Thread: Agent Orange in Your Backyard

I get a kick out of propaganda and fear mongering

This problem is poised to get worse -- Dow Agrosciences has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to approve genetically modified corn that would allow farmers to spray the entire crop with large amounts of 2,4-D (without harming the corn);



like farmers are going to put the product on they fields 3 inches thick

Originally Posted by tomwilli

Agent Orange in Your Backyard: The Harmful Pesticide 2,4-D


Agent Orange in Your Backyard: The Harmful Pesticide 2,4-D - Gina Solomon - Health - The Atlantic

Author obviously did not finish their research...
Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. in the Vietnam War, was equal parts 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D.
2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), a synthetic auxin, is a chlorophenoxy acetic acid herbicide used to defoliate broad-leafed plants.
2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is a common systemic pesticide/herbicide used in the control of broadleaf weeds. It is the most widely used herbicide in the world, and the third most commonly used in North America.

Herbicides
The herbicides used were sprayed up to 50 times the concentration that would have been use in normal agricultural use. The most common herbicide used was Herbicide Orange, more commonly referred to as Agent Orange, a fifty-fifty mixture of two herbicides 2,4-D (2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid). The other most common color coded herbicides used were Agent Blue (cacodylic acid) that was primarily used against food crops and Agent White (picloram) often used when Agent Orange was not available.
The Agents used, known as the rainbow herbicides, their active ingredients and years used were as follow :

• Agent Pink (60% – 40% n-Butyl : isobutyl ester of 2,4,5-T) used in 1961, 1965
• Agent Green (n-Butyl ester 2,4,5-T) unclear when used but believed to be at the same time as Pink
• Agent Purple (50% n-Butyl Ester 2,4-D, 30% n-Butyl ester 2,4,5-T, 20% isobutyl ester 2,4,5-T) used from 1962–1965
• Agent Blue (Cacodylic acid and sodium Cacodylate) used from 1962 – 1971 (in powder and water solution)
• Agent White (acid weight basis :21.2% tri-isopropanolamine salts of 2,4-D and 5.7% picloram) used from 1966–1971
• Agent Orange (50% n-Butyl ester 2,4-D and 50% -Butyl ester 2,4,5-T) used from 1965–1970

The herbicides were procured by the US Army from :

• Dow Chemical Company (all but Blue)
• Monsanto Company (Orange, Purple and Pink)
• Hercules Inc. (Orange and Purple)
• Thompson-Hayward Chemical Company (Orange and Pink)
• Diamond Alkali/Shamrock Company (Orange, Blue, Purple and Pink)
• US Rubber Company (Orange)
• Thompson Chemicals Corporation (Orange and Pink)
• Agrisect Company (Orange and Purple)
• Hoffman-Taft Inc (Orange)
• Ansul Chemical Company (Blue)

65% of the herbicides used contained 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid that was found to have been contaminated with 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin a known human carcinogen. About 12 million gallons of dioxin contaminated herbicides were sprayed over Southeast Asia during American combat operations. In 2005, the New Zealand Government confirmed that it supplied Agent Orange chemicals to the United States Army during the conflict. Since the early 1960s, and up until 1987, it manufactured the 2,4,5T herbicide at a plant in New Plymouth, which was then shipped to US Army bases in South East Asia.