Agent Orange-Veterans' Lawsuits

Emotional charges have been made that wartime use of chemical defoliants in Vietnam may have resulted, or some day will result, in increased numbers of birth defects in the children of Vietnam veterans and / or in health problems for veterans themselves. This is not a new charge. It was fully explored by a committee selected by the National Academy of Sciences in 1974. The committee's report concluded that there was "no conclusive evidence of association between exposure to herbicides and birth defects in humans in South Vietnam."

The major constituents of Agent Orange—2,4,5-T (containing trace amounts of TCDD) and 2,4-D—have been the subjects of thousands of scientific papers and technical articles over a 30-year span. These studies show that the phenoxy herbicides are not significantly hazardous to human or animal life under normal conditions of use and even under conditions of substantial misuse.

Twenty-two lawsuits on behalf of Vietnam veterans now have been filed against Dow and five other global corporations that produced Agent Orange. The suits charge negligence on the part of the manufacturers. They are being contested vigorously.