Defoliant effects probed

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 9

Defoliant effects probed

NZPA Hanoi The professor of medicine matter of factly displayed a grossly deformed baby and explained its problems — no legs, a brain protruding outside the skull, and missing hands and arms.

The professor is Vietnamese and is working in a Hanoi hospital which is attempting scientifically to show the world the effects of chemical warfare.

While Australia has just begun its own Royal Commission into the possible effects on former servicemen of defoliants used by the United States during the Vietnam war, the country on which it was sprayed is still battling to come up with conclusive statistics and convince the world that it should be a subject of international investigation. Professor Ton Due Lang, of Viet-Duc Hospital, conceded that Vietnamese research on birth defects and environmental damage has a long way to go, but his patients would make the greatest sceptic think twice. They are willing to offer complete co-operation to the Australian inquiry, Official United States figures place the amount of Agent Orange sprayed on Vietnam at 44 million litres between 1966 and 1971.

People such as Dr Lang have devoted the years since then trying to provide the scientific rather than the emotional link.

On the one hand, they have a dramatic increase in

the number of birth defects and environmental problems which have given rise to an explosion in the rat population, making plague a major disease in the south. On the other hand is a scientific world which offers no conclusive evidence of a link between certain chemicals and birth defects or certain types of cancer. The first international symposium on the use of chemicals in war was held in Ho Chi Minh City in January this year and involved 21 countries. It concluded that the studies being conducted in Vietnam were of the greatest interest and importance because of its extreme exposure to chemical warfare. All of the chemical warfare agents used by the United States were sprayed over an area of about 38,000 sq km, Agent Orange making up about 80 per cent. Dr Lang said the disturbing frequency of birth defects was quickly noted by Vietnamese doctors soon after the first sprayings, but serious studies were only possible after 1975. In one heavily sprayed area, 16 per cent of births showed congenital abnormalities and in an unsprayed study area the figure was 2.58 per cent. Miscarriages in the sprayed area were almost 30 per cent higher. Hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City noted that over all the rate of miscarriages had reached 18.14 per cent in

1978, compared with 0.45 per cent in 1952. Dr Lang said the main deformities were babies born without arms or legs, missing hands or feet, and cleft palates. He had also noted a marked increase in the number of Siamese twins. Siamese twins occur at a rate of one in 25 births. Dr Lang has treated seven cases since 1975. Cancer of the liver has also begun to concern Vietnamese doctors.

Dr Lang said that from 1955 to 1961 there were 159 cases of liver cancer out of a total of 5492 cancer cases. From 1962 to 1968 there were 791 cases.

Apart from the human tragedy faced by Vietnamese doctors they face a second major battle with contagious diseases which they said are a result of the environmental damage caused by Agent Orange. Where large ' tracts of trees have been destroyed, bamboo and grass have taken over.

Professor Vo Quy, an environmental scientist at Hanoi University, said this had provided a perfect breeding ground for rats, and outbreaks of plague now covered most of South Vietnam. Other environmental effects are only beginning to show up. Scientists have had to allow more than a decade to monitor the effects of the chemicals being washed into river systems

and travelling through the food chain. Dr Lang and Professor Quy admitted that their studies have a long way to goThey are dealing with an international scientific community which demands scientifically controlled and conclusive statistics and evidence. A lack of statistics on birth defects and difficulties in covering the harsh Vietnamese terrain will put any

of their efforts up for major questioning. However, this year’s international syposium on the subject has called for a world-wide co-operative effort on the studies. It is unlikely that Vietnam’s experts will put their case to Australia’s Royal Commission, although the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Bill Hayden, told Government leaders during his visit to Hanoi that such an inquiry was being conducted.