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TOXIC AGENT ORANGE HOT SPOT FOUND AT OLD DA NANG

AIR BASE -- "They're the highest levels I've ever seen in my

life. If this site were in the U.S. or Canada, it would require

significant studies and immediate cleanup."

 

 

Story here... http://www.kansascity.
com/news/world/story/151236.html

Story below:

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TOXIC ‘HOT SPOT’ FOUND

Extraordinarily high concentrations of dioxin are at an old U.S. base in Vietnam.

By BEN STOCKING
The Associated Press

DA NANG, Vietnam | More than 30 years after the Vietnam War ended, the poisonous legacy of Agent Orange has emerged anew.

A scientific study has found extraordinarily high levels of health-threatening contamination at the former U.S. air base at Da Nang.

“They’re the highest levels I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Thomas Boivin, who conducted the tests this spring. “If this site were in the U.S. or Canada, it would require significant studies and immediate cleanup.”

Soil tests by his firm, Hatfield Consultants of Canada, found levels of dioxin, the highly toxic chemical compound in Agent Orange, that were 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted limits.

The report has not yet been released, but Boivin and Vietnamese officials summarized its central findings for The Associated Press.

Earlier tests by Hatfield, which has been working in Vietnam since 1994, showed dioxin levels were safe across most of Vietnam.

But until the study of the old air base, the firm had never had access to the half-dozen “hot spots” where Agent Orange, a defoliant designed to deny the enemy jungle cover, was stored and mixed.

The study is the product of a new spirit of cooperation between Washington and Hanoi toward resolving this leftover of the war that ended in 1975.

President Bush and Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet have agreed to work together to address contamination at Agent Orange storage sites.

They are expected to discuss the issue when Triet visits next week.

The worst contamination in Da Nang is confined to a small section of the 2,100-acre base, the Agent Orange mixing area.

Blood tests found elevated dioxin levels in several dozen people who regularly fished or harvested lotus flowers from a contaminated lake on the site.

Tests also confirmed that rainwater has carried dioxin into city drains and into parts of a neighboring community of more than 100,000 people, Boivin said.

The levels there are only slightly elevated but could rise if the dioxin is not properly contained.

America is paying $400,000 for a study of how to clean up the site.

The Ford Foundation, a charitable group that financed Hatfield’s study, is paying for temporary containment measures.

The Vietnamese military has taken steps to contain the dioxin, but Vietnam’s top Agent Orange official said cleaning up Da Nang and other hot spots was likely to cost at least $40 million, far more than the country can afford.

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Larry Scott  --