Blood tests confirm high levels of dioxin

NZ Herald: Mar 10, 2005
By Martin Johnston

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Blood tests have confirmed that people who lived near a New Plymouth chemical plant have high levels of potentially cancer causing dioxin in their bodies.

The levels of dioxin in the 52 people ranged from no higher than the average in the New Zealand population, to 15 times higher than the average.

The tests were done by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research for the Health Ministry, following community concerns about the former Ivon Watkins-Dow plant in Paritutu.

The plant, now Dow AgroSciences, produced the weed killer 2,4,5,T from 1962 to 1987.

Today's results are from 28 people who have lived near the plant. Results for the 24 people in round one of the testing were published last September.

After the first results were published, the dioxin levels were said to be similar to some of those reported in Vietnam after spraying with Agent Orange 20 to 28 years previously.

People in round one of the study had an average level of TCDD, a dioxin, of 10.4 pico-grams (pg/g) per gram of blood lipids (fat). In round two the average was 3.2 pg/g. The average for both groups was 6.5 pg/g compared with the average New Zealand national average of 1.7.

ESR says this is a statistically significant elevation.

"TCDD exposure to residents is likely to have been the result of gradual accumulation over a long period of time, as duration of residence was the key factor in determining the likelihood of measuring an increase in serum [blood] TCDD."

Study participants with 15 or more years residence between 1962 and 1987 had average TCDD levels of 14.6 pg/g. The national average for the same age and gender mix is 2.4 pg/g.

Those with less than 15 years exposure were, at 3.2pg/g, over twice the expected level of 1.5 for an age and gender matched group from national data.

The Ministry said last year that the levels of dioxin found in the study could cause up to three extra deaths from cancer in every one hundred people.

But today's ESR report stats that there are still many unknowns, including the potential health effects on people significantly exposed to the pollution.

The ministry also said last year that people who had lived in areas other than Paritutu, or in the suburb after 1987, had not been exposed to dioxins in the way those in the study had been.

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Original Source

New Zealand Confirms Supplying Agent Orange in Vietnam War

Agence France Presse: January 9, 2005

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AUCKLAND - New Zealand supplied Agent Orange chemicals to the United States military during the Vietnam war, a government minister has revealed.

The disclosure led to immediate claims that New Zealand was in breach of the Geneva convention and could face a flood of lawsuits from veterans and Vietnamese.

Transport Minister Harry Duynhoven said the highly toxic chemical was sent to a United States base in the Philippines during the 1960s.

"The information that has been given to me is that products used to make Agent Orange were shipped from New Plymouth to Subic Bay in the Philippines," he told the Sunday News newspaper.

After nearly three decades of official denials, a high-level parliamentary committee formally acknowledged late last year that New Zealand soldiers in the Vietnam War were significantly exposed to Agent Orange, but no mention was ever made that the country was a supplier.

Although the National Party was in power during the Vietnam War, Duynhoven said his current Labour government was responsible for setting the record straight.

"Any government has to deal with the situation it finds itself in and it's always a problem if previous governments leave a mess."

Veterans spokesman John Moller said the government must compensate ex-soldiers and their families, some of whom have suffered generations of health problems.

"It's bloody unacceptable what the New Zealand government has done to us and the other countries involved in the war," he said.

"Through their deceit, cover-up and negligence, the New Zealand government has the blood of thousands of Kiwis, Vietnamese, Australians and Americans on their hands."

Under the Geneva Convention, countries cannot be party to chemical warfare and must declare the use or supply of defoliants during conflicts.

The vice-chancellor of Canterbury University, Scott Davidson, an authority on international law, said the government had left itself open to lawsuits from Vietnamese.

US lawyer Constantine Kokkoris, who represents Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, said he may sue the New Zealand government.

"It is my intention at this time to look into the possibility of bringing a class against against the New Zealand government," he told the Sunday News from his New York office.

Davidson said if negotiations between Kokkoris and the government broke down, the United Nations could be called on to find a setting for a court case.

From 1961 to 1971, the US and South Vietnamese military sprayed millions of litres of toxic herbicides, mainly Agent Orange, over South Vietnam to destroy the vegetation used by communist forces for cover and food.

Hanoi says the defoliant has caused health problems for more than one million Vietnamese and continues to have devastating consequences.

A study released in August last year by scientists from the United States, Germany and Vietnam found that Agent Orange was still contaminating people through their food.

Dioxin, the defoliant's deadly component, can cause an increased risk of cancers, immunodeficiencies, reproductive and developmental changes, nervous system problems and other health problems, according to medical experts.

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Original Article

Pensioner amazed he's still standing

NZ Herald: Mar 11, 2005

By Martin Johnston

Ray Kennedy sat calmly in his armchair as it was explained to him that his body harbours nearly four times the national average of dioxin. 

Two health and science experts visited the 90-year-old New Plymouth rest home resident in his bedroom to deliver his blood test result. 

It showed he has 11.8 parts per trillion of a particular dioxin, compared with a national average of 3 for men over 64. 

Later, the former resident of Paritutu, from near the plant that made 2,4,5, T weedkiller until 1987, said he was not worried by the results. 

"I don't worry about anything. I simply marvel that I'm still alive," said Mr Kennedy, quickly stretching his legs in and out from his chair to show how well they still work. 

For him the results are a kind of victory, proof of his claims over many years that the plant polluted Paritutu. 

He said his family, like others in the area, had paid a high price. 

He had a section of his bowel removed, after cancer was found, and he still suffers a skin complaint. 

One of his daughters, Eileen, who had worked at the plant's packaging section for several years, died aged 52. Like others, he said, "she just wasted away". "She got so weak she couldn't even climb stairs." 

Mr Kennedy was at first excluded from the testing as his blood's red-cell count was too low, but he ate "lots of steak for dinner - I had to pay extra for it" - and was finally accepted. 

He said the contamination findings strengthened the case for some form of compensation from the Government and Dow Agrosciences, the owner of the plant, for affected people. 

Original Source