THE ANATOMY OF AGENT ORANGE

Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant. It is intended to remove the leaves of vegetation wherever man feels that is necessary. Railroad lines, walking trails, power corridors are all examples. In Vietnam the Americans decided that the jungle trails with their overhanging foliage were providing way too much visual coverage for the Vietnamese transporation routes. Therefore the U.S. military through their government contracted with U.S. and Canadian chemical companies to produce a product that would defoliate and hence expose these transportation corridors to aerial strafing and bombardment. Mankind however in their infinite arrogance thought that they could screw with nature again and walk away unscathed. The reality was Agent orange was so toxic it killed, maimed and destroyed generations of human beings, Vietnamese and American.

Agent Orange consists of a combination of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. This is 2,4 Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4,5 Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid. On their own these are two powerful herbicides. The unknown kicker was a manmade contaminant primarily within the 2,4,5-T. Dioxins are also known as chlorinated dibenzo dioxins. The most toxic is 2,3,7,8 TCDD otherwise known as 2,3,7,8 Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin. It is carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic. It literally through an exposed individual can cause horrific birth defects two and three generations down the road. American, Vietnamese and indeed Canadians are not immune.

Here in Elmira Uniroyal Chemical (Chemtura) produced Agent Orange for the U.S. military in the 1960's. Uniroyal handled their wastes, overflow and spillage of Agent Orange in the same responsible, intelligent and far reaching fashion as they did all their other chemical wastes. In other words they did not discriminate. They intentionally allowed waste pits on the banks of the Canagagigue Creek to overflow and discharge. They buried sludges, drums, solids and liquids on their site. They fantasized that either God or the soil fairies would magically breakdown and transform their poisons into nutrients and fertilizers. As a result some of the most toxic chemicals known to mankind have been slowly leaking, leaching and outright flowing downstream for decades. This isn't even mentioning the wonderful poison that has gone vertically downwards into our drinking water aquifers.

Now with the assistance and cooperation of one of the most useless, impotent Ministry's of the province of Ontario (M.O.E.) they wish to scrape one foot of soil away and then cap the rest of the Dioxins and DDT which even at the surface are above the Human Health Based Cleanup Criteria. They and their co-conspirators will try and publicly defend this atrocity tonight in the Woolwich Council chambers at 6 pm.. Come out and watch the "suits" perform their death dance.