Editorial - The Legacy of Agent Orange - Mike Goldwater Film and Photography

NASA infra-red satellite picture of the southeast coast of Vietnam in 1973. The cyan stripes indicated diseased vegetation due to defoliation by Agent Orange.

Pham Thi Huan, 24, with her first child, Bui Van Xuan, is 20 months old. He can neither speak, nor stand up and has no eyes. His father, Bui Van Tram, 28, a war veteran, was sprayed three times with Agent Orange. June 1980

Quyen is four. She has microcephalia, w Quen’s father, Nyguyen Van Quach, 35, fought in the South and was sprayed many times with Agent Orange.

Quyen is four. She has microcephalia. Quen’s father, Nyguyen Van Quach, 35, fought in the South and was sprayed many times with Agent Orange.

Quyen is four. She has microcephalia. She cries and sleeps in quick succession 24 hours a day. Quen’s father, Nyguyen Van Quach, 35, fought in the South and was sprayed many times with Agent Orange.

Quyen is four. She has microcephalia. Quen’s father, Nyguyen Van Quach, 35, fought in the South and was sprayed many times with Agent Orange.

This father, a soldier on the Ho Chi Minh trail, was sprayed directly with Agent Orange. His two sons both have heart defects.

This father, a soldier on the Ho Chi Minh trail, was sprayed directly with Agent Orange. His two sons both have heart defects. Tan Peuong village, Hu Son Binh province, Vietnam.

A son of a former soldier who was sprayed directly with Agent Orange while on the Ho Chi Minh trail. He and his elder brother both have heart defects.

A doctor from the Viet Duc hospital in Hanoi examines the two sons of a former soldier who was sprayed directly with Agent Orange while on the Ho Chi Minh trail. Both boys have heart defects.

Professor Ton Tach Tung at home. Professor Ton Tach Tung's research work uncovered the many birth defects caused by Agent Orange. As chief surgeon and director of the Viet Duc Hospital, Hanoi, Dr Ton That Tung raised the alarm that contamination by the dioxin in Agent Orange was causing birth defects, liver cancer, chloracne and other health problems. His research teams identified the cases in these images of families in villages in the north of Vietnam in June 1980 where the mother had never left the area and there was no history of birth defects in the family, but the father while on the Ho Chi Minh trail had been sprayed with the defoliant Agent Orange.

Medical notes taken by Viet Duc hopsital in Hanoi showing Lien, then about 5, She were born after her father was sprayed during the Vietnam War with Agent Orange by US aircraft. Neither she nor her younger sister Hien have lenses in their eyes.

Lien, 8 with her parents. She and her sister Hien, 6, were born after their father was sprayed during the Vietnam War with Agent Orange by US aircraft. Neither have lenses in their eyes and are blind.

Sisters Lien, 8, and Hien, 6, were born after their father was sprayed during the Vietnam War with Agent Orange by US aircraft. Neither have lenses in their eyes and are blind.

Hien, 6, was born after their father was sprayed during the Vietnam War with Agent Orange by US aircraft. She was born withouit lenses in her eyes.

Lien, 8, was born after her father was sprayed during the Vietnam War with Agent Orange by US aircraft. She was born withouit lenses in her eyes

Research staff studying the effects of Agent Orange at the Vietduc Hospital, Hanoi. It was here that Professor Ton Tach Tung's research work uncovered the many birth defects caused by Agent Orange.

Pham Xuan Lo was born on 10.06.80. His father, 35, was sprayed with Agent Orange while a soldier in the south. Lo has deformed hands, feet and several internal defects.

This boy is ancephalic. He was born at the Vietduc Hospital, Hanoi and lived for 28 hours. His father was sprayed with Agent Orange by US aircraft during the Vietnam War.

This boy and girl (left) are both ancephalic. He lived for 28 hours and she lived for 5 hours, the Vietduc Hospital, Hanoi. Their fathers were both sprayed with Agent Orange by US aircraft during the Vietnam War.

This boy is ancephalic. He was born at the Vietduc Hospital, Hanoi and lived for 28 hours. His father was sprayed with Agent Orange by US aircraft during the Vietnam War.

These two sisters and their brother were found abandoned in a plantation region in South Vietnam that had been repeatedly sprayed with Agent Orange.

Research staff studying the effects of Agent Orange at the Vietduc Hospital, Hanoi. It was here that Professor Ton Tach Tung's research work uncovered the many birth defects caused by Agent Orange.

This is Seveso, Italy where on July 10 1976 an industrial accident at a small chemical manufacturing plant owned by ICMESA,15 km north of Milan, released one kilogram of Dioxin into the atmosphere. It resulted in the highest known exposure to Dioxin in residential populations. Here Zone A, the most highly contaminated area if fenced off. 80,000 animals were slaughtered to avoid dioxins entering the food chain.

These 5 men worked together at the Coalite plant producing 2.4.5.T until it exploded in 1968. They are standing at the site where informed observers believe the contaminated debris from the explosion is buried. The site is being redeveloped for a children's playground. The men have all had heart attacks, kidney problems and are impotent. The medical problems are consistant with exposure to the Dioxins in 2,4,5-T. September 1981

These 5 men worked together at the Coalite plant producing 2.4.5.T until it exploded in 1968. They have all had heart attacks, kidney problems and are impotent. The medical problems are consistant with exposure to the Dioxins in 2,4,5-T.

Local resident Richard Beaver stands in a field in Church Stretton, Derbyshire where it is widely believed a consignment of dioxin contaminated remains of the Coalite 2,4,5-T plant which exploded in 1968.

David, Thomas, a farmworker in Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire at home with his daughter Rebecca. He used 2,4,5-T in a knapsack sprayer and the chemical soaked his back repeatedly. His wife had two miscarriages and their daughter was born with a blocked uretha and enlarged kidney. A colleague who used a similar knapsak sprayer contracted kneck cancer and died within 12 months. February 1981

This is David Thomas’ knapsack spray’. A farm worker in Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire, he used 2,4,5-T this ‘knapsack spray’ and the chemical soaked his back repeatedly. His wife had two miscarriages and their daughter was born with a blocked urethra tube and an enlarged kidney. A colleague who used a similar knapsack spray contracted neck cancer and died within 12 months.

22-3 Mrs Gillian Scheltinga of Gwynned in Wales drove through an area, which had just been sprayed with 2,4,5-T, and she could not avoid inhaling the fumes. She was two months pregnant. Shortly after she became very ill and a month later had a miscarriage. Her husband, Shaun, found tins labelled ‘Shellstar 245-T’ down a disused mineshaft nearby. These rusting tins with chemicals still inside could leak, dispersing toxic chemicals into the water courses below.

Irene Hogben gives her four year old daughter Kerry a dose of oxygen. Doctors blame Kerry’s terminal health condition on her mother’s earlier exposure to the toxic chemical 2,4,5-T while working at a farm chemicals distributor. Feb 1980.

Irene Hogben's four year old daughter Kerry at play. Doctors blame Kerry’s terminal health condition on her mother’s earlier exposure to the toxic chemical 2,4,5-T while working at a farm chemicals distributor.

Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant and during the Vietnam War more than 20 million gallons (80 million litres) of it were sprayed by the US military on the forests that ran along the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. The US aim was to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail that ran through these forests. Agent Orange, however, contains Dioxin, an extremely toxic chemical that has caused widespread cancer and appalling birth defects.

I followed the research of Vietnamese oncologist Professor Ton That Tung, who, while based at the Viet Duc Hospital in Hanoi, had identified families in the north with no previous history of genetic abnormalities, and where mothers had never left their villages – but the husbands had been on Ho Chi Minh Trail and had been exposed to Agent Orange.

Getting in to Vietnam in 1980, just five years after the end of the war, was not a simple process, and it would not have been possible without the help of Madame Louise Vidaud du Plaud, an intrepid Frenchwoman who had escaped to England from Vichy France during WW2. In the 1960s during the Vietnam War she worked with an underground organisation in Saigon, still had many contacts and was able to get me a visa and access.

American servicemen exposed to Agent Orange during the war later received some compensation from the US government for their ongoing health issues.
The US Environmental Protection Agency, in its submission to the US administrator, stated, “It is impossible to ascertain a safe level of human exposure to Dioxin. The quality, quantity and variety of data demonstrating that the continued use of 2,4,5-T contaminated with Dioxin presents a risk to human health is unprecedented and overwhelming”. However, none of the Vietnamese victims of the chemical have received anything from the US.

Meanwhile, in the UK, despite health concerns, 2,4,5-T was widely available at that time. It was manufactured in Britain by Coalite Oil and Chemicals Ltd, until an explosion at a similar plant in Sevaso, Italy in 1976 exploded sending out a contaminating cloud of Dioxin. Debris from a previous explosion at Coalite’s plant in 1968 had been secretly buried after the blast killed one chemist and gave 79 workers Chloracne, a disfiguring skin disease.
The National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (NUAAW), now part of Unite the Union, campaigned to have the chemical banned and in 1979 it was withdrawn.
I have followed some of the cases that the NUAAW had highlighted as part of this campaign.