to find a Unk betwees exposure lo d ip sla and ' b ln b abnorm alities, to e an lap s sr MiUMrths. Baaed on a survey of 40,000 families, the Vietnamese findings on the after effects of the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam were presented at conference In Ho Chi Minh City (form erly Saigon) Jan. 13-23. Sdentlsta from several countries, Indudiggi tbe United States, attended the conference. Reports from the roaring are beginning to drrulata among relentim In this country. Some of the Americana who were three said the stu d iu struck them as worthy of m o tio n . " I don't think anym e deliberately fudged tbs data," says o n wbo a tte o d sd , -M aureen H aleb, a raprodactlva apidem lologlat a t Columbia University's School id Public Health. Dr. John Constable, a plastic surgeon from Massachusetts General Hospital wbo also attended, said, " I am persuaded that this is sufficient evidence that unnecessary exposure to dknln should be rigorously avoided." Asked what could account for the contradictfcr between American and Vietnamese research, Samuel Epstein, an epidemiologist from tbs University of Illinois School of Public Health, said birth defects occurred so rarefy that many thousands of people must be Investigated before valid can emerge. He said most American SreD&FECTS, Page I Defects Front p a u a o o a studies Involved too small a group. Tbe Vietnamese doctors said they had found that women from North Vietnam whose husbands stayed in the North during the war ran significantly leas risk of having "unfavorable outcomes of pregnancy" than women whose husbands may have been exposed to Agent Orange in the South, tbe only (dace where it was sprayed. H u t suggests that the cause of the difficulty was transm itted in tbe husband's sperm to his wife. Between 1665 and 1171, about U million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in South Vietnam to expose communist sanctuaries in the Jungles. Vietnam veterans have suspected that their exposure to the herbicide while they fought the war inaeased ( their risk of having children with birth defects.______ j