U.K. used dioxin in Malaya — journal

Press, 24 January 1984, Page 4

U.K. used dioxin in Malaya — journal

NZPA-Reuter London Britain sprayed Malayan crops with a herbicide containing the deadly contaminant, dioxin, during its campaign against communist guerrillas there in the early 19505, says a British scientific journal.

Much of the herbicide was almost identical to the deadly Agent Orange used in the Vietnam war, and the action is disclosed in British Government records just released under a 30-year secrecy rule, the “New Scientist” reports.

British scientists worked closely with military authorities to develop techniques for spraying roadside vegetation and “enemy” crops during the Malayan emergency.

Army chiefs were worried that guerrillas could hide in

the vegetation and ambush passing convoys, the journal said.

The British Government advised its embassies around the world at the time that the herbicides were harmless to human and animal life, but it was almost certain that the mixture then made was heavily contaminated with dioxin. The mixture contained 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy-acetic acid (2,4,5-T). “Chemists synthesised dioxin for the first time in 1957, and recognised that it was always produced during the manufacture of the herbicide 2,4,5-T,” the journal said. “At the same time, they found that tiny quantities of dioxin caused the chronic skin complaint chloracne, a disfiguring disease which can persist for up to 15

years after exposure to dioxin. The chemical also causes cancer and congenital abnormalities in embryos at low doses."

The “New Scientist” said that a detailed account of how the British experimented with the spraying of herbicides was written in 1953 by two scientists, Professor Howard Kearns, of the University of Bristol, and Professor E. K. Woodford, of the Agricultural Research Council’s unit of experimental agronomy. They concentrated on the

events leading to the spraying of vegetation that lined the roadsides of Malaya in the early 1950 s and described how closely Imperial Chemical Industries worked with the British Government on the project.