Hold Monsanto and Dow Corporations Accountable for the Effects of Agent Orange
Petitions, Politics — By Kelly Hamilton on January 5, 2012 2:26 pmTarget: Hugh Grant, Chairman, President and CEO of Monsanto Company; Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman, President, and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company
Goal: Acknowledge the role these companies played in negatively affecting the lives of countless Vietnamese and American victims. Properly compensate all victims and their families for continued health issues.
It was in the midst of America’s occupation of Vietnam, when U.S. forces were looking for ways to clear the densely forested fields and gain a better vantage of their targets, that they looked to biotechnological engineering for the greater edge. What they received was nothing short of a miracle…and a curse.
Agent Orange, a biochemical herbicide, was developed by biotechnology companies Monsanto and Dow (two big names among many), and dispersed heavily over vast areas of the Vietnamese landscape: leveling the foliage and working to its intended purpose. However, after the area was cleared, some viciously debilitating symptoms and diseases began to emerge in those operating in or around the affected areas. Cancers, birth deformities, and other long-lingering ailments have plagued thousands of Americans and Vietnamese, both past and present.
Now, these symptoms are still trickling down through the generations and appearing in the families of victims 50 years after its use. And yet, to this day, not one company/government has stepped forward to take the blame for the atrocities plagued upon these numerous victims. In 2004, a group of Vietnamese victims joined together to take Monsanto, Dow, and other Agent Orange producing corporations, to court over their blatant “war crimes.” With some fancy legal prowess, these large corporations twisted their way out of any real repercussions and settled out of court with a settlement which seemed more like a “sell out.”
For half a century these domineering companies have been able to walk over the victims of their devices and have gotten away with it: barely paying a pittance of their combined annual revenue to the victims. By no logical means would any person in this country be able to get away with this type of genocide, in the same way that companies like Monsanto and The Dow Chemical Company have been able to for years.
For five decades, countless Vietnamese and American citizens have fallen victim to the gruesomely brutal after effects from the use of Agent Orange on the fields of Vietnam. Agent Orange has proven to filter its way through generations, leaving a streak of various cancers, birth deformities, and diseases in its wake.
Agent Orange has had lasting health defects on the many that have come into contact with, or have been the offspring of those who have, this biochemical terror. Yet, when any organized group has strained to achieve financial compensation in the form of health benefits, they have been brushed aside by laughable settlements.
This is not acceptable. Too many have suffered and continue to suffer with no set end in sight for them or their loved ones. On behalf of those victims and for those in the future, I urge you to act. Compensate those whose health has been adversely affected by your product—Agent Orange.
Sincerely,
[Your name will go here]
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5 Comments
My brother was in Vietnam and expose to Agent Orange. He talked about how it worked to destroy groundcover that hte Vietnamise used to hide in and how it killed the animals that got in it’s way. and didn’t come back the same.
I realize that the experiences of war makes all soliders different. Be impossible to see what they see and do what they have to do and not have it change you.
When he left he wasn’t involved with drugs, when he returned, he was a junkie.
He od in a rice patty and barely survived.
The Army contacted my parents and told them what had happened, he was in a field hospital and would be sent home, if he survived.
Weeks went by and my parents called everyone and everywhere to find him. The Army really gave them the run a round. The Army switched them from one person to another.
A few weeks after the call from the Army, I passed him in the store and did not recognize him!!
My husband did and told me that we had just passed him and I went to look, it was him. He looked like a walking dead man. He is pretty tall at 6’4″ but couldn’t have weighed more than 125-130.
I asked him why he had not called our parents and how worried they are.
He told me he did not want them to see him this way, he was ashamed. I told him the only thing that would matter to them was that he is alive and home.
Before he left, he was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. After he came home and my parents convinced him to go to the VA Hospital. They kept him almost 30 days but released him several days before the deadline. After 30 days he would have been able to get assistant from the army. So for 18 years they bounced him in and out, but he never got any better.
He now lives in the country and keeps to himself. he still has flashbacks and night terrors and sometimes he’s just not there.
They fought and minipulated for 18 years and then finally, he started receiving some assistant, way below the povety line, but something, and mental help. He is doing pretty well, but still has some very serious mental problems.
We should be ashamed of the way we treat people who go to defend us and our country.
And Seniors, shame on us.
I had a fraction of that experience with my half-brother, who was a Green Beret. Vietnam destroyed his mind. It is heart breaking.
Chemical warfare is illegal, and Monsanto needs to stop evading penalties and be accountable. I’ve heard they change their corporate structure and rename themselves to avoid litigation. They were paid with our tax dollars, and need to come clean.
That is tragic. I am an agent orange cancer victim also. The thing is…no one cares anymore. (except families of those affected and other veterans. And I suffer from PTSD and depression and other problems, and can’t even get Social Security Disability, because they don’t care. As long as you can breathe, you can work, according to them.
Monsant and other chemical companies should be able to be sued by the victums of agent orange agent, orange isn;t going away and neither should the right to sue them the VA said that i was exposed and I have sores all over my body alot of the vets weren;t aware of the suite they weren’t told probally for a reasonMonsanto must have paid the judges off to block future suites while the rest comtaminated can’t do a thing about Big <Money has its way again
Sorry, Not the best at spelling but meant manipulated
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