A Beginners Guide to Dioxin Part One - Durham Environment Watch

ToxCat SPECIAL 

A Beginners Guide to:DIOXIN 

PART 1 

“The worst thing caused 

by dioxin is chloracne, a 

nasty skin complaint.” 

Dame Barbara Clayton 

Communities Against Toxics Research Unit A Beginners Guide to: DIOXIN 

ISSN 1355-5707

2 

Communities Against Toxics (CATs) is a network of long suffering citizens and 

communities in Great Britain and Ireland living with incinerators, waste treatment 

plants, toxic waste landfills, chemical installations and other unsafe, polluting 

industrial facilities. 

Founded in 1990, CATs operates as a non-profit making, non-party political 

organisation dedicated to increasing public and political awareness on environmental 

issues and whenever possible strengthening democracy at a local level. 

To help communities protect the environment from industrial pollution and political 

apathy, CATs endeavours to provide information and expertise at reasonable cost 

and whenever possible free of charge to members of the poorer sections of society 

and groups in country’s with transitional economies. 

CATs survives on membership subscriptions and donations from sympathetic 

Foundations and receives no financial support from government sources or 

industry. CATs members newsletter ToxCat is published every two months. 

Other publications available to members and subscribers include: 

ToxCat ‘Beginners Guide’ to Incinerator Emissions & their known impact on 

human health. 

ToxCat ‘Beginners Guide’ to Epidemiological Studies Around Incinerators 

ToxCat ‘Beginners Guide’ to Endocrine Disrupters 

ToxCat ‘Do You Want a Boy or a Girl? 

In the pipeline: 

ToxCat ‘Living with Incinerators’ - Community Case Studies 

If you are interested in sponsoring any publication or helping CATs get their web 

site back on line please contact: 

Ralph Ryder, CATs, PO Box 29, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH66 3TX 

Tel: +44 (0)151 339 5473. Mb: 01791 919 6363 

ralph.ryder@googlemail.com 

This publication has been made possible thanks to kind donations from CATs members 

Rosemary Frost, Iris Matthews, Teresa Brzoza and Barry Robinson 

Front cover cartoon taken from Billee Shoecraft’s ‘Sue the Bastards’ artist unknown 

A Beginners Guide to: DIOXIN Communities Against Toxics Research Unit

Introduction 

One of the main areas of concern to communities 

living with existing incinerator facilities or facing a 

proposal for an energy from waste incinerator is the 

production and release of dioxin. 

There are other highly toxic pollutants released in far 

greater amounts, but for decades most community 

concern has centered around dioxin. Supporters of 

incineration (pyromaniacs), welcomed this attention 

because dioxin affected different animals species in 

different ways. By withholding data, losing records and 

not publishing studies of dioxin-related birth defects and 

its impact on the human reproductive system, they 

created a cloud of uncertainty that enabled industry, 

regulatory bodies and pyromaniacs to claim dioxin didn’t 

affect humans with anything other than ‘a nasty skin 

complaint.’ 

They backed up this claim with a number of now 

proven fraudulent [industry-sponsored] studies diluting 

the toxicity of dioxin and its impact on human health. 

The United States Environmental Agency (U.S.EPA), 

which spent billions of dollars trying unsuccessfully to 

establish a ‘safe’ level for dioxin, used this data to 

establish regulations on it. 

The industrial and political position was such they felt 

comfortable spinning lies like “Dioxin is breathed in and 

out straight away” - “Forest fires are a major source of 

dioxin” - “the worst thing caused by dioxin is chloracne, 

a nasty skin disease.” 

When it was hypothesized that dioxin acted like a 

hormone and was capable of disrupting the body’s 

natural balance, industry came up with the line “the body 

produces hormones naturally, so adjust itself.” 

Another claim, often quoted by inspectors conducting 

inquiries on energy from waste incinerators applications 

in the United Kingdom is “there is more dioxin emitted 

by the fireworks on 5th November than by incinerators in 

hundreds of years.” 

Alan Watson of Public Interest Consultants pointed 

out many times this was completely wrong, one reason 

being (basically) because the study in question had not 

taken into account the emissions passing over Britian 

from other countries. Eventually the EA had to agree 

with this, but retaliated with; “bonfires (rather than 

fireworks) emit more dioxin than incinerators.” 

One disturbing theme running through any dioxin 

story is the appalling manipulation of data to detoxify it 

by scientists, regulatory/public health officials and 

academics. People and organisations citizens are told are 

there to protect public health. The reality is however, 

these people have stopped at nothing in their attempts to 

protect the guilty industries, and even today with so much 

research revealing the intricate mechanisms by which 

dioxin disturbs and damages human health and 

development, pyromaniacs have as recently as three 

years ago proclaimed”‘the worst thing dioxin causes is 

chloracne, a nasty skin complaint.” 

‘Spin’ like this is not confined to the distant shores of 

the USA, Vietnam or in the far forgotten past . British 

citizens can look to: 

*The dioxin incident at the Coalite Chemicals plant in 

1990 when the UK government detoxified dioxin with 

the stroke of a pen lifting the [unproven] ‘safe level’ from 

1 pg/kg/bw a day to 10 pg/kg/bw a day; 

*the deliberate omission of children under 10 years of 

age in health impact assessements of incinerator ash 

contaminated with heavy metals and dioxin levels as 

high as 9,500ng spread on food producing areas in and 

around Newcastle upon Tyne, England; 

*the failure by ‘experts’ to bring to the attention of a 

House of Lords inquiry several peer-reviewed published 

studies showing increased ill-health among communities 

impacted directly by dioxin. 

Despite these people, the bravery of victims like Billee 

Shoecraft, Bob McCray, Marilyn Leistner, Lois Gibbs, 

Carol von Strum, and the work of scientists like Pat 

Constner, Peter Montague, Paul Connett, Tom Webster, 

Barry Commoner, Richard Clapp and EPA’s Linda 

Birnbaum, citizens are far more knowledable on the 

dioxin issue than they were 20 years ago. 

Thanks must also go to the realms of indepth 

information published by community interest 

organisations like Peter Montague’s Rachel’s 

Environment Health News, the Centre for Health and 

Environmental Justice, Environmental Health News, 

Synthesis /Regeneration, and of course ToxCat. 

Citizens are now aware that dioxin is a potent 

accumulative carcinogen, an endocrine disrupting 

compound that because of industry’s irresponsible 

attitude and slack regulations, can be found in breast milk 

and the tissues of new-born babies. 

We know the United Nations Environment Program 

has acknowledged incineration to be responsible for 69% 

of the worlds dioxin contamination; and we know that 

even the most modern incinerator emits this and 

hundreds of other other health-damaging compounds 

daily. 

I hope this ‘Beginner’s Guide’ will give you a useful 

insight into the deceit surrounding dioxin, whether it be 

in the herbicides sprayed in Kellner Canyon; in waste oil 

on the roads of Times Beach; in cooking oil in Yusho; 

emitted by incinerators, or found in animal feed in 

Belgium. 

I have lifted ‘Mylece’ by Carol von Strum straight 

from the pages of Don Fitz’s Synthesis/Regeneration, 

Dioxin: The Orange Resource Book (1996). I included 

this because it is short, to the point, and had a powerful 

impact on me when I read it. 

Other stories bring examples of the appalling 

indifference exhibited by politicians and regulatory 

officials towards people’s suffering after being exposed 

to what epidemiologist Richard Clapp has described as 

the “Darth Vadar of chemicals.” 

Ralph Ryder, Coordinator, CATs. 

Communities Against Toxics Research Unit A Beginners Guide to: DIOXIN 3

Multinational companies, aided and abetted by governments and politicians with vested interests in 

them have poisoned the earth and its species for decades. Despite the work of Rachel Carson and her 

warnings in Silent Spring 46 years ago, these people have recklessly continued damaging the ecology 

of the world and the health of an untold number of animal species and their future generations. 

These companies have almost unlimited access to the media and massive resources enabling them 

to get their PR message across on (for example) incineration and Genetically Modified crops and food 

almost unrestricted. 

Independent scientists and citizens aware of the damage industry is doing to the planet and its 

inhabitants have little political support, no money, and poor access to the media. Governments are 

very happy with this situation for economic and in many cases, self-interest reasons. 

It is time for what honest politicians they are in government to wake up to the reality that scientific 

experts who receive funding and grants from industry cannot honestly be expected to be independent, 

reliable advisors on public health and safety issues. The amount of fraudulent studies and manipulation 

of data surrounding dioxin, cigarettes, nuclear accidents, GMOs etc., has shown that corruption 

within the scientific community is widespread on many issues and having devastating consequences. 

We have already witnessed the corporate run World Trade Organisation using its power to further 

industry interests before public health in Canada. While within the food biotechnology industry we 

have a poorly researched technology being forced upon us by profit-driven companies with appalling 

track records dictating what seeds we can grow and consume. 

When we consider the global ecological crisis and the present ability of science / industry to 

develop technologies with potentially profound, global impacts (i.e., incineration / Persistent Organic 

Pollutants, GMOs) without thorough and impartial scrutiny is seriously threatening the health of 

homo sapiens and many other species to reproduce. 

The present system of governments using ‘selected’ scientific experts often not working in the field 

concerned because their views are in accord with the politicians wishes, must cease. The current lack 

of proper scientific rigor and transparency must be replaced by a system that ensures genuine, 

independent and impartial research. 

Carefully established facts and the implementation of the precautionary principle have to be the 

basis for decisions and not the personal wishes of industry, politicians and their selected scientists. 

“… dioxin emissions from an energy to waste plant operating to the new pollution 

control standards will not poise a risk to people living near the plant, irrespective of 

the location and size of the plant, the profile of the people concerned (such as nursing 

children) or other activities in the surrounding area…” British Government 

...Dioxin is unsafe at any dose. The public has been lied to by an industry propaganda 

campaign and a handful of unscrupulous industrial scientists who have carried the 

industry’s message to the highest levels of government. They have spread false 

information about new scientific evidence that dioxin is safe at low levels in an effort 

to allow industry to carry on with business as usual. The industry campaign is proof 

of an old maxim; if you repeat a lie enough, people will start believing it...” 

Ted Weiss, Chairman, Human Resources and Intergovernmental 

Subcommittee. Hearing on Health Risks of Dioxin, June 10 1992. 

4 


CONTENTS 

Page 7. General Information (Vietnam, Monsanto, Belgium Food Scandal, Yusho, Yu-Cheng etc). 

Page 20. Kellner Canyon 

Page 25. Times Beach 

Page 31. Immunological Studies on 16 Times Beach Children 

This ToxCat 'Special' has been published in two parts to enable activists and interested citizens 

with slow connections to download them. Page numbers have continued as if it were one 

publication. 

“There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are 

scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is 

imperfect. We have to treat it with humility”: J. Bronowski 

Photo credit unknown 


5

What Are Dioxins? 

Carbon exists both as an element 

(graphite and diamonds) and as a 

compound (bound with other elements). 

The study of compounds 

which include carbon abbreviated 

“C”) is known as organic chemistry. 

Carbon binds with hydrogen 

(abbreviated “H”) in thousands of 

ways, sometimes in long strings 

which form plastics. The 2.5 million 

carbon compounds are more than all 

other compounds combined. 

Compounds with carbon and hydrogen 

can also form rings. The 

most infamous carbon ring is benzene, 

which is a ring of six carbon 

atoms, each with a hydrogen atom 

on the outside. Benzene is so important 

to organic chemistry that it has 

its own symbol of a ring inside of a 

hexagon. In this drawing, single 

lines indicate a “bond” of atoms 

sharing an electron; double lines indicate 

the atoms share two electrons: 

Benzene rings have two important 

properties: 

1. Two or more benzene rings 

can themselves bind together; and, 

2. Chlorine can replace hydrogen 

on the outside of the ring. 

These principles explain the 

formation of the very toxic families 

of PCBs, furans and dioxins. A pair 

of benzene rings joined together 

forms biphenyl: 

If chlorine is present when benzene 

is burned (and there is plenty of 

chlorine in plastics), hydrogen 

atoms can be released and chlorine 

6 

atoms can replace them. The result is 

poly-chlorinated biphenyls, knows as 

PCBs. Their production was banned 

in the 1970’s. 

If oxygen (abbreviated “O”) forms 

another link between the two benzene 

rings the result is furans. 

If chlorine replaces hydrogen atoms, 

the furans are also very toxic: 

Sometimes benzene molecules bind 

together with two oxygen atoms with 

the resulting name of dioxin. Unlike 

furans, dioxin are symmetrical (the 

same at the top and bottom). 

Since 2 oxygen atoms bind 2 benzene 

molecules, the chemical name is 

dibenzo dioxin. The abbreviation 

PCDD means polychlorinated 

dibenzo dioxin, which occurs when 

chlorine atoms replace hydrogen. 

Dioxins can have 1 to 8 chlorine 

atoms. The 75 different types of 

chlorinated dioxins result from the 

positions where chlorine atoms occur. 

This is so crucial in determining 

characteristics of the dioxin (such as 

how poisonous it is) that chemists 

use numbers to describe the positions 

of the chlorine atoms. 

The most deadly form of dioxin 

has chlorine in the 2, 3, 7 and 8 

positions: 

Using the word tetra (for “four”), 

chemists named this molecule 

"2,3,7,8 tetra-chloro dibenzo dioxin," 

or 2,3,7,8 TCDD. The molecule 

is perfectly symmetrical. 

The presence of chlorine makes 

dioxins extremely stable compounds. 

They do not break down as 

easily as enzymes do. The human 

body tends to store dioxin in adipose 

(fatty) tissue. 

When people take in dioxin 

through food or air, it enters their 

cells where it fits into a protein 

called the Ah receptor. receptor 

Another protein (arnt protein) 

joins this combination and changes 

shape of the complex (dioxin + Ah 

receptor + arnt protein). This complex 

enters the nucleus and attaches 

to the DNA. It doesn’t cause mutations, 

but it does switch on genes. 

resulting in the production of messenger 

RNAs, which then go to the 

ribosomes and produce new proteins 

in the cell. 

In other words it functions like a fat 

soluble hormone. 

Dioxins produce different proteins, 

including enzymes and growth 

factorsenzymes factors and is 

known to disrupt at least six different 

hormonal systems: male and female 

sex hormones; thyroid 

hormones; insulin; gastringastrinand 

and gluocorticoidgluocorticoid 

. Other dioxins and furans have 

many of the same effects as 2,3,7,8 

TCDD, but are less deadly because 

they are less symmetrical and do not 

fit the Ah receptor as well. 

The toxic equivalency (TE or 

TEQ) of an organochlorine is a 

measure of how toxic it is relative to 

2,3,7,8 TCDD. An organochlorine 

with a TEQ of .05 is 5% as 

poisonous as 2,3,7,8 TCDD. 

Sources: Dioxin the Orange Resource 

Book. Synthesis/Regeneration 7/8 

summer 1995 

Dr Paul Connett, Professor Emeritus of 

Chemistry, presentation, Haifa University, 

March , 2007 


In 1959 Friedrich Hoffman, a chemicals warfare specialist and chief of the U.S. 

Chemicals Corp’s Agent Research Branch at Edgewood Arsenal was sent to Europe 

to scout for potential warfare agents. In his report of the trip Dr. Hoffman noted that 

he had received “startling information about the toxicity of dioxin,” including the fact 

that it had been linked to “severe and sometimes fatal liver damage.” 

Dr. Hoffman reportedly told the army that “dioxin was too deadly to be used for 

chemical warfare purposes.” 

Although the first recorded military use of herbicides 

took place in Malaysia in the 1950’s with the British 

using 2-4-5-T to clear communication routes. The herbicides 

2,4,D and 2,4,5-T were originally developed by E. 

J. Kraus of Chicago University, as part of the US military 

plan. 

AGENT ORANGE (contaminated with Dioxin) and 

Agent White was authorized for use in Vietnam in 

November 1961, to improve road and waterway visibility 

and clear camp perimeters. 

Later, Agent Blue was authorized to destroy crops and 

clear areas suspected of harboring enemy base camps or 

supply routes. The U.S. Air Force created the 309th Air 

Commando Squadron to conduct the spraying which 

was originally known as ‘Hades,’ but later became 

‘Operation Ranch Hand.’ 

In the spring of 1962 the South Vietnamese military 

conducted large-scale tests of herbicides along 70 miles 

of Highway 15. In the summer, further tests were conducted 

using 2-4-D at 1.5 gallons/acre and 2-4-5-T at 3.3 

gallons/acre. The herbicides used were applied mostly 

by twin engine C-123 Provider Transports (Fairchild 

Hiller) equipped with an internal defoliant dispenser 

(Hayes International) with 36 high-pressure nozzles 

distributed on three booms. 

Normal spray time was two minutes, but a full load 

could be dumped in just 30 seconds. Spraying missions 

usually consisted of three to five aircraft flying in a 

staggered lateral formation. (Single plane runs were 

known as sorties.) 

Helicopters, UH-1 Huey (Bell Aerospace), trucks, 

boats and hand spraying equipment was also used to 

dispense the herbicides. 

Targets were selected by U.S. or Vietnamese officers, 

approved by provincial chiefs, the Vietnamese Army 

general staff, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, 

and the American Ambassador. 

During this time, Air America also sprayed defoliants 

for the CIA in combat operations against Thai insurgents 

on the Isthmus of Kra. 

The drift of herbicides involved in these operations 

was estimated at an average of 20%. 

Agent Orange, the main herbicide dispensed in this 

period, was applied at up to 25 times the rate of use in 

the U.S. Entire tank loads were also jettisoned over one 

area.[1] 

Adverse effects of the chemical 2-4-5-T and its chemical 

precursors on the workers engaged in their production 

had been observed as early as 1949. 

At that time a Monsanto-owned plant manufacturing 

2-4-5-T in Nitro, West Virginia, had an explosion. Two 

hundred and twenty eight workers developed chloracne. 

Chloracne symptoms include skin eruptions on the 

face, neck, and back, shortness of breath, intolerance to 

cold, palpable and tender liver, a loss of sensation in the 

extremities, damage to peripheral nerves, fatigue, nervousness, 

irritability, insomnia, loss of libido and verti- 

*The term “dioxin” is used to connote the group of 210 similar substances - polychlorinated dibenzo-pdioxins 

and polychlorinated dibenzo-furans. 


7

Photo credits unknown 

Chloracne is not a simple ‘skin disease’ or ‘rash’ as advocates of incineration and industrialists claim. 

It is a disfiguring, systemic disease that can last for decades and even recur more than twenty years 

after exposure. It is not necessarily caused by exposure to high amounts of dioxin as some sufferers 

simply handled or brushed against workers overalls contaminated with ‘trace’ quantities 

go. Chloracne was also found in 1953 among the male 

workers and many of their wives, children and pets at a 

BASF (Badischer Anilin & Soda Fabrik)-owned 2-4-5-T 

plant at Ludwigshaften am Rhein in Germany. 

The factory experienced an explosion months after the 

appearance of chloracne among the workers. In medical 

examinations following the explosion, some workers 

were found to have severely damaged internal organs 

including the liver. Heightened blood pressure, myocardial 

degeneration, severe depression, memory and concentration 

disturbances were also observed. Fifteen years 

later some of these workers were still suffering from 

chloracne and its symptoms despite treatment and no 

subsequent exposure.One death from intestinal sarcoma 

was attributed to the explosion. 

In 1963 an explosion occurred in a 2-4-5-T factory 

owned by Philips Duphar in Amsterdam, Holland. Fifty 

workers developed chloracne and suffered internal damage 

and serious psychological disturbances as a result. 

The factory was closed. 

In 1973 the plant was still so contaminated with dioxin 

that it had to be dismantled, embedded in concrete and 

buried at sea. 

Dow Chemical, the largest producer of Agent Orange 

in the U.S. experienced an outbreak of chloracne among 

its workers in 1964 in one of their 2-4-5-T manufacturing 

plants. Over 70 workers were affected, 12 of them severely. 

Dow’s director of its Midland Division, Dr. Benjamin 

Holder, described the symptoms as fatigue, lassitude, 

depression, blackheads (prevalent on the face, neck, and 

back), and weight loss. 

“Heavy exposure,” Dr. Holder said, “could lead to 

internal organ damage and nervous system disorders.” 

In 1970, Julius F. Johnson, Director of Research and 

Development, appearing before the Hart Sub-Committee 

of the U.S. Congress, described chloracne as “a skin 

disorder mostly prevalent of the face, neck, and back. It is 

8 

similar in experience to severe acne of the kind suffered 

by teenagers”. 

Dow ran its own study of the effects of Orange using 

220 workers and 4,600 controls. The range of exposure to 

2-4-0 was 30-40/mg/do. Ten of the men were karyotyped, 

and no rearrangement of genetic material was reported. 

The 220 men were exposed to 2-8/mg/do of 2-4-5-T. 

Fifty two men were karyotyped negatively. No difference 

between the study group and the control group was reported. 

Dow’s testing indicated that a contaminant of 2-4-5-T 

(Dioxin) was responsible for the chloracne and illness 

experienced by its workers. 

They conducted tests utilizing animals on 2-4-5-T with 

varying amounts of 2-3-7-8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. 

The chemical was shown to be toxic and fatal to the 

animals. Cleft palates were observed in further tests. The 

results were not repeated with 2-4-5-T without the contaminant. 

Dioxin was found to be one of the most toxic substances 

known, a fatal dose being 0.022-0.045 in rats and 

0.0006 in guinea pigs, LD-50 as milligrams per body 

weight. 

Between 1965 and 1969 a 2-4-5-T production plant 

near Prague, Czech Republic, developed leaks in its processing 

area. Workers developed chloracne and exhibited 

weight loss, libido diminution and insomnia. 

Maximum symptoms were observed about one to two 

years after the initial exposure, but lasted over eight years 

in some of the exposed workers. 

Several workers died of severe liver damage, and 

workers’ families also became sick. Contaminated equipment 

was buried in a mine shaft. 

Other studies of workers exposed to 2-4-D and 2-4-5-T 

conducted showed exposed workers exhibiting symptoms 

including fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, stomach 

and kidney pain, upper respiratory distress, decreased 



hearing, 

smell and 

neurological 

responses, 

high serum 

albumin values, 

skin and 

eye irritations 

and 

concentrated 

TCDD 

(dioxin) levels 

in body 

fat and 

liver tissue. 

Festisov 

(1966) 

Long (1969) 

Poland 

(1971) Sundell 

(1972) 

Piper 

(1973). [1] 

Further tests showed TCDD to be an extremely toxic 

agent with a slow effect rate and diverse symptomatology 

including edema, necrotic changes of the liver, gastric 

hyperplasia and ulceration, hemmoroglus of 

gastrointestinal tract and other organs, atrophy of the 

kidneys, thymus and other lymphoid organs and tissues. 

Later, symptoms appear to lead to decreased immune 

responses. 

Dioxin is thought to be at least partially responsible 

for a multitude of health problems. These include the 

current increase of male reproductive tract disorders 

such as testicular cancer, cryptorchidism, and hypospadias. 

Researchers say dioxins can cause harm, even at low 

levels. But debate continues over exactly what concentration 

in the body causes problems. 

We know that dioxin is considered so toxic that when 

they were measured in the soil at Times Beach, Mo., in 

the early 1980’s, the federal government spent $30 

million relocating the towns 2,000 plus residents. 

“They are so dangerous,” said Dr. Nachman Brautbar, 

a medical toxicologist at the University of Southern 

California’s School of Medicine. 

There is however an army of 

industrialists and incinerator supporters 

(pyromaniacs) who have been claiming 

for decades that the worst thing caused 

by dioxin is “a nasty skin complaint...” 

and “this is only after high exposure.” 

In reality this claim is nothing 

more than an outrageous industry 

scripted line to protect its profit margins 

and allow ‘business as usual.’ 

The liver is a target organ 

as it breaks down chemical 

contaminates in the blood. 

Anything you eat or inhale 

goes through the liver and 

if a chemical is going to be 

metabolised it will 

probably be in the liver. 

Sordid History 

The extent the industry has gone to cover-up the toxicity 

of dioxin is a truly sordid affair involving industrialists, 

scientists, academics and high ranking health, regulatory 

and government officials. 

As early as 1964, while the spraying was increasing 

in Vietnam, reports circulated of increased miscarriages, 

stillbirths, and birth defects among exposed Vietnamese 

women and animals. Because of the war conditions 

collecting data to corroborate this was difficult. 

Records from 1970 for Saigon’s leading maternity 

hospital showed a monthly average of 140 miscarriages 

and 150 premature births in 2,800 pregnancies, but the 

hospital would not disclose whether or not this was an 

increase. 

In 1966 the U.S. government started studies on the 

teratogenic effects of 2-4-5-T. These studies were conducted 

by Bionetics Research Laboratories of Bethesda, 

Maryland, for the National Cancer Institute. 

The findings were released in 1969. Rats and mice 

used in the study were given 21.5 mg/kg doses of 2-4-5- 

T during early gestation. Almost all the offspring were 

born dead or with cleft palates, no eyes, cystic kidneys 

and enlarged livers. At 4.6 mg/kg, 39% of the offspring 

were born deformed. Based on these findings Dr. Lee 

Du Bridge, Presidential Advisor, said that the use of the 

chemical in populated areas and on food crops should be 

restricted.[1] 

Dow objected to the findings saying the sample of the 

2-4-5-T was used unrepresentatively because of an abnormally 

high amount of TCDD (Dioxin). 

Dr. Jackie Verett (FDA Toxicology Lab, Washington, 

D.C.,) Dr. Matthew Meselson (Harvard, the National 

Institute) used a .50 parts per million (ppm) dioxin 

solution obtained from chemicals used in Vietnam in 

chicks. She found resultant cysts, necrotic livers, 

slipped tendons, cleft palates and beak deformities. 

She then used a .25 parts per trillion solution and observed 

the same effects. 

Further tests of 2-4-D and 2-4-5-T without dioxin still 

produced dead and deformed offspring. 

English tests had demonstrated Agent Orange contained 

as many as 17 or more contaminates and autopsies 

of 600 reindeer in northern Sweden which had 

consumed foliage sprayed with Agent Orange showed a 

significant residue of the herbicide in the kidneys and 

liver of the deceased animals. 

The Piper Study in 1973 showed 

dioxin concentration in the liver and 

body fat of exposed workers up to ten 

times the normal concentration. 

In 1973 Matthew Meselson and Dr. 

Robert Boughman refined an analytical 

system for detecting the presence of 

dioxin in parts per trillion instead of pp 

billion. Using their system, they found 


9

dioxin residues in Vietnamese crustaceans, indicating 

that dioxin had entered the food chain as a result of 

earlier 2-4-5-T use. 

Dow’s scientists continued to maintain that 2-4-5-T, 

when used as directed, presented inconsequential hazards 

to the environment, animals and man. 

While chloracne is widely accepted as the most obvious 

external symptom of high dioxin exposure, many 

scientists believed this has been over-emphasised to the 

exclusion of other, more serious conditions. When pyromaniacs 

claim “no-one ever died from dioxin” and the 

worst thing it causes is “chloracne, a nasty skin complaint” 

they should be asked if this was really true why 

did the U.S. government buy out all the homes at Times 

Beach, and why did so many countries take drastic 

action when polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) and dioxins 

were found in food products in Belgium in 1999. 

The Belgium scandal occurred after 500 tonnes of 

animal feed was contaminated with approximately 50 kg 

of polychlorinated biphenyls and 1 gram of dioxins. The 

feed was then distributed to animal farms in Belgium and 

to a lesser extent the Netherlands, France and Ger- many. 

The discovery of the contamination resulted in a 

number of European countries, along with Russia, Hong 

Kong and Israel, imposing restrictions on the farm produce 

of Belgium. 

The USA went even further banning all farm produce 

from the whole of the European Union. 

The trouble began when a company that collects oil 

from fast-food chains (which it pays a fee for) and 

recycles it into animal feed, decided to collect some oil 

it didn’t have to pay for. 

The problem was that about 8 liters of this oil had 

been taken from an electric transformer containing polychlorbiphenyls 

(PCBs, most likely Arochlor 1260) and 

dioxins. This was then put into a 80,000 kg batch of 

animal fat which was mixed with 1.4 million kg of 

animal feed, a common ‘recovery’ practice in the United 

States and Europe. 


A B 

C 

10 

The PCBs had been heated to a high temperature 

converting 50 to 80 mg to dioxins and furans. An estimated 

2 billion picograms of dioxin toxic equivalents 

(TEQ) entered the food chain through chicken, dairy and 

pig farms.[2] 

European Commission investigators described the 

levels found at the first farm they visited as 

‘astronomical’, and that ‘the chickens were practically 

eating pure dioxin.’ 

Test data revealed 958 parts per trillion (ppt) of dioxin 

(TEQ) in the fat of one chicken, and 775 ppt in the fat of 

another. The allowable limit for dioxin in chicken in 

Belgium is 5 ppt (TEQ) 

Over 17% of the Belgian beef farms were affected and 

nearly half of the country’s chicken farms. Products with 

excessive levels were destroyed, including some 

chickens. 

At the Dutch State Institute for Quality Control of 

Agricultural Products where tests were carried out, 

spokesman Wim Traag said the number of people 

affected depends on how many animals ate the poison 

and passed it on in meat or eggs. 

“Either a few people got a large dose or many people 

got a small dose” he said. 

It was estimated that between 10 and 15 kg of PCBs 

and from 200 to 300 mg dioxins were ingested to 

maximally 10 million Belgians.[2] 

As has been the case on numerous occasions with 

dioxin, deceit and a cover-up by officials and politicians 

played a large part in the spread of the contamination 

throughout the European Union (EU) member states. 

It was discovered the Belgian chickens were showing 

signs of illness as early as January (1999) but it was 

April before the Belgian government admitted it was 

aware of the problem and put restrictions on some farms. 

Even then, it waited until the end of May before 

issuing a public statement, a delay that allowed large 

quantities of meat and other dairy produce to be exported 

to other member states. The duration of the exposure to 

the population can be estimated as 4 months (February 

to May). 

Unfortunately, as most of 

the contaminated produce 

were perishable, it’s almost 

certain the bulk of it had 

already been consumed by 

the time the 

Belgian authorities 

condescended to tell the rest 

of the world of the problem. 

Dioxin Chemistry 

It was during the 1930’s and 

40’s that chemists 

discovered that by attaching 


Lackmann, G.-M., Schaller, K.-H., Angerer, J., 2004. Organochlorine compounds in breast-fed vs. bottle-fed 

infants: preliminary results at six weeks of age. Science Total Environ. 

Abstract - Background: 

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), and 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl) 

ethane (DDT) are ubiquitous compounds with carcinogenic and teratogenic properties. They are chemically very 

stable and lipophilic and, therefore, accumulate in our food-chain. They are prenatally transmitted from mother 

to foetus, and mother’s milk due to its high lipid content is an elimination pathway of special importance. 

Therefore, breast-feeding has been held responsible for elevated concentrations of these organochlorine compounds 

as well as for harmful effects in children later in life. Methods: Blood samples (2..5 ml) were taken from 

each 10 breast-fed and bottle-fed infants at 6 weeks of age. Blood specimens were immediately centrifuged, and 

serum was stored in glass tubes at -20 oC until analysis. Three higher chlorinated PCB congeners (IUPAC 

nos.138, 153 and 180), HCB, and the organic metabolite of DDT, p,p

chlorine atoms onto petroleum hydrocarbons they 

produced a vast array of ‘chlorinated hydrocarbons.’ 

These gave rise to many of today’s pesticides, solvents, 

plastics etc. 

Research has shown dioxin to be a very potent 

carcinogen that in just minuscule amounts poses a threat 

to the human immune, thyroid, and reproductive 

systems. Especially those of the developing foetus and 

breast fed child. 

Yusho 

There have been two previous dioxin contamination 

incidents similar to that which occurred in Belgium. One 

in Yusho, Japan, (1968) saw a serious mass intoxication 

of 1,700 people after they had consumed rice 

contaminated with PCBs from a leaking oil coil. Heating 

(in this case by cooking) of the contaminated oil 

produced high levels of dioxin and 20 people died as a 

result. Symptoms included chloracne, melanosis, edema 

of the eyes, swelling and stiffening of the limbs, 

headaches and hearing difficulties.[3] 

Children subsequently born to exposed parents had 

malformations of various kinds. Some were born with 

abnormal fingernails, were undersized with small heads 

and brown, hyperpigmented skin and mucous 

membranes (dubbed “cola babies”). 

They had abnormal shaped tooth roots and altered 

eruption of permanent teeth. They grew and developed 

slowly, had learning difficulties, speech problems and 

emotional and pulmonary (lung) problems. 

Long-term studies identified a high incident of 

malignant neoplasms (primary liver as well as lung, 

trachea and bronchus) and significantly increased liver 

and lung cancer. They also revealed a slight increase in 

diabetes, heart disease, chronic liver disease and 

cirrhosis.[4][5][6] 

Yu-Cheng 

The second incident occurred in 

1979 in Yu-Cheng, Taiwan. This 

was a repeat of the Yusho PCBrice 

oil disaster with more than 

2,000 identified victims. 

Children exposed in the womb 

developed slowly and are still 

retarded. When they were first 

born they were reported to have 

what was called ectodermal 

dysplasia syndrome, which 

included all sort of pigmentation 

problems. They had brown skin, 

chloracne, teeth and pulmonary 

problems and extensive 

stimulation of P450s.[4][6][7] 

They also have elevated 

incidences of respiratory 

12 

infections and otitis, ear infections, and a very decreased 

rate of ‘take’ of vaccinations. All of which would be at 

least compatible with the effects on the immune system. 

Asked in 1993 if there was any indication that dioxins 

were implicated in neurobehavioural effects in the Yu- 

Cheng study Dr. Linda Birnbaum, Director of the 

Environmental Toxicology Division of the United States 

Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA) replied: 

“Yes there is, we know for certain PCBs, like some of 

the non-dioxin-like PCBs, are developmentally 

neurotoxicity. Clearly, the sexual behaviour effects are 

neurotoxic effects, but they were induced 

developmentally.” 

Dr. Birnbaum also said: “...[the children] were small 

in stature. When they did development milestones, these 

kids were developmentally delayed. They have 

continued to follow these kids. Their IQ is shifted about 

five points down from the rest of the population, and this 

has been maintained as they have grown up. It is not 

something they have outgrown. The children continue to 

be shorter in stature than matched controls and as the 

boys approach puberty, and some of them are now 

between the ages of 8-13, the ones who are 10, 11, 12 

and 13 are apparently having problems with their 

genitalia. This is very new data, ...but it is very 

compatible with the data that we are seeing in the 

experiments.”[8] 

An increase in foetal mortality was recorded among 

women who were pregnant at the time of eating the rice.[9] 

Despite the fact that: 

*children born to women who were pregnant at the 

time of the poisoning incident demonstrated Intrauterine 

Growth Retardation (IUGR); 



*monitoring by various intelligence tests each year 

from 18 months to 7 years of age, showed their scores 

during these tests were consistently and significantly 

lower at each age level compared with an unexposed 

group of children (with their performances on 

standardised intelligence tests averaging an IQ of about 

70); 

*the contaminated mothers were still giving rise to 

affected babies six years after ingestion of the affected 

oil. 

*pyromaniacs are still saying that a ‘nasty skin 

disease is the worst thing caused by dioxin.’ Disturbingly 

and despite the mountain of epidemiological evidence to 

the contrary, some journalists and politicians are carrying 

this message forward as fact. 

Lies 

One would assume, given the publicity and headlines 

dioxin has been given since the Vietnam War 

politicians, academics and those pushing for the 

expansion of incineration must be fully aware that the 

‘chloracne, a nasty skin disease’ claim stems from 

fraudulent, industry conducted studies of incidents 

involving chemical workers? 

As is often the case when a regulatory body liaisons 

with industry, the officials of the U.S.EPA took this data, 

(now proven to be fraudulent), and used it to assess the 

affects of dioxin on human health. 

Re-examination of the studies by independent 

scientists, sometimes working on behalf of workers 

compensation claims, found a number had been falsified 

with non-exposed personnel being included in exposed 

groups in order to reduce the number of increases in 

diseases like cancer among the exposed workers. [10][11][12] 

Dioxin in breast milk 

Year: Country: WHO TEQ mean 

(pg/g fat) 

1992 Belgium 40.7 

2002 Egypt 26.4 

1993 United Kingdom 26.3 

1986 Poland 25.8 

1990 France 23.4 

1996 Kazakhstan 22.6 

1995 Japan 21.8 

1988 USSR 20.0 

2002 Netherlands 18.9 

1990 United States 18.8 

1991 Vietnam 18.1 

1990 Pakistan 17.7 

1990 South Africa 15.5 

1992 Denmark 15.2 * 

1993 Lithuania 15.1 

1992 Canada 14.6 * 

2002 Spain 13.5 

1987 Yugoslavia 13.3 

2002 Italy 12.4 

2002 Germany 12.1 

1992 Austria 12.0 * 

2002 Romania 9.7 

2002 Sweden 9.6 

2002 Ukraine 9.5 

2002 Finland 9.4 

2002 Russia 9.4 

2002 Slovak 8.9 

2002 Czech Republic 8.6 

2002 Norway 7.3 

2002 Ireland 7.2 

1987 India 7.2 

2002 Hungary 6.8 

2002 New Zealand 6.6 

2002 Croatia 6.4 

1987 Thailand 6.2 

2002 Bulgaria 6.1 

Dermatitis 

As I wrote earlier, the history of dioxin and its impact on 

human health is really sordid. So let us go back to the 

year 1936 when several hundred lumber workers in 

Mississippi began developing severe `skin rashes.’ 

Dr. Karl O. Stingily a physician, treated the first of 

three or four hundred cases of this new ‘industrial 

chemical dermatitis’ and wrote in the Southern Medical 

Journal in 1940 describing the ‘peculiar type of pustular 

and ulcerative lesions’ that affected the predominately 

Negro lumber workers. 

In the same journal there was also a report from an 

Alabama physician of a worker with acne and blackheads 

covering his face. The man had brought along to the 

surgery his two children, a girl of five and a three year 

old boy who also had blackheads [the chloracne 

trademark] “all over their faces.” 

The worker explained that when he came home from 

work his children would grab him around the legs 

hugging him and he’d take them up onto his lap. It was 

through this loving action they came into contact with the 

traces of chemicals on his overalls. [13] 

The same year two Atlanta physicians published a 

case history in the Archives of Dermatology and 

Syphilogy, about a Monsanto worker described simply 

as: “O. D., a Negro aged 26.” 

They reported that the patient had a severe case of 

chloracne and observed that as early as December 1933, 

O. D.. had “complained of lassitude, loss of appetite and 

loss of libido.” 

Some sense of the authors’ ability to appreciate the 

significance of these symptoms, (later to be characteristic 

of dioxin poisoning,) can be gained from their additional 

comment: 

2002 Australia 5.6 

1992 Albania 4.8 * 

2002 Brazil 4.1 

1994 China 3.1 

* TEQ: I-TEF Dioxin 

Sources: 

All 2002 information comes from 

“Results of The Third Round of 

The WHO-Coordinated Exposure Study On 

The Levels Of PCBs, PCDDs And PCDFs In 

Human Milk” by FX Rolaf van Leeuwen 

and Rainer Malisch. 

Information for all other dates is taken from - 

Infant Exposure to Chemicals in Breast 

Milk in the United States: What We Need to 

Learn From a Breast Milk Monitoring Program 

by Judy S. LaKind, Cheston M. Berlin, and 

Daniel Q. Naiman. Published in 

Environmental Health Perspectives 

VOLUME 109 - NUMBER 1- January 2001. 


13

“His complaint of lassitude was not borne out by 

anything more than the usual temperament of the Negro 

toward work.”[14] 

Lesions 

In 1937 twenty one workers who had handled powdered 

chlorophenol products at Dow’s Midland plant developed 

“acne like eruptions.” Some of the blackheads 

were so severe they produced a black discoloration 

beginning behind the ears and spreading over the whole 

face and the back of the neck. Some men had lesions on 

the arms, buttocks, abdomen, thighs, penis and scrotum. 

Fifteen months later not one had completely recovered 

and many had severe scarring, weight loss, and complained 

of being easily fatigued. 

Starve the Enemy 

During the 2nd World War the American military began 

working on ideas to starve the enemy into surrender. 

After testing nearly 1,100 substances they knew that a 

strong dose of the phenoxy compounds 2,4dichlorophenoxyacetic 

(2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetie 

(2,4,5-T) was effective in killing rice 

indoors. (A 50/50 mixture of these chemicals was later 

named Agent Orange.) 

They began testing chemicals in the field and calculated 

that 20,000 tons of 2.4-D could destroy the entire 

Japanese rice crop. They were plan- 

ning an attack on the Japanese mainland 

when the war ended. 

In West Germany within five 

months of starting experiments with 

2,4,5-trichlorophenol 17 workers 

developed chloracne. Eleven developed 

bronchitis, five suffered damage 

to the muscular layer of the heart 

The Fifteen Herbicides Used in Vietnam 

PURPLE: A formulation of 2,4,-D and 2,4,5,-T used 

between 1962 and 1964. 

GREEN: Contained 2,4,5-T and was used 1962- 1964. 

PINK: Contained 2,4,5-T and was used 1962- 1964. 

ORANGE: A formulation of 2,4,-D and 2,4,5-T 

used between 1965 and 1970. 

WHITE: A formulation of Picloram and 2,4,-D. 

BLUE: Contained cacodylic acid. 

ORANGE II: A formualtion of 2,4,-D and 2,4,5-T 

used in 1968 and 1969 (also sometimes referred to as 

“Super Orange”) 

DINOXOL: A formulation of 2,4,-D and 2,4,,5-T. 

Small quantities were tested in Vietnam between 

1962 and 1964. 

TRINOXOL: Contained 2,4,5-T. Small quantities 

tested in Vietnam 1962-1964. 

14 

Agent Blue: Acute poisoning 

by cacodylic acid can cause 

headaches, vomiting, diarrhoea, 

dizziness, convulsions, general 

paralysis, and death. Symptoms 

can be brought on by an ounce 

of cacodylic acid. 

wall, two had liver cirrhosis (one fatal) and nine had 

symptoms of neuritis, most of them involving severe 

pains in the lower limbs. Seven suffered various complaints 

including constant fatigue, depression, lack of 

vitality, nervousness, slight headaches, disturbed sleep 

and decreased libido and potency. 

This provided even more evidence that chloracne is 

not simply a “nasty skin complaint”, but a serious 

disfiguring, systemic disease that can last for four decades 

and even recur more than 20 years after exposure. 

U.S.A. 

In the United States an accident at Monsanto’s Nitro 

plant in West Virginia in 1949 left 228 workers, laboratory, 

medical staff and several of the workers wives who 

had never visited the plant, with chloracne. 

One worker, a white man, developed chloracne so 

severely he gave up all social and athletic functions 

remaining in his house for months on end. 

Several times he was mistaken for a Negro and was 

forced to conform to the racial segregation customs of 

the area.[15] 

Manipulated Studies 

Zack and Gaffey, two Monsanto employees, published a 

mortality study purporting to compare the cancer death 

rate amongst the Nitro workers who were exposed to 

dioxin in the 1949 explosion, with the 

cancer death rate of unexposed workers. 

The published study concluded that 

the death rate of the exposed worker 

was exactly the same as the death rate as 

the unexposed group. 

This was a result of Zack and Gaffey 

deliberately and knowingly omitting 

five deaths from the exposed group and 

BROMACIL 

DIQUAT: 

TANDEX: 

MONURON: 

DIURON: 

DALAPON: 

Small quantities of all of the above were tested in Vietnam, 

1962-1964. 

Agent Orange was a mixture of fifty fifty 2,4-D and 

2,4,5-T containing up to 30 mg/kg or more of 

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) an 

inevitable by-product of the manufacturing 

process. This was sprayed undiluted using 3 gallons 

per acre in lines about 240 feet wide. Roughly 17.7 

million gallons of herbicides were used between 

1960 and 1971 with 12.8 million gallons being 

Agent Orange which Dow sold to the government at 

$7 a gallon. 


taking four ‘exposed’ workers and putting these in the 

‘unexposed’ group. 

This decreased the death rate in the exposed group and 

increased that in the unexposed group. The exposed 

group had in fact 18 cancer deaths instead of the 

reported 9 (P 1. Ex. 1464), with the result that the death 

rate in the exposed group was 65% higher 

than expected.[16] 

BASF 

At the Badischer Anilin & SodaFabrik (BASF) West 

German plant, a chamber containing 2,4,5trichlorophenol 

was overheating for months. As a result 

60 workers developed chloracne, as did some of their 

wives, children and even their household pets. 

When the chamber eventually exploded it caused a 

wide range of illnesses including swelling of the skin, 

excessive hair growth, pulmonary emphysema, kidney 

damage, muscular disturbances and breaks in memory 

and concentration. 

The Germans would not provide exact figures, but reported: 

* Several workers died as a result of liver damage and 

one from intestinal cancer. 

* Two men had persistent chloracne 23 years after 

the accident. 

* One had paralysis of the left leg, 

* Another was permanently deaf. 

In 1982 Alistair Hay (Leeds University) published an 

account of the accident and recorded that 17 workers had 

died, six from cancer, “four of which involved the gastrointestinal 

tract.” 

In 1958 a worker was assigned work on or near the 

reactor that was involved in the 1953 explosion. The 

reactor had not been used since the explosion, and the 

worker used protective clothing which included a face 

mask. He removed the mask several times during the 

work. Four days later he was suffering from headaches 

and had developed hearing loss and chloracne. Within 

six months he developed pancreatitis and a painful upper 

abdominal tumor. He died three months later. 

A post-mortem revealed intestinal ulceration and degeneration 

of liver and fatty tissue. 

Another worker at the same plant spent two hours 

working on the reactor wall in 1958. He developed a 

severe case of chloracne. One year later a large x-ray 

opaque area appeared on one of his lungs. Five years 

after the initial exposure, the worker suffered acute 

psychosis and committed suicide. 

Rabbit Testing 

Tests on rabbits by German scientists in 1953 revealed a 

single feeding of 0.1 milligram of dioxin per kilogram of 

the rabbit’s weight killed it. 

Chemists discovered that any animal put into cages 

that had housed animals treated with dioxin (and conse- 

quently developed liver problems) also developed liver 

damage, as did any animal living in the cages next to 

those housing the dioxin treated animals. 

Around this time workers in CH Boehringer Sohn 

trichlrophenol plants in Ingelheim and Hamburg developed 

chloracne. 

The scientist who had worked on the rabbits, Dr. 

Schulz, examined the workers who complained of headaches, 

giddiness, a loss of appetite, and having lost all 

interest in sex. 

Most of these workers had abdominal trouble. Biopsies 

revealed three had liver damage. All suffered distinctive 

mental and behavioural changes during the 

years after being exposed. Most experienced sleep disturbances, 

reduced memory and perception. Psychological 

tests showed a decrease in mental capacity. 

In 1963 an explosion occurred in a 2-4-5-T factory 

owned by Philips Duphar in Amsterdam, Holland. Fifty 

workers developed chloracne and suffered internal damage 

and serious psychological disturbances as a result. 

When workers tried to decontaminate the plant six 

months later all but one wore deep-sea diving suits and 

industrial face masks. Nine men contracted chloracne, 

and three of them died within the next two years. The 

worker who was not as well protected was still being 

treated in thirteen years later for severe effects and was 

unable to work. 

In 1973 the plant was still so contaminated with 

dioxin that it had to be dismantled, embedded in concrete, 

and buried at sea. 

Between 1965 and 1969 a 2-4-5-T production plant 

near Prague, Czech Republic, developed leaks in its 

processing area. Workers developed Chloracne and 

exhibited weight loss, libido diminution and insomnia. 

Maximum symptoms were observed about one to two 

years after the initial exposure, but lasted over eight 

years in some of the exposed workers. Several workers 

died of severe liver damage, and workers’ families also 

became sick. 

Contaminated equipment was buried in a mine shaft. 

Other studies of workers exposed to 2-4-D and 2-4-5- 

T were conducted by Festisov (1966), Long (1969), 

Poland (1971), Sundell (1972) and Piper (1973). These 

studies showed exposed workers exhibiting symptoms 

including fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, stomach 

and kidney pain, upper respiratory distress, decreased 

hearing, smell and neurological responses, high serum 

albumin values, skin and eye irritations and concentrated 

TCDD levels in body fat and liver tissue... Further tests 

showed dioxin to be an extremely toxic agent with a 

slow effect rate and diverse symptomatology including 

edema, necrotic changes of the liver, gastric hyperplasia 

and ulceration, hemmoroglus of gastrointestinal tract 

and other organs, atrophy of the kidneys, thymus and 

other lymphoid organs and tissues. Symptoms appeared 

to lead to decreased immune responses.[1] 


15

Persistent 

The toxicity and persistence of dioxin can be better 

appreciated when you consider: *the children from Alabama 

who developed chloracne from the traces of 

chemicals on their father’s overalls; 

*The BASF mechanic wearing full protective gear, 

entering a chamber where trichlrophenol had been prepared 

five years earlier. Within days he developed chloracne, 

headaches, loss of hearing, was hospitalised a 

month later with angina, then acute pancreatitis and a 

tumour in the upper abdomen; 

*Three years after an explosion at the Coalite Chemicals 

factory in Derbyshire, two outside contractors 

working on a tank that had been repeatedly cleaned 

using high pressure steam jets and tested clean, developed 

chloracne. One contaminated his son (who developed 

chloracne), while the other contaminated his wife 

who developed the disease nine months later. 

As pointed out earlier, we are led to believe chloracne 

is a symptom of high dioxin exposure. Yet the sixty 

BASF workers were only exposed to vapours from the 

overheating tank; the mechanic in Germany and the two 

workers in Derbyshire, were all only exposed to traces 

of dioxin; the families of the BASF workers, the two 

children in Alabama, the women and child in England, 

were all only exposed to traces on the workers clothes / 

overalls. [17] 

Prison Tests 

In 1965 Dow Chemicals began a series of experiments 

on prisoners at the Holmsberg Prison, PA. A $10.000 

study under the direction of Mr. V. K Rowe of Dow, was 

conducted by Dr. Albert Kligman. 

During his experiments Dr. Kligman put specific 

amounts of pure dioxin onto the backs of the human 

guinea pigs but, without Dow’s knowledge, he increased 

the dosage dramatically at one point. 

After being released several prisoners went to the 

U.S.EPA for assistance because they were very ill. The 

officials refused to have anything to do with them and 

informed them their files had somehow been ‘lost.’ 

Information about these experiments came to light in 

1980 during U.S.EPA hearings when V. K. Rowe testified 

about them. He refused to follow up on the state of 

the prisoner’s health and the matter was dropped and 

quickly forgotten by both company and EPA officials. 

Refusing to follow up on the prisoner’s health enabled 

Dow to continue claiming: “Beyond a case of chloracne 

there is nothing wrong with anyone exposed to Agent 

Orange.” 

Vietnam 

It was through its use in Vietnam that Agent Orange and 

the contaminate ‘dioxin’ first hit the world’s headlines. 

Trials at Fort Drum, New York had shown that 2,4- 

D and 2,4,5-T were active in killing most the species 

16 

of plants encountered in Vietnam. 

January 1962 saw the beginning of herbicide spraying 

between Saigon and the coast in an effort to clear 

strips and reveal Vietcong movements. Despite knowing 

of the problems and the workers ill-health. The major 

herbicide companies assured the military that “none of 

the workers in their factories had shown any ill effects 

as a result of working with these chemicals.”[17] 

Veterans 

After returning home U.S. Vietnam Veterans exposed to 

the chemicals began to suffer a multitude of health 

complaints including: cancer, numbness and tingling in 

the extremes, skin rashes, liver dysfunction, loss of sex 

drive, infertility, miscarriages, radical mood changes, 

weakness and birth defects in their children [18] chloracne, 

soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 

Hodgkin’s disease, Porphyria cutanea tarda, (PCT) a 

disease characterized by liver dysfunction and light 

sensitive lesions, with pigment changes in the skin. 

Consequent studies found ‘sufficient evidence of a 

statistical association with exposure to herbicides or 

dioxin.’[19] 

A team of scientists representing the American Association 

for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) made 

a detailed examination of birth records in Tay Ninh, a 

province that had been heavily sprayed. They found that 

in 1968-69 over twice the national average of still-birth 

had occurred at the Tay Ninh Provincial Hospital, 64 per 

thousands compared to the national average of 31.2. The 

AAAS team also discovered that there had been a 

‘disproportionate rise’ in two birth defects, pure cleft 

palate and spina bifida, at the Saigon children’s Hospital 

during 1967 and 1968. They were neither able to confirm 

nor deny that these effects resulted from defoliation 

campaigns.[20] 

The Yale embryologist Clement L. Markert believed 

the use of 2,4,5-T and 2,4,-D posed an ‘unacceptable 

risk’ to the people of Vietnam and added that even if the 

compounds were not causing obvious malformations to 

Vietnamese children, they could lead to hidden damage 

such as a lessening of the brain capacity.[21] 

Vietnam says that something like 3 million of its 80 

million population have birth defects or other health 

problems related to dioxin. The legacy of this chemical 

warfare can even be inflicted on the unborn, with Agent 

Orange birth deformities now being passed on to a third 

generation. 

Vernon Houk 

In 1983 a study to determine if veterans were suffering 

health problem from exposure to Agent Orange was 

placed under the direction of the U.S. Centers for Disease 

Control (CDC) and headed by Dr. Vernon Houk of 

the Center for Environmental Health and Injury Control. 


In June 1986 the CDC cancelled the study saying it 

was impossible to identify who had been sprayed and 

who hadn’t. Prior to this they had asked the National 

Academy of Science (NAS) to provide an independent 

assessment of whether the study could in fact be completed. 

The NAS said there was more than sufficient 

evidence to enable them to do a creditable epidemiological 

study. CDC ignored them. 

During an inquiry into how $63 million of government 

money could be spent on this and other studies with 

conflicting results, the Committee on Government 

Operations concluded the CDC studies were “flawed and 

perhaps designed to fail,” and that the government had 

“effectively used the CDC study to stifle any attempts 

to link Agent Orange to health effects.”[20] 

It was during these hearings that Dennis Smith, a 

CDC staff scientist said: “the administrators of CDC had 

changed the design and variables of the study so frequently 

the results were essentially meaningless.” 

He also said researchers had manufactured data to fill 

gaps in records. When asked whether he thought it was 

impossible to link soldiers to exposure as claimed by 

Vernon Houk Smith said: “that was completely false.”[22] 

Speaking of the CDC study at the First Citizens’ 

Conference on Dioxin (Chapel Hill North Caroline, Sept 

21 1991) Marc Smolonsky, an investigator working for 

the House Committee on Human Resources and Inter 

Governmental Relations (Washington D. C.) said. 

“...It begins in Vietnam when eleven million gallons 

of the stuff was sprayed from helicopters, backpacks, 

aero planes. and accidental dumpings... dioxin was a big 

component of Agent Orange... Congress ordered this 

study in 1979. They ordered the Veterans Administration 

to do this study... three years later, the study had not 

begun ... and then one day appears a man named Dr. 

Vernon Houk. before a congressional committee. He 

said, give me that money. I’ll do the study. I’ll do it 

better and quicker than the Veterans Administration 

could do it. [Houk is] one of the most influential health 

The U.S. Government’s Veterans Administration officially 

recognizes 13 medical conditions linked to Agent Orange 

and provides free medical treatment to U.S. soldiers who 

can prove their exposure to the herbicide. 

Types of Cancer with no time requirements for manifestation 

Cancer of the bronchus 

Cancer of the larynx 

Lung Cancer 

Prostate cancer 

Cancer of the trachea 

Hodgkin’s disease 

Multiple myeloma 

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia 

officials in the federal government. He’s an assistant 

surgeon general; He’s the director of one of the Centres 

of Disease Control. As the study proceeded we found 

that Dr. Houk decided to:*exclude the people who had 

the most terms of service in Vietnam. who would have 

received the most exposure: 

*exclude the people in the areas where Agent Orange 

was sprayed the most - and he did a lot of other things to 

narrow it down to the people who, in my view - and in 

the view of our committee - were the people who probably 

would have been least likely to be exposed. And then 

Dr. Houk said we can’t do this study because we can’t 

identify who was sprayed with eleven million gallons of 

herbicide. He said the study was impossible to do, and 

with the approval of the White House and the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB), the study was cancelled 

in 1987...we subpoenaed documents of the White 

House. They had an organisation called the ‘Agent Orange 

Working Group,’ and the lawyers that worked with 

this group and with the OMB, in writing, in memoranda 

that we have copies of, concluded that it would be 

dangerous to compensate Vietnam Veterans for Agent 

Orange because of the liability to the government, not 

only at the military end, but also the civilian end, and 

also the liability to chemical companies ...” [23] 

It was with the publication of the Bionetics report in 

1969 that news of health and ecological damage from the 

use of herbicides began filtering out of Vietnam. With 

the doubts about the safety of the herbicides being in the 

public domain, both scientific and public outrage saw the 

use of Agent Orange by the military banned in 1970. 

Ignoring the evidence from Vietnam and warnings 

from the U.S. Surgeon General that dioxin-laced herbicides 

may present an imminent hazard to women of child 

bearing age. The U.S. government allowed its domestic 

use to continue and even expand throughout the United 

States over the next decade. 

Copyright © Ralph Ryder, August 2008 

Types of Soft Tissue Sarcoma with no time 

requirements for manifestation 

Adult Fibrosarcoma 

Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma 

Angiosarcoma 

Clear Cell Sarcoma of Aponeuroses 

Clear Cell Sarcoma of Tendons and 

Aponeuroses 

Congenital Fibrosarcoma 

Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans 

Ectomesenchymoma 

Epithelioid Malignant Leiomyosarcoma 

Epithelioid and Glandular Malignant 

Schwannomas 

Epithelioid Sarcoma 

Extraskeletal Ewing’s Sarcoma 

Hemangiosarcoma 


17

Infantile Fibrosarcoma 

Leiomyosarcoma 

Liposarcoma 

Lymphangiosarcoma 

Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma 

Malignant Giant Cell Tumor of the 

Tendon Sheath 

Malignant Glandular Schwannoma 

Malignant Glomus Tumor 

Malignant Hemangiopericytoma 

Malignant Mesenchymoma 

Malignant Ganglioneuroma 

Malignant Granular Cell Tumor 

Malignant Leiomyoblastoma 

Malignant Synovioma 

Malignant Schwannoma with Rhabdomyoblastic 

Differentiation 

Proliferating (systemic) 

Angiendotheliomatosis 

Rhabdomyosarcoma 

Synovial Sarcoma 

Diseases other than Cancer with various time requirements 

Type 2 Diabetes (Also known as Diabetes Mellitus) 

Periperal neuropathy (acute or subacute) 

Chloracne 

Porphyria Cutanea Tarda 

Disabilities in Children of Vietnam Veterans 

Spina Bifida 

Certain Birth Defects in Children of VN Veterans 

GLOSSARY 

Acute Peripheral Neuropathy. A temporary dysfunction 

involving the nervous system. 

Adult Fibrosarcoma. A tumor formed as an adult 

derived from connective tissue. 

Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma. A sarcoma found in 

the alveolus, the sac-like ducts in the lung. 

Angiosarcoma. A tumor occurring in the breast and 

skin, and believed to originate from blood vessels. 

Birth Defects. An abnormal structure, function, or metabolism 

of the fetus, whether genetically determined or as the 

result of an environmental influence during embryonic or 

fetal life. 

Cancer of the Bronchus. A malignant tumor found in 

a bronchus, an extension of the trachea (windpipe) 

connecting to the lungs. 

Cancer of the Larynx. A malignant tumor found in 

the larynx (voice box). 

Cancer of the Lung. A malignant tumor found in the lung. 

Cancer of the Prostate. A malignant tumor found in 

the prostate gland. 

Cancer of the Trachea. A malignant tumor found in 

the trachea (windpipe). 

Chloracne. An acne-like eruption due to prolonged contact 

with certain chlorinated compounds. 

18 

Clear Cell Sarcoma of Aponeuroses. A sarcoma found at 

the end of a muscle where it becomes a tendon. 

Clear Cell Sarcoma of Tendons. A sarcoma found in the 

tendons. 

Congenital Fibrosarcoma. A malignant tumor formed before 

birth and derived from connective tissue. 

Dermatofibrosarcoma. A relatively slow growing benign 

skin tumor consisting of one or more firm nodules. 

Ectomesenchymoma. A tumor found in a certain part of the 

skin. 

Epithelioid Malignant Leiomyosarcoma. A malignant tumor 

derived from smooth muscle found in the layer covering 

the muscle. 

Epithelioid Malignant Schwannoma. A moderately firm, 

benign, tumor found in the layers of membrane covering 

surfaces inside the body, caused by too many Schwann 

cells growing in a disorderly manner. 

Epithelioid Sarcoma. A tumor found in the membrane 

covering surfaces inside the body. 

Extraskeletal Ewing’s Sarcoma. A tumor outside the 

bone consisting of small, rounded cells. 

Hemangiosarcoma. A tumor derived from blood vessels 

and lining blood filled spaces. 

Hodgkins Disease. A tumor in the lymph nodes characterized 

by the increasing enlargement of the lymph nodes, 

liver, and spleen, and by progressive anemia. 

Infantile Fibrosarcoma. A tumor formed as a child derived 

from fibrous connective tissue. 

Leiomyosarcoma. A tumor derived from smooth muscle. 

Liposarcoma. A tumor that may occur in any site in the 

body consisting of irregular fat cells. 

Lymphangiosarcoma. A tumor derived from blood vessels. 

Lymphoma. A malignant tumor of lymph nodes. 

Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma. A type of tumor 

present in connective tissue. 

Malignant Giant Cell Tumor of the Tendon Sheath. A 

tumor found in the membrane of the tendon. 

Malignant Glandular Schwannoma. A moderately firm, 

malignant tumor in the glands caused by too many Schwann 

cells growing in a disorderly pattern. 

Malignant Glomus Tumor. A tumor found in the glomus, 

the tiny nodes found in the nailbed, pads of fingers and toes, 

ears, hands, feet and many other organs of the body. 

Malignant Hemangiopericytoma. A tumor characterized by 

rapidly growing fat cells formed in blood vessels and lining 

blood filled spaces. 

Malignant Mesenchymoma. A malignant tumor in the embryonic 

tissue or fluid. 

Malignant Schwannoma with Rhabdomyoblastic. A moderately 

firm, malignant tumor found in skeletal muscle resulting 

from the rapid growth of Schwann cells in a disorderly 

pattern. 

Multiple Myeloma. Cancer of specific bone marrow cells 

characterized by bone marrow tumors in various bones of 

the body. 

Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. Malignant tumors of the lymph 

nodes, distinguished from Hodgkins disease by the absence 

of the giant Reed-Sternberg cells. 


Peripheral Neuropathy. A dysfunction involving either the 

somatic nerves or the autonomic system. See also acute 

peripheral neuropathy and subacute peripheral neuropathy. 

Porphyria Cutanea Tarda. A disease characterized by liver 

dysfunction and light sensitive lesions, with pigment 

changes in the skin. 

Proliferating (systemic) Angiendotheliomatosis. A growing 

number of 20 benign tumors formed in blood vessels. Often 

causes skin discoloration. 

Rhabdomyosarcoma. A tumor derived from skeletal muscle. 

References: 

[1] Agent Orange Fact Sheet: An Historical 

Perspective. 

http://www.vvnw.org and 

theveteranscoalition.org 

[2] The Belgian PCB and dioxin Incident 

of January-June 1999: 

Exposure Data and Potential Impact on 

Health. Nik van Larebeke, Luc Hens,. 

Paul Schepens. Adrian Covaci. Jan 

Baeyens. Kim Everaert. Jan L. 

Bernheim. Robert Vlietnck and Geert de 

Poorter. Environmental Health 

Perspectives Vol. 109 No. 3 

March 2001. 

[3] ‘Toxic Substances in the 

Environment,’ B. Magnus Francis, John 

Wiley & Sons, Inc, ISBN 0-471-50781- 

4 (1494) pg 108 

[4] Dr. David Rall “Human Health 

Consequences of Dioxin,” Salem Public 

Library, Salem, Oregon April 13, 1996. 

ToxCat Vol. 2 No 5 (Winter 96)' 

[5] Dr. Arnold Schecter “Dioxin and 

Health,” Salem Public Library, Salem, 

Oregon April 13, 1996. ToxCat Vol. 2 

No 5 (Winter 96) 

[6] Lois Gibbs, ‘Dying from Dioxin,’ 

ISBN 0-89608-525-2. Studies quoted: 

Kuratsane, M. Yusho, with reference to 

Yu-Cheng “In Halogenated biphenyls, 

terphenyls, napthalenes, dibenzodioxins 

and related products,” Kimbrough, R.D. 

and Jenson, AA., eds New York, NY: 

Elsevier Science Publishers, 2nd ed., 

381-400 (1989) And: Chen, YC.J., Guo, 

Y.L.L., and Hsu, C.C. “Cognitive 

development of children prenatally 

exposed to polychlorinated biphenyl’s 

(Yu-Cheng children) 

and their siblings,” Journal of the 

Formosa Medical Association 9’ 704-7. 

[7] Rogan W.J. et.al., 1988 Congenital 

Poisoning by Polychlorinated 

Biphenyl’s and their Contaminants in 

Taiwan Science Vol. 241, pgs. 334-336 

[8] Dr. Linda Birnbaum ‘Re-evaluation 

of Dioxin' Presentation to the 102nd 

Meeting of the Great Lakes Water 

Quality Board, Chicago, Illinois, July 

15th 1993. ToxCat Vol. 2 No. 8 

[9] Chen et.al., 1992 Lai et.al., Guo 

et.al., 1994. Chen et.al., 1992, 

Guo et.al., 1994. 

[10] Cate Jenkins U.S. EPA, “Memo to 

Raymond Loehr: Newly Revealed Fraud 

by Monsanto in an Epidemiological 

Study Used by EPA to Assess Human 

Health Effects from Dioxins,” dated 

February 23, 1990. The study in question 

was: Zack. J. A. and W.R Gaffey, “A 

Mortality Study o f Workers Employed 

At The Monsanto Company Plant In 

Nitro, West Virginia”. Environmental 

Science Research, Vol.26 (1983) pages 

575-59I 

[11] R.R.Suskind studied the same incident 

at Nitro and published: R.R. Suskind 

and VS. Hertzberg, “Human Health 

Effects of 2,4,5,T And Its Toxic Contaminants,” 

Journal of the American 

Medical Association, Vol. 251, No 18 

(1984) pages 2373-238 

[12] J Stephanie Wanchinski (“New 

Analysis links dioxin to cancer,”) New 

Scientist, October 28, 1989, page 24. 

[13] Cathy Trost, Elements of Risk THE 

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND ITS 

THREAT TO AMERICA. Times Books 

1984 ISBN 0-8129-1114-8 

[14] Barry Commoner “A Turning Point 

in the Political History of Dioxin.” 

Keynote address; The 2nd Citizens' 

Conference on Dioxin St. Louis 

University, Missouri (July 29-31 1994) 

[15] Raymond R Suskind, Progress 

Report - Patients From Monsanto 

chemical company, Nitro, West 

Virginia, Ap February 2008ril, 1950 

(Cincinnati, Ohio. Kettering Laboratory, 

April, 1950), pg. 9. 

[16] Brief of Plaintiffs-appellees in 

Kemner et.al v. Monsanto Company, 

Sarcoma. A tumor arising in connective tissue, bone, cartilage, 

or muscle. 

Soft Tissue Sarcoma. A diverse group of sarcomas arising 

in the soft tissues that are found in and around organs. 

Spina Bifida. A disability characterized by the defective 

closure of the spinal cord, through which the cord is exposed 

and may protrude. 

Subacute Peripheral Neuropathy. A dysfunction involving 

either nervous system with a course between acute 

(temporary) and chronic (long duration) 

Synovial Sarcoma. A tumor found in the lubricating fluid 

surrounding joints and tendons. 

No. 5--88--0420 (5th Dist., Illinois 

Appellate Court) (Oct 3, 1989) (as the 

facts were proven at trial, the appeal 

only considered appeal-able matters of 

law), Plaintiff's brief refers to Zack and 

Gaffey, “A Mortality Study of Workers 

Employed at the Monsanto Company 

Plant in Nitro, WV,.” 



THREAT TO AMERICA. Times 

Books (1984) ISBN 0-8129-1114-8 

[18] Holden C “Agent Orange furor 

continues to build.” Science 205:770-72 

August 24 1979 

[19] Report Prepared by the Committee to 

Review the Health Effects in Vietnam 

Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, 

Division of Health Promotion and 

Disease Prevention, National Academy of 

Sciences’ Institute of Medicine. Released 

on July 27, 1991 Published by the 

National Academy Press, 2 101 

Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, 

D. C;. 20418. 

[20] P.M. Boffey, Science, 

Vol 171, 1971, pp.43-7 

[21] Weiss T., Oversight review of 

CDC’s Agent Orange study, 

opening statement before the U.S. House 

of Representatives, Human Resources and 

Intergovernmental Relations 

Subcommittee of the Committee on 

Government Operations, Washington, D. 

C. July 11 1989. 

[22] Yost. P., “Agent Orange study 

called blotched or rigged” Washington 

Post, July 12 1989, page A-6 

[23] Waste Not #228. 12/02 /1993 

© R.A. Ryder 

March 2008 


19

One area in the United States 

sprayed with herbicide to destroy 

unwanted bushes during this period 

was Kellner Canyon near 

Globe, Arizona. 

It was here that Bob McCray, 

standing 6ft 4” and every 

Englishman’s idea of what an American 

‘cowboy’ should be was 

sprayed with herbicides contaminated 

with dioxin. 

I met Bob during the ‘2nd Citizens 

‘Conference on Dioxin’ in St. Louis, 

Missouri in July 1994. We establish 

a good friendship and roomed together 

during the ‘3rd Citizens’ Conference 

on Dioxin and other 

Synthetic Hormone Disrupters’ in 

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March 

1996. It was there Bob told me the 

full story of the chemical spraying of 

Kellner Canyon. 

In June 1969, Bob, a fit young 

man, was just one of a number of 

20 

Kellner Canyon 

men building a home for their families 

in the Globe area. Bob’s wife, 

Rosalie, and their five month old son 

Paul, made up a small, but happy 

McCray family. The plot they had 

chosen for their home was inside the 

Bob McCray 

Cartoon taken 

from Billee 

Shoecraft’s 

‘Sue the Bastards’ 

timberlands of Kellner Canyon, one 

of 4 canyons, Russell, Kellner, Icehouse 

and Six-shooter, that lie about 

three miles south of Globe, Arizona. 

The house at that time was just a 

skeleton with a tarpaulin sheet 

stretched across the rafters as a 

makeshift roof to shield them from 

the hot June sun. Settling down to a 

family picnic, Bob heard the throbbing 

rhythm of helicopter blades. 

Peering into the clear blue sky he saw 

a snub-nosed - two seater U.S. Forest 

Service helicopter passing overhead 

just above the tree tops. Seconds later 

a ghostly, foul smelling spray cloud 

enveloped them as it drifted like a 

thick chiffon curtain along the floor 

of the canyon, over the partly built 

house and into the McCray’s lungs, 

and their lives. 

Suddenly, from a happy family 

enjoying the sunshine and its 

warmth, the McCray’s found them- 

A Beginners Guide to: DIOXIN Communities Against Toxics Research Unit 

©R Ryder

selves sopping wet with some strange 

witches brew burning their eyes and 

skin. Absolutely furious, Bob 

McCray bundled his frightened 

family into their pickup and drove to 

the U.S. Forest Services helicopter 

pad near-by to find out who was 

responsible and get some answers as 

to what was going on. 

When they arrived at the heli-pad 

the McCray’s encountered a line of 

interested spectators watching the 

helicopter filling up with more chemical 

spray. Bursting through the line 

of onlookers and shouting defiance at 

the pilot Bob McCray made for the 

helicopter. Seeing him approach, the 

pilot simply revved up, lifted off, and 

flew over dowsing him with the foul 

smelling vapour again. 

Also enjoying the sun on that 

fateful day in Kellner Canyon was 

Bob McKusick and his family. They 

were looking at the clay deposits 

McKusick, in his trade as a potter, 

had secured through negotiations 

with the Forest Service. Then came 

the throbbing blades and the pungent 

curtain of mist... 

Pat Medlin, a young woman living 

in Kellner Canyon was also keen to 

take advantage of the beautiful sunshine. 

She was stretched out soaking 

up the sun in her garden when, seeing 

the good looking young woman in a 

How Toxic is Dioxin? 

closer for a better look, not bothering 

to stop the chemical spray as he 

swooped in low over her home... 

Another resident, Billie Shoecraft, 

had been woken up earlier in the day 

by the same throb of helicopter 

blades. Stepping onto her front porch 

she was met by a curtain of mist that 

lingered in the early morning air... 

The canyon residents later discovered 

that the pungent, curtain of mist 

was in fact a cloud of Silvex, the 

brand name of Dow Chemical’s mixture 

of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. American 

servicemen in Vietnam knew it better 

as 'Agent Orange.' 

Virtually everyone who was 

caught directly by the spray developed 

health problems of one kind or 

another. Pat Medlin lost mobility 

within a few days and never walked 

again without the aid of a walking 

frame. She died of cancer. 

Paul McCray, Bob’s son, went 

into convulsions on the afternoon of 

the spraying and was later diagnosed 

as grand mal epilepsy. These convulsions 

continued daily - with as many 

as 36 terrifying attacks per day until 

he was five years old. 

Symptoms reported by the victims 

of the spraying were chloracne, pancreatitis, 

fibrosarcoma cancer, muscular 

and skeletal problems, 

elevations of liver enzymes and high 

cholesterol. Research on dioxin ex- 

posure had indicated that it can cause 

these symptoms. 

Dr. Susan Daum, an environmental 

medicine specialist who examined 

the Globe plaintiffs concluded “the 

symptoms and clinical abnormalities 

observed in this population were, 

“with a reasonable medical probability, 

as a result of toxicity from exposure 

to the chemical dioxin.” 

Billee Shoecraft developed cancer 

and until her death in 1976 led a 

fierce battle to get the process of 

chemical spraying stopped. The government 

and industry experts tried to 

play-down the whole thing and pacify 

the residents of Globe. 

Shoecraft’s feelings and outrage at 

what had been done is reflected in the 

title of the book she wrote about the 

shameful affair: “Sue the Bastards.” 

(Phoneix: Franklin Press 1971). 

In February 1970 McCray met 

with investigators from the United 

States Department of Agriculture and 

United States Forest Service whose 

eventual report concluded the 

“herbicide caused little damage in the 

Arizona area. 

According to McCray, “it was 

more important to those doctors 

whether their scotch had soda or water 

than how we were affected.” 

He concluded the whole investigation 

was a farce; “How can you 

When giving evidence to a House of Lords Inquiry into ‘Waste Incineration’ 

(March 1999) Dame Barbara Clayton made the statement: “the 

public look on dioxins as the very severe chemical...” and “...there is no 

reason to have that view but it is very much the public perception....” 

It is worth emphasizing that the effective dose of dioxin is very small: 

10 nanograms of dioxin per kilogram of bodyweight (10ng/kg) harms 

the mouse immune system enough to increase the death rate from 

influenza virus. To get 10 ng/kg into perspective, consider that a single 

5-grain aspirin tablet taken by a 150-pound adult is a dose of 4.7 

MILLION nanograms of aspirin per kilogram of bodyweight (4,761,936 

ng/kg). For an adult human to get a dose of aspirin equivalent to the dose 

of dioxin that harms the mouse immune system, you would have to 


This amount of dioxin was calculated to 

divide a single aspirin tablet into 470,000 pieces and eat only one 

represent the allowable lifetime dose (70 piece.* 

years) for 25,000 people.* That was before 

the announcement that dioxin was 10 times Surely reason enough to think dioxin is a very severe chemical? 

more toxic than originally thought. 

*US EPA figures 

*Ref: Rachel’s Environment Health Weekly #414 


21

have a bank robber investigate his 

own crime?” 

McCray kept samples in the 

freezer of deformed chickens and 

rabbits born after the spraying. One 

day in the spring of 1970 when the 

family was out of town, the plug was 

mysteriously pulled from the freezer 

and the evidence was destroyed.[1] 

The members of several other 

families in the area caught directly in 

the spray developed cancer as the 

years passed, including Bob who 

developed fibrosarcoma, a soft-tissue 

cancer. 

“Every morning you look in the 

mirror to see if there is any new 

lumps. I’ve found 14 at different 

times” he told me. [2] 

Dow settled out of court with five 

families for an undisclosed amount 

and had the court documents sealed. 

“I wanted to get it all out in public 

in a court suit” said Bob. “But emotionally 

we’d gone as far as we 

could.” 

Surprisingly, in the land of the 

big pay-outs, the compensation of 

$1.1 million between all the plaintiffs 

barely covered their medical bills. 

During the years after the spraying, 

as well as suffering continual, 

declining health, Bob McCray kept a 

For My Son’s Guinea Pigs 

I’ll close your eyes now that they are swollen ... 

I’ll close your eyes now that your dead... 

I’ll wrap you gently - hold you softly... 

And wipe the sweat that’s on your head... 

The blackened skin spots will not matter... 

No one will see them any more... 

Whatever pain you knew is over, 

Just like the ones that died before... 

‘Cyclops’ with his little ‘one-eye’... 

‘Rusty’ that we loved so much... 

‘Spilt’ and ‘Sam; and furry ‘Lady’... 

All so soft - and fun to touch! 

I don’t know why, I give no reason... 

I don’t know what the experts said 

Who wouldn’t see - or hear - or listen... 

I only know now they’re dead. 

Billee Shoecraft 

22 

watchful eye on the situation in the 

Kellner Canyon/Globe area with regards 

to people’s health which he 

noted seemed to be following a 

downward curve. 

In September 1993, after hearing 

a lot of rumours about increasing 

ill-health around Globe, McCray 

advertised on the local radio and in 

the local newspapers to see if they 

were any elevated levels of cancers. 

“I expected to get a few replies, but 

not an avalanche,” he told me. “I got 

six hundred letters in the first 

month. 

They were coming in 

so fast there was no 

way I could keep up 

with them.” 

Compiling the volumes 

of information 

he received, he began 

to note a definite connection 

between specific 

types of cancers: 

30 cases of Soft Tissue 

Sarcoma - a cancer affecting 

tendons and 

ligaments (suffered 

predominately by forestry 

workers using 

pesticides): 40 cases 

of Hodgkin’s Disease 

and 40 cases of Non- 

Hodgkin’s Lymphoma 

- a cancer of the lymph 

nodes. “All these odd- 


One of McKusicks goats born with reproductive organs backwards 

found in people living around the 

canyons that were sprayed,” Bob 

said. 

According to the National Institute 

of Health, the Globe-Miami area 

should experience one case of Soft 

Tissue Sarcoma every two years; one 

case of Hodgkin’s disease and 3 cases 

of Non-Hodgkin’s disease every 

year. 

The only other group in the United 

States afflicted with high rates of 

these cancers are the Vietnam veterans 

who were exposed to Agent Orange. 

Bob McCray unearthed so many 

cases of cancer that even the U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency 

and the Arizona State Health Department 

were interested. Dr. Linda 

Birnbaum, (Environmental Toxicology 

Division U.S.EPA) said: “I talked 

to McCray and I think his 

numbers are very interesting... 

In 1986 the EPA tested Kellner 

Canyon as part of the National Dioxin 

Study. They found the highest 

dioxin concentration anywhere in 

America on the helipad site above 

Globe. Warning signs placed on the 

helipad were removed shortly after 

McCray and McKusick visited the 

sight and took photographs. 

Although the residents of Kellner 

Canyon and others received very little 

in terms of compensation from 

Dow. Their battle served as a prece- 


dent for a Vietnam veterans’ classaction 

suit worth $180 million 

against chemical companies like 

Dow and Hercules. Again, the Corporations 

settled out of court without 

admitting liability. 

Bob McCray is dead. A victim of 

a callous chemical industry and officialdom. 

I have no idea of what happened 

to his files. At the time of 

spraying little was known by the general 

public about the dangers from 

the chemicals used. It was assumed 

that the only danger to health came 

from “between the nozzle and the 

ground.” Through the efforts of a 

few responsible scientists 

publications like Rachel's 

Environmental Health Weekly and 

community based groups 

organisation’s like the Centre for 

Environmental Health and Justice, 

and outspoken victims Billee 

Shoecraft, Bob McCray and activist / 

author Carol Van Strum, the public is 

thankfully a lot better informed about 

the compounds used in herbicides 

and pesticides. Many are now known 

to be persistent and health damaging 

years after being released into 

the environment. 


Alsea Study 

A number of horrific 

domestic spraying 

incidents had already 

taken place in 

the U.S. prior to the 

banning of spraying 

in Vietnam of which 

Kellner Canyon was 

just one. 

In 1977, after aerial 

defoliation had 

taken place in a 

1,600-square mile 

area of Oregon. A 

group of residents 

disturbed by birth 

defects, miscarriages 

and illness in 

their families, livestock 

and local wild 

life, filed a lawsuit that forced the 

EPA’s suppressed studies into the 

open. 

This resulted in ‘The Alsea 

Study,’ an attempt to correlate human 

miscarriages with the time, amount 

and location of aerial spraying. 

A preliminary report published in 

1979 showed an overwhelming surge 

of miscarriages in the two months 

The idea was to kill desert scrub impeding water run-off so rainfall 

would roll cleanly over the sand into the creeks, empty into the Salt 

river, thus swelling the river and making Salt River Project turbines 

spin faster. 

following herbicide applications. On 

the base’s of this report the EPA 

issued an emergency suspension of 

forestry and right-of-way uses of 

2,4,5-T and Silvex, a slower acting 

herbicide that toxicology studies had 

shown to be relatively non-toxic to 

animals in acute or brief exposure. 

There was no data on its use in the 

field or from prolonged exposure. 

No-Safe Level 

Based on the preliminary Alsea Study 

and a Dow study showing the effects 

of dioxin on three generations of rats, 

U.S.EPA concluded that ‘no safe level 

or no-effect level’ of dioxin exposure 

could be demonstrated’ and that 

its reproductive toxicity presented an 

imminent hazard to exposed populations 

at any level. 

The problem was that at that time 

the EPA were promoting waste-to- 

-energy incinerators (WtE) and these 

were pumping out dioxin at far greater 

amounts than was to be found in 

2,4,5-T. 

Also, other significant sources of 

dioxin included the manufacture of 

plastics, pulp, paper, and wood preservative 

etc. A ‘no-safe’ level would 

cause serious problems for industry 

and create liability for the government 

against the claims of the Vietnam 

Veterans exposed to Agent 


23

Orange. Consequently, the EPA concealed 

the data and the Alsea Study 

was never completed or the data 

made public. 

However, a leak of its analyst in 

1983 saw the EPA and Dow finally 

cancel the registrations of 2,4,5-T 

and along with its registration went 

the ‘no-safe level’ and ‘reproductive 

harm at any dose.’ 

“The demise of 2,4,5-T allowed 

EPA quietly and without public notice 

or comment, to replace its ‘nosafe 

level’ of dioxin policy with an 

exciting new technique in the field of 

numerology, ‘risk assessment.’”[3] 

Manual 

The EPA did have information on the 

effects of herbicides at that time that 

they didn’t want to share with the 

public. They had provided a manual 

in 1978 to personnel aboard the Vulcanus, 

an incinerator ship destroying 

‘Herbicide Orange’ at 1,000 ° C. That 

stated: 

The principal Herbicide Orange 

constituent of concern, TCDD, has 

been found to be highly embryotoxic, 

teratogenic (tending to cause 

developmental malfunctions and 

monstrosities,) and acnegenic and is 

lethal in the microgram-per-kilogram 

of body weight range. 

It also gave a list of observed effects 

as follows: 

Chloracne (moderate to severe) 

Skin irritation, with swelling, hardening, 

blackheads, pustules and pimples; 

hyperpigmentation (Skin 

discoloration); muscular pain; decreased 

libido, fatigue, nervous irritability, 

intolerance to cold, 

destruction of nerve fibres and nerve 

sheaths. 

In addition, effects on exposed 

test animals “may be considered 

Copyright © Greenpeace 

“Why are so many scientists as apathetic as the general public in their reaction to 

many of the alarming facts regarding what is really happening to man. The majority 

of them leave the burden of informing those who should be doing something about it 

to a handful of their more courageous members. Why must the few always fight the 

battles for the many?” Billee Shoecraft 

24 

possible effects on the human system, 

especially, when the metabolism of 

the animal is similar to that of man. 

These effects included toxicity to 

embryos, birth defects, possible 

carcinogenity and even death. It 

should also be noted that the greatest 

hazard is to pregnant females and 

their foetuses, especially in the first 

third of the pregnancy.” 

The manual also told of: “entry of 

TCDD into the body: through the 

mouth - ingestion; through the skin - 

percutaneous; the lungs and eyes.” 

The list had been compiled by the 

EPA with the assistance of a certain 

Mr. V. K. Rowe of Dow Chemical. 

The same V, K. Rowe had been the 

company’s main spokesman telling 

customers there were no problems 

with Dow’s herbicides, while at the 

same time secretly writing to all Dow 

managers that “TCDD is the most 

toxic material we’ve ever studied.”[4] 

While Bob was compiling his data he 

was threatened many times by citizens 

who thought his campaign for 

the truth was damaging the tourist 

trade around Globe. 

Bob McCray passed away in December 

2000. He was a good, honest 

man with a fighting sprit all too rare 

these days. It was a privilege and an 

honour to have known him and call 

him my friend. 

Ralph Ryder 

References 

[1] Multinational Monitor, May 1981 and 

interview with Ralph Ryder 1994 -1996) 

[2] Interviews with Ralph Ryder (1994- 

1996) 

[3] Carol Van Strum. ‘Back to the Future:’ 

EPA Reinvents the Wheel on Reproductive 

Effects of Dioxin. Dioxin. The Orange Resource 

Book No 7/8 summer 1995, WD 

Press/Synthesis/Regeneration. 



THREAT TO AMERICA. Times Books 

1984 ISBN 0-8129-1114-8 

Additional sources: Personal interviews, 

letters and telephone conversations with 

Bob McCray. 

The Tucson Weekly March 2-8 1994. 

Poisoned Lives, By Blake Morlock,. 

Tucson Weekly, Vol. 10, Number 52, 

March 2-March 8, 1994. 

Multinational Monitor May 1981. 


The scene of another spraying 

with dioxin, but of a different 

nature from that in Vietnam 

and Kellner Canyon, was the 

spraying of the Missouri town of 

Times Beach. 

Times Beach was a small 

suburban town of slightly over 

2,000 residents situated about 17 

miles from St. Louis, Missouri. 

The town covered 480 acres and 

was built alongside the I-44 highway 

and along the banks of the 

Meramec River. 

In 1925 the old St. Louis Star- 

Times newspaper initiated a sales 

promotion program to increase 

the circulation of the paper. The 

purchase of a 20 x 100 lot in 

Times Beach at a cost of $67.50 

entitled one to a newspaper 

subscription for a period of six 

months. In order to utilise the 

property and build a house, 

another lot had to be bought. 

The site was originally a flood 

plain used for farming and 

consequently many of the houses 

had been built on stilts. As these 

were primarily for summer use 

they were not of the highest 

standard construction wise, but 

were very similar to summer beach 

houses. 

Upgraded 

During the depression of the 

1930’s people moved into these 

summer homes and the post-war 

shortage of housing saw many 

becoming permanent homes. 

The 1950’s saw an upward 

trend in the development of the 

town and as a result the summer 

houses were improved and Times 

Beach became a town in the true 

sense of the word. 

As the flooding seemed to have 

abated the use of stilts was 

considered unnecessary and ‘The 

Beach,’ as it was called by the 

locals, had blossomed from a low 

income community to a middle 

class community. 

Dusty Roads 

The local authorities were unable 

to afford road surfacing of the 

town's 16.3 miles of dusty roads 

and they were simply covered 

with gravel. It was thought 

spraying with oil was the best 

method to control the dust. 

During the long hot summers of 

1972-73 these were sprayed with 

waste oil by haulage contractor 

Russell Bliss of ‘Bliss Waste Oil.’ 

Costing only 6 cents a gallon, the 

oil was considered a bargain and 

came from a plant belonging to 

the Northeastern Pharmaceutical 

and Chemical Company 

(NEPACCO) in Springfield, 

Missouri. 

NEPACCO had been 

manufacturing hexachlorophene 

at the plant for two years and 

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para- 

dioxin, TCDD (dioxin) was 

derived by distilling TCP, needed 

in its pure form for the production 

of hexachlorophene. 

This process spawned 

concentrated batches of dioxin 

called ‘still bottoms,' and this was 

what Bliss was contracted by the 

Independent Petrochemical 

Company (IPC) of St. Louis, to 

collect and dispose of. 

Gregory Browne, a district 

manager of IPC, said Bliss was 

notified that the loads comprised 

of hazardous waste. 

Bliss made six trips to the 

NEPACCO’s hexachlorophene 

plant in early 1971 collecting a 

total of 18,500 gallons on the 

first five trips: February 16, 3,500 

gallons; May 20, 3,000 gallons: 

May 25, 3,000; July 30, 6,000 

gallons; October 4, 3,000 gallons. 

On the fifth trip Bliss learned 

that that IPC was earning $.25 per 

gallon for removing the waste 

from NEPACO while he was only 

getting about five cents a gallon. 

He spoke with a plant foreman at 

NEPACCO and walked away with 

a deal to haul directly by- passing 

IPC for $500 per trip. He only 

made one trip. 

Shenandoah Stables 

The first place to experience trouble 

after the spraying was the 

Shenandoah stables horse arena. 

This was treated with 2,000 gal- 


25

lons of oil on May 26 1971. Three 

days later the area was littered 

with dead wild birds. “There were 

literally bushel baskets full of 

those dead wild birds” said Dr. 

Patrick E. Phillips a veterinarian 

with the Missouri Division of 

Health. 

These were followed by eleven 

cats, four dogs, farm animals and 

sixty two horses. A six year old 

daughter of one of the owners was 

admitted to St Louis children’s 

Hospital with a severe kidney disorder 

and inflammation to the 

bladder. According to Robert 

Koehler of the Centre Disease 

Control (CDC), the levels of dioxin 

in the arena were between 

31,800 part per billion (ppb) and 

33,000ppb. 

In preparation for a lawsuit the 

arena’s owners Judy Piatt, mother 

of the girl hospitalised, and Frank 

Hampel started tracking the drivers 

of Bliss Waste Oil to determine 

the source of the waste and 

observe and make notes of their 

dumping procedures. 

They saw Bliss Waste Oil drivers 

opening their spigots to spew 

the waste into ditches, creeks, 

rivers, roadsides and fields. 

They followed one truck and 

witnessed the driver dumping oil 

into a run-off ditch near the Mississippi 

River. They followed another 

truck to Times Beach where 

the driver dumped the waste onto 

a field. 

26 

They called the 

CDC and they 

did tests on the 

dirt in their arena 

and found dioxin. 

They then 

checked the 

records of Russell 

Bliss and found his 

record of the 

spraying of 

Times Beach. 

This started a fullscale 

operation to 

determine if the 

town was contaminated. 

Although in the aftermath that 

followed Bliss always maintained 

he did not know the waste oil was 

hazardous (despite Gregory 

Browne’s accusations to the contrary) 

and one can reasonably assume 

he must have been aware of 

the problems at the arena after the 

spraying - he continued spraying 

the oil in other areas of the State. 

One of these was the Pacific 

Intermountain Express truck terminal 

in St.Louis where Alvin 

Overmann* worked. 

More than 20 dioxin contaminated 

sites have been found in 

Missouri. 

Testing was Delayed 

In November 1982 a local reporter 

told the St. Louis City clerk that 

is was possible that Times Beach 

had been sprayed along with other 

sites in the area with waste oil 

contaminated 

with 

dioxin. 

Environmental 

Protection 

Agency 

officials 

confirmed 

the 

information 

given by the 

reporter was 

indeed correct 

and that Times 

Beach was 

Warning signs on the road 

to Times Beach 


high on the list of sites they suspected 

was contaminated. 

Some residents recalled a terrible 

stench from the oil and the 

roads turning purple after the 

spraying. They also remembered 

that birds and dogs had died, as 

had newborn animals shortly after 

birth. 

One man remembered a dog 

found in one of the contaminated 

ditches. They thought it had rabies 

and called the police to shoot 

it. 

Another man recalled finding a 

great many dead birds and calling 

the St. Louis Health Department 

Alvin Overmann worked for more 

than twenty years at the Pacific 

Intermountain Express truck terminal 

in St Louis, Missouri. 

Russell Bliss’ practice of spraying 

waste oil to control the dust had 

become commonplace in the three 

trucking terminals which employed 

about 600 personnel. 

Overmann died on July 10, 1991 

and his family were awarded $1.5 

million after a 3 month jury trial in 

St. Louis Circuit court in Missouri. 

The court ruled that Overmann’s 

death was due to dioxin exposure. 

He was diagnosed with soft-tissue 

sarcoma, chloracne and porphyria 

tarda. 

The court ruled further that Syntex 

Agribusiness, Independent Petroleum 

Chemical and Northeastern 

Pharmaceutical were liable. 


who recommended he kept the 

birds in a freezer saying they 

would collect them later. They 

never did. 

Bliss dumped the remainder of 

the oil in an underdeveloped area 

of the city that was to be used as a 

playing field by the local children. 

Tests revealed the soil contained 

ten priority pollutants. 

When the community of Times 

Beach were told it could be as 

long as nine months before any 

soil testing could be done all hell 

broke loose. 

Private Testing 

The Beach community had no 

knowledge of the chemicals used or 

their effects on human health. As 

information on these came in from all 

over the U.S. the EPA announced 

they would commence testing immediately 

given the amount of people 

exposed in the area. 

Residents believe this sudden 

change of heart came about as a result 

of their taking things into their 

own hands, having a collection, and 

raising the necessary cash to employ 

a local laboratory to do private test- 

ing. Hearing about this the EPA then 

speeded up their own operations. 

Floods 

While the residents were waiting for 

the results of the tests on December 

5 1982, the floods came back with a 

vengeance. Times Beach suffered the 

worst flood in its history with water 

reaching 42.88 feet carrying the 

dioxin contaminated oil into the 

homes, fittings, furniture and deeper 

into the lives of the residents. 

As the townsfolk were cleaning up 

their water damaged homes the results 

of both the private and EPA 

testing were made public. They confirmed 

their worst fears, dioxin was 

present in the soil. No-one was sure 

of the quantities of chemicals, but 

residents were told, “If you are in 

town it is advisable for you to leave 

and if you are out of town do not go 

back.” 

A great many did just that, they 

never went back. Those who did stay 

were left in limbo as to what the 

future had in store for them. Should 

they continue the clean-up of their 

homes, given that to disturb the contamination 

might expose them to 

even greater amounts of dioxin? 

There was talk of a buy-out by the 

government, but residents had heard 

of no definite plan of action and 

stress had reached a high point with 

people beginning to become ill. Personal 

relationships suffered and 

many people became deeply depressed. 

Frightened children learnt 

from television that the dirt they had 

played in for years killed laboratory 

animals when it was fed to them. 

Headlines like EPA Spokesman Says 

"Dioxin The Most Toxic Chemical 

Known To Man” did nothing to alleviate 

anyone’s concern. 

In the midst of all this unrest and 

upheaval, it came to light that some 

of the government were aware of the 

possible contamination of Times 

Beach as long ago as 1972. 

At this time the EPA was being 

closely scrutinised by five congressional 

committees over allegations 

of having too ‘cozy’ a 

relationship with the chemical 

companies it was supposed to be 

monitoring. One memo went so 

far as to identify the business 

community as “the principal constituents 

of this administration” 

EPA's Administrator Anne Gorsuch-Burford, 

was accused of 

Spina bifida is the most common of the three types of neural tube defects (NTD). Every child with this serious 

defect (e.g acranius monstre) has been stillborn. Potential mechanisms could underline a paternal relationship to 

spina bifida in the offspring as follows: from paternal exposure (mutagen), maternal health and chance or 

unproven association [1]. 

The environmental pollution is a serious problem and has been examined by many scientists. The results from 

many studies have shown that defects of the neural tube may be caused by many factors following: heavy metals 

(Sever, 1995)[2], social stress, folic acid (Czeizel & Dudas, 1992; Berry et al., 1999)[3] multivitamin use 

(Wasserman et al.1998)[4] and specifically-Polycholorinated Aromatic Compounds POPs (Erickon,1984; CDC 

Vietnam Experience Study, 1988)[5]. These, factors caused neural tube defects of acranius monster at the rate of 

1/1000 in USA. Another study (Australia, IOM) on Spina bifida showed that this kind of defects may be related 

to Dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) which was used by U.S forces during the Vietnam war (Ranch 

Hand 1961-1971). In 1998 Spina bifida was considered a suggestive evidence of an association between exposure 

to herbicides and the health outcomes (IOM, Veterans and Agent Orange)[6]. 

[1] Report of the Expert Committee into the possible connections between exposure to Herbicides in Vietnam and Spina Bifida in 

children of Vietnam Veterans 1996. 

[2] Sever LE (1995) ‘Looking for causes of neural tube defects: Where does the environment fit in?’ Environmental Health 

Perspectives, 103 (Suppl 6): 165-171. 

[3] Czeizel AE & Dudas I (1992) ‘Prevention of the first occurrence of neural tube defects by periconceptional vitamin supplementation’. 

The New England Journal of Medicine, 327: 1832-1835. 

[4] Wasserman CR, Shaw GM, Selvin S, Gould JB & Syme SL (1998) ‘Socio-economic status, neighbourhood social conditions, 

and neural tube defects’. American Journal of Public Health, 88:1674-1680. 

[5] Erickson JD, Mulinare J, McClain PW, Fitch TG, James LM, McClearn AB & Adams Jr MJ (1984) ‘Vietnam Veterans’ risks for 

fathering babies with birth defects’. Journal of the American Medical Association, 252(7): 903- 912. 

[6] Veterans and Agent Orange, update 2000, 6-7 


27

putting industry’s interest before 

the environment. 

Illness 

Over the years since the spraying 

the residents of Times Beach developed 

illnesses similar to those 

suffered by the Vietnam Veterans 

i.e. soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, 

peripheral neuropathy, at least 

three cases of PCT (both illnesses 

now shown to be serviceconnected 

to Agent Orange 

exposure); hearing loss affected 

all ages, allergies, liver, kidney, 

bladder problems, thyroid disorders 

and bone tumours were rife. 

Many women had miscarriages 

and a high proportion in their 20’s 

and 30’s had to have hysterectomies, 

including Marilyn Leistner 

the last Mayor of Times Beach 

and a fierce campaigner for justice 

for the community. 

Hyperactive children with an 

array of developmental problems 

were common and some babies 

were diagnosed with hydrocephalus, 

others with Spina Bifida. Two 

children in one home were born 

with cleft palates, one dying before 

it was a year old. A number 

of people suffered gastroesophageal 

reflux and there was a theory 

that dioxin harms the sphincter 

muscle between the stomach and 

the esophagus. 

Marilyn Leistner’s family suffered 

a variety of disturbing illnesses. 

Her first husband was one 

of the town’s three cases of porphyria 

cutane tarda. A daughter 

has giant hives all over her body 

and rashes and severe acne. Another 

is sterile and has a hyper 

thyroid condition. The third suf- 

fers a rare seizure disorder while 

Marilyn herself has no feeling in 

her left hand and has been diagnosed 

as having severe peripheral 

neuropathy. 

Phoniest Study 

As with numerous other studies 

on dioxin, the true facts of its 

health effects were ‘diluted’ by 

the authorities. A study using only 

66 people, (out of a population 

of over 2,000) was conducted 

with many elderly residents 

whose health problems could be 

attributed to dioxin being deliberately 

left out. People with serious 

health problems did not participate 

because they were represented 

by their attorneys who were 

wary of what the government was 

going to do. People who did not 

live long-term at the Beach were 

included as were delivery men, 

telephone engineers and even incidental 

visitors to the town 

which served to dilute the figures 

even more. 

Dr. Vernon Houk, the scientist 

responsible for the cancelled CDC 

study on the Vietnam Veterans, 

announced the results at the hospital 

that conducted the Times 

Beach study.Marilyn Leistner 

called it the “Phoniest study in the 

whole world and the people of 

Times Beach were very angry with 

Vernon Houk.” 

Buy Out 

Tests done in 1982 showed dioxin 

levels of more than 100 ppb in the 

soil of Times Beach. On February 

23, 1983, the EPA announced its 

plans to buy out the entire town of 

800 houses and thirty business. 

Spina bifida occult among the adult’s children of the people living in herbicides contaminated areas during 

wartime was revealed by lumbar vertebra X-rays. 

Tran Hung1, Dang Duc Nhu1 110-80 Division Of Ministry Of Health 

The rate of spina bifida (SB) occult in the exposed group of children whose parents lived in areas sprayed by 

herbicides during wartime was approximately two-fold higher than the rates of SB in the unexposed group. This 

research revealed the possible relationship between herbicides exposed and the occurrence of Spina bifida on 

adult’s children of families living in sprayed areas. We do not deny that other reasons many exist for spina bifida, 

but this research suggested that AO/Dioxin can be the main cause for the increase in the rate of spina bifida of 

children... 

28 

Photograph scanned from: Dioxin: The Orange Resource Book. A Synthesis/Regeneration publication 

Marilyn Leistner, the town’s last Mayor photographed on the dusty 

roads of Times Beach. Beach residents developed illnesses similar 

to those suffered by Vietnam Veterans i.e. soft tissue sarcoma, 

chloracne, peripheral neuropathy, hearing loss, allergies, liver, 

kidney, bladder problems, thyroid disorders and bone tumours. 


Once again things were not 

made easy for the Beach residents. 

The first offers from the 

government for their homes were 

ridiculously low and the residents 

were so disgusted by this exploitation 

of their position they 

sprayed the prices offered to them 

on the outside of their homes in 

front of the television cameras to 

let the nation see what they had 

been offered. This had the desired 

effect and the government in 

creased the money offered to a 

total $36.7 million. They demolished 

every building. 

The announcement of the buyout 

was one of the last official acts 

of Mrs Burford who resigned in 

March as EPA’s Administrator. 

Contamination Levels 

At the time of the health study it 

was known that dioxin concentrations 

were under 400 parts per 

billion. Months after its completion 

levels of 1,200 ppb were 

found. Dr. Ayres who preformed 

the study for the state and federal 

government said that the higher 

dioxin levels would impact the 

study because they only looked at 

“problems that could be caused by 

lower levels.” 

People Turned 

Whereas initially people throughout 

the United States had been 

sympathetic and responsive to the 

plight of The Beach community. 

As information came through on 

the toxicity of dioxin, children 

from uncontaminated areas were 

told by their parents not to associate 

with the children of The 

Beach. Almost daily more people 

were turning against the victims 

of the dioxin contamination. 

Hearing of the buy-out, some 

people resented the community 

receiving the money saying: 

“there’s nothing wrong with dioxin. 

It’s the flood that’s causing the 

buy-out.” 

Marilyn Leistner explained to 

these patiently, “You don’t buy 

Dr. Barry Commoner 

homes in a flood plain with 

‘Superfund’ dollars.” 

The problems of being a resident 

of Times Beach will live 

with the community for the rest of 

their lives, both mentally and 

physically. The children seem to 

have been affected in different 

ways from the adults and suicides 

among the generation born during 

the 1970’s is well above the national 

average. 

A study examined 402 births to 

mother affected by the dioxin. It 

found that compared to unexposed 

mothers, increased foetal 

deaths, infant deaths low birth 

weight babies and birth defects.[1] 

Other research into the effects on 

children revealed a number of 

other disturbing facts. 

Dr. David Cantor (Director of 

Neuropsychology, Scottish Rite 

Children's Medical Centre, Atlanta) 

told delegates at the ‘2nd Citizens’ 

Conference on Dioxin’ held 

in St Louis, Missouri, home of the 

chemical giant Monsanto, of his 

research on seventeen of the children 

of Times Beach who had 

been exposed prenatally to dioxin. 

Dr. Cantor studied the frequency 

of the firing of cells in different 

parts of the brain and noted a 

significant decrease in firings in 

the frontal lobe area compared to 

a control group. 

The pre-frontal cortex is the 

part of the human brain where 

consciousness resides. That is 

where the ‘true' person that is 

‘you’ resides. The frontal lobes 

contain the cores of human self- 

knowledge, damage it, and what is 

left may be able to live, function, 

see and breathe, and outwardly 

look quite normal to 

others - but it will no longer be 

the conscious, thinking, freewilled 

person that was before. 

“At first these children showed 

only slight signs of difficulties 

when dealing with elementary 

learning,” said Dr. Cantor. “But as 

they got older they experienced 

extreme difficulty in getting to 

grips with more complicated 

problems, problems the average 

child solves quite easily” he continued. 

It was obvious the children 

studied would never reach their 

true potential, either in intelligence 

or as a person. Certainly 

something much worse than the 

“nasty skin condition” pyromaniacs 

talk about.. 

Other eminent speakers at this 

conference included: 

Dr. Barry Commoner (Director of 

the Center for the Biology of Natural 

System, Queens College, USA) told 

delegates: “Dioxin is now known to 

interfere with the most delicate balanced 

biological process in our bodies, 

they are man-made chemicals 

that present in only minuscule 

amounts can alter the natural biochemical 

process that determine how 

people develop, grow, and behave.” 

Dr. Peter McConnachie, Director 

Immunotransplant Laboratory, Memorial 

Medical Center, Springfield, 

Illinois). His field of expertise is the 

immune system and its reaction to 

drugs as used on patients undergoing 

transplant surgery. He spoke of his 

research into the immunological 

problems experienced by some of the 

children exposed to dioxin prenatally 

at Times Beach. 

He performed immunological 

tests on a group of sixteen children 

from Times Beach exposed in utero 

or prenatally to dioxin. Analysis revealed 

multiple immunological 


©R Ryder 

29

anomalies nine to fourteen years after 

exposure. 

Dr. McConnachie’s talk was fascinating 

and he spoke of one disturbing 

moment during his research: 

“ ...when l took blood samples from 

the children not one child cried, 

flinched, or moved away from the 

needle. They were so passive it was 

unnatural” he said. 

Dr. Janna Koppa (Holland) investigating 

38 healthy breast-fed infants 

in relation to dioxin content of breast 

milk told of the significant collation 

between the levels of dioxin in mothers 

breast milk and the activity of a 

thyroid gland in newborn infants. 

“We concluded that exposure to 

increase concentrations of dioxin via 

breast milk seems to modulate the 

hypothalamus pituitary thyroid regulatory 

system in newborn babies. 

Stillborn babies showed 6.9 p to 11.9 

parts per trillion TEQ of dioxin in 

their bodies.” 

Dr. Paul Connett (St. Lawrence 

University) told delegates: 

“Hormonal changes, birth defects, 

cancers, sexual dysfunction, infertility, 

learning disorders, immune system 

suppression, are all caused by 

dioxin. It’s like throwing a hand-grenade 

into the centre of human biology.” 

Marilyn Leistner said: “I cringe 

when someone says, ‘Dioxin never 

hurt anybody.’ Dioxin has harmed 

everyone who has come into contact 

with it. For us, it has meant loss of 

property values, community, neighbours, 

friends, identity and security, 

and most of all, loss of our health. 

Source: 

Various Waste Not Fact sheets, 

personal interviews and observations 

by Ralph Ryder during the 2nd 

Citizens Conference on Dioxin. St. 

Louis, Missouri, July 29-31 1994. 

The Times Beach Story, by Marilyn 

Leistner published in, Dioxin: the 

Orange Resource Book, 

Synthesis/Regeneration 7/8. 

1995. 2nd Citizens Conference on 

Dioxin. St Louis, Missouri, July 29- 

31, 1994. 

As part of this conference over 250 

former residents of Times Beach 

gathered for a reunion at the Eureka 

Community Center. 

[1] Stockbauer, J.W., Hoffmann, R.E., 

Schramm, W.F., Edmonds, L.D. 

(1988) “Reproductive outcomes of 

mother with potential exposure to 

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin.” 

American Journal of Epidemiology 

128:410-19. Quoted in ‘Dying From 

Dioxin.’ Lois Marie Gibbs South End 

Press, ISBN 0-89608-525-2 (1995) 

As long ago as 1980, the year of the very first Dioxin Symposium, several critical elements of the dioxin story 

were already known. [1] Poland and co-workers had described the isolation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor 

(AhR) from mouse hepatic cytosol.[2] Structure-binding and structure-activity relationships among the 

polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs), biphenyls (PCBs), and other 

Halongenation as had been determined.[3] Moreover, studies in genetically inbred strains of mice and in other 

species had clearly defined differences in Ah-responsiveness between species that may be related, in part, to 

differences in the AhR. 

However, since 1980, thousands of papers on the toxicology/molecular biology/mechanism of action of 

TCDD, and related compounds have been published and selection of the important advances would vary with the 

individual scientist’. Some of the key mechanistic/molecular biology discoveries include: (i) cloning of the AhR 

gene [4][5] (ii) cloning of the AhR nuclear translocator (Arnt) gene [6], (iii) generation of the AhR knockout 

mouse[7] and (iv) development of the molecular mechanisms of action of the nuclear AhR complex using the 

CYP1A1 gene as a model.[8] One of the important toxicological studies was the report that in utero exposure of 

pregnant female rats to exceedingly low doses of TCDD resulted in gene reprogramming which affected 

physiological function in the offspring.[9] This study also formed an underpinning for the endocrine disruptor 

hypothesis. Mechanism-based risk assessment and development of toxic equivalency factors (TEFs) and toxic 

equivalents (TEQs) was derived from early and later structure-activity studies of PCDDs and PCDFs. Earlier 

research contributing to this concept included the identification of mono- and diortho-substituted PCBs as AhR 

agonists[10] and subsequently as antagonists. 

References: 

1. Chlorinated Dioxins and Related Compounds (Hutzinger, O, Frie, R.W., Merian, E. and Pocchiari, F., Eds.), Pergamon Series on 

Environmental Science, Vol. 8, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK. 

2. Poland, A., Glover, E. and Kende, A. S. (1976) J. Biol. Chem. 251: 4936-4946. 

3. Poland, A., Greenlee, W. F. and Kende, A. S. (1979) Annu. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 320: 214-230. 

4. Burbach, K. M., Poland, A. B. and Bradfield, C. A. (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89: 8185-8189. 

5. Ema, M., Sogawa, K., Watanabe, N., Chujoh, Y., Matsushita, N., Gotoh, O., Funae, Y. and Fujii-Kuriyama, Y. 

(1992) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 184: 246-253. 

6. Reyes, H., Reisz-Porszasz, S. and Hankinson, O. (1992) Science 256: 1193-1195. 

7. Fernandez-Salguero, P., Pineau, T., Hilbert, D. M., McPhail, T., Lee, S. S., Kimura, S., Nebert, D. W., Rudikoff, S., Ward, J. M. 

and Gonzalez, F. J. (1995) Science 268: 722-726. 

8. Whitlock, J. P., Jr. (1993) Chem. Res. Toxicol. 6: 754-763. 

9. Mably, T. A., Moore, R. W. and Peterson, R. E. (1992) Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 114: 97-107. 


Immunological Studies on 16 Times Beach Children 

By P.R McConnachie,1 A.C. Zahalsky, 2 G.H. Smoger 3 

We were asked because of our interest 

in the effects of halogenated 

aromatic hydrocarbons (HAH) on 

the human immune system, to perform 

immunological testing on a 

group of 16 children who were exposed 

to dioxin in utero or perinatally, 

as their mothers lived or 

visited frequently in Times Beach 

between 1977 and 1983 while pregnant. 

One of the 16 was exposed only 

after birth for the first year of her life. 

The studies were performed at the 

Memorial Medical Centre Springfield, 

Illinois between February 11 

and March 5 1992. 

Analysis revealed multiple immunological 

anomalies 9 to 14 years 

after the exposure. The testing 

included lymphocyte phenotype frequency 

measurements, functional 

testing of natural killer (NK) ability 

and responses to mitogens, serum 

immunoglobulin levels, autoantibody 

detection and measurement of 

viral antibody titers. 

Cytotoxic T cells (CD8), 

Interleukin 2-receptor bearing T cells 

and Natural Killer (NK) cells (CD3- 

/CD16,56) were present in 

higher frequency in the 

children than in controls. 

There was also an increased 

frequency of early B cells 

(CD19) and paradoxically, a 

significant decrease in the 

frequency of light bearing B 

cells in the children. 

The helper induced T cell 

subpopulation (CD29/CD4) 

was very significantly 

reduced in the children. 

The particular finding was 

previously reported in 

TCDD exposed monkeys by 

Neubert. 

Female NK function was 

increased compared to controls 

in the children. The 

mitogenic responses to 

human lymphocytes was significantly 

elevated in the children. 

Auto-antibodies (anti-smooth 

muscle) were detected in 75% of the 

children’s sera. Two were deficient 

in serum 1gA, but overall, the children 

demonstrated above normal levels 

of serum 1gC and 1gM. 

1gG anti-viral antibodies were detected 

to HSV-1 (Herpes) (31% incidence), 

HSV-2 (25%) CMV 

(Cytomegalovirus) (19%) and EBV 

(Epstein Barr) (75%). 

The deficiency in the helper inducer 

T cell subset and the surprising 

incidence of anti-viral antibody are 

evidence of immune system dysregulation. 

This is further supported by 

the hypergammaglobulininemia, the 

evidence of T cell activation, the 

increased responses to mitogens and 

in NK cell function in girls. 

Similar, but not identical, characteristics 

of immune dysregulation 

have been noted in children and 

adults, exposed to pentachlorophenol 

in the home environment, in children 

exposed to chlordane/heptachlor in a 

school environment and in adults liv- 

Gerson Smoger address's the delegates of the 

2nd Citizens Conference on Dioxin in St. Louis 

watched by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. 

ing in a highly industrial chemically 

contaminated environment. 

Organochlorine exposure, in general, 

can lead to dysregulation of the 

human immune system including 

one or more, or all of the following 

immunodeficiency, inappropriate T 

cell activation, autoinununity, and 

hypo or hypergammaglobulinemia. 

The mechanism of this remains 

undescribed. 

1. Memorial Medical Center, Southern 

Illinois University School of Medicine 

2. Immunox Research, Edwardville IL. 

3. Smoger and Associates, Walnut 

Valley, CA 


© R Ryder 

31

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A Beginners Guide to Dioxin Part One - Durham Environment Watch

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