April 2020
The chemical 2,4,5-T was used in the United States from the mid 1940s through the 1970s by ranchers, farmers, timber companies, the U.S. Forest Service and others to kill plants and weeds that interfered with the growth of trees and crops. Until the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a limited order banning the defoliant in 1979, it was the most heavily used plant and weed killer in the country.
The EPA ban was issued nine years after the U.S. Air Force stopped spraying Agent Orange, a mixture of 2,4,5-T and another chemical called 2,4-D, in Vietnam during the Vietnam Conflict. The spraying ended after mothers reported losing their babies before they were born or giving birth to deformed infants. Tests on mice and rats performed under U.S. Government contracts suggested the chemicals in Agent Orange, especially a substance called dioxin, were responsible.
American soldiers exposed to the chemical during the war blamed it for many of their health problems, including skin rashes, cancers, memory losses, and offspring born with serious and rare birth defects.
Over time and after many legal battles, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs finally recognized certain cancers and a long list of other health problems associated with exposure to Agent Orange and begin compensating veterans and their survivors. However, the controversy over who should receive the benefits raged on into 2019 and finally culminated when Congress awarded them to naval personnel exposed to the chemical during the war.
Reports of similar health problems to those claimed by the veterans were made by others exposed to the chemicals from spraying in the U.S. One controversy over the chemical's use occurred in Northern California in the late 1970s when local citizens protested the use of 2,4,5-T by the U.S. Forest Service. At one time, more than half the women of Denny, California, a small community surrounded by national forest, claimed to have been affected by the spray. They reported high numbers of miscarriages, unexplained illnesses and deformed babies.
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WOLVES DON'T TALK
FantasyCarmen is lost in the California redwood forest and a pair of bright orange eyes are glaring at her in the dark, flicking on and off like the sparks hanging in the air over a camp fire. "Who are you? Are you good to eat?" the eyes demand. Then...
