Queensland, Australia.... drenched in 245-T (Main ingredient of Agent Orange)
Subject: Chemical scare for state
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 15:24:31 -0500
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Chemical scare for state
Glenis Green 15jan02
BULK quantities of highly toxic herbicides blamed for deaths in Western Australia may have ended up in Queensland, it was revealed yesterday.
A spokesman for Primary Industries and Rural Communities Minister Henry Palaszczuk said allegations that thousands of kilograms of a deadly batch of 245T had entered Queensland in the 1970s had been referred to the department.
Fears that Queensland may have received and used most of the toxic batch were raised yesterday by Sunshine Coast women Jean Williams and Susan Porter.
Mrs Williams is a campaigner for defoliant-affected Vietnam veterans while Mrs Porter's brother, Dallas Guy, was a part-time weed sprayer who died from leukemia seven years ago.
Mrs Williams said the chemical batch, which would have been earmarked for making the Vietnam defoliant Agent Orange, was laced with 200 times the then-acceptable limit of dioxin. She said evidence presented by Ben Slinger, of the Australian National University's chemistry department, and Peter Hall, of the ANU department of statistics, to a Senate inquiry in December 1981 and February 1982 indicated the Agent Orange hybrid was imported to Western Australia and Queensland from Singapore.
Dr Hall told the Senate inquiry the material was allegedly imported as a less harmful substance.
However, he said, analysis of the substance showed it to be almost pure 245T.
Mrs Williams, the author of four books on the health problems of Vietnam veterans, and the winner of two human rights awards, said the company involved in the importation had gone bankrupt due to its damaging environmental practices and the owner was deceased.
She said the Queensland Government should follow the example of the WA Government which last week ordered a full investigation into claims the toxic chemical batch had made its way into weed-spraying programs now blamed for serious illnesses, deaths and birth deformities.
Mrs Williams said questions would have to be asked about the high incidence of leukemia around Emerald, the health problems and deaths of forestry workers on the Sunshine Coast and the incidence of miscarriages in some sugarcane-growing areas.
"Where are the drums, empty or otherwise, located?" she asked.
Mrs Porter, of Eumundi, said revelations that the chemical batch apparently came to Queensland could go some way towards explaining the death of her older brother, aged 43, in 1994.
She said her brother, a builder, worked for six months as a part-time weed sprayer operating a boom sprayer in the Beerwah Forestry in 1975.
Mrs Porter said he contracted leukemia when he was 39 and despite two bone marrow transplants died four years later.
Mr Palaszczuk's spokesman said any such imports would have been a Federal Government responsibility and if the drums had been falsely labelled, as claimed, then tracing their movements would be difficult.
"We've referred the matter to the department to see if there are any records but we have no records of it (the rogue batch) at this stage," he said.
Two of the major ingredients of the defoliant Agent Orange were 24D and 245T.
While the less toxic 24D is still registered for use in Australia in more than 100 products, mostly herbicides, 245T was banned as part of a phase-out of organochlorines in the last 20 years.
The manufacture of 245T gave rise to long-lasting poisonous by-products, known as dioxins, which accumulate in the food chain.
© Queensland NewspapersState hunt for toxic 245-T
Glenis Green
16jan02
THE State Government will scour its records to discover whether more than 120 tonnes of a contaminated batch of herbicide 2,4,5-T - used in the defoliant Agent Orange - was sent to Queensland.
A spokesman for Primary Industries Minister Henry Palaszczuk last night conceded the Government did not know whether the batch had arrived in the state in the 1970s.
The spokesman said the Government had no record of the toxic herbicide being used but warned that the batch had been deliberately mislabelled.
A batch of 2,4,5-T with 200 times the then allowed level of dioxin was used in Western Australia in the 1970s. Emeritus Professor Ben Selinger said yesterday he believed Queensland had received 10 times the amount sent to Western Australia. Professor Selinger, of the Australian National University, has decades of experience studying herbicides.
The batch, originally earmarked for making Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War, had its dioxin levels raised after being exposed to a warehouse fire in Singapore. Instead of being destroyed, it was mislabelled as potassium salt of trichlorophenol, or KTCP, to avoid tariffs and imported as a herbicide into Australia.
"Someone was making a lot of money," Professor Selinger said.
The deception was uncovered after a bureaucrat who worked for the then tariff board offered a sample of the batch from his garage for analysis. This revealed that it was not KTCP, but almost pure 2,4,5-T with 26 parts per million dioxin, about 2000 times today's acceptable levels.
The West Australian Government has begun an investigation into allegations of links between the herbicide and deaths, illnesses and birth defects.
Professor Selinger said he believed part of the batch had made its way to Queensland and had been used as a herbicide. He said about 136 tonnes entered Australia in the 1970s and about 10 tonnes made its way to Western Australia. The remainder had been distributed in Queensland for weed-spraying programs, particularly in cotton growing areas.
Mr Palaszczuk's spokesman said that the State Government took such claims very seriously and would examine department records for evidence. He said it was unlikely any more of the batch of chemicals could still exist in Queensland because the rural sector had generally moved away from using chemicals in the past decade.
Professor Selinger said he believed the Queensland consignment of the batch had probably been widely used for weed control. He said anecdotal evidence indicated the batch was so potent it had a consistency of honey and blocked weed-spraying nozzles. He also said widespread spraying of the rogue batch could have skewed multimillion-dollar studies into the effects of chemical defoliants on Vietnam War veterans. Members of the control group in the studies would have also been affected by exposure to the rogue weed sprays.
Opposition Leader Mike Horan said the Government had an obligation to take all reasonable steps to ascertain whether the chemicals were used in Queensland.
"They really just need to find out if it was used and, if it was used, would there have been any effect on humans or anything to do with the environment and whether some 30 years later any effect remains," Mr Horan said.
On Tuesday, Sunshine Coast woman Jean Williams, a campaigner for Vietnam veterans, raised the possibility that Queensland might have received and used most of the toxic batch.
privacy (c) Queensland Newspapers
State forests used 245-T
Siobhain Ryan and Chris Jones
17jan02
UP to five million hectares in Queensland, including the state's crown forests, could have been sprayed with the now-banned chemical 245-T.
A government report obtained yesterday revealed that the 4.2 million ha of exotic, hoop pine and native forests were "heavily dependent" on the use of 245-T, implicated in a growing contamination scare.
The chemical, which was used in the manufacture of the defoliant Agent Orange, was also a common treatment across a further 770,000 ha of Queensland brigalow pastures and 112,000 ha of sugar cane. Its wide use is confirmed in a 1981 Land Administration Commission report.
The revelations come as the search continues in Queensland and Western Australia for records about 1500 200-litre drums of 245-T, believed to contain cancer-causing dioxins at more than 200 times the acceptable levels.
Australian National University scientists, who told a Senate inquiry of the rogue batch, were reportedly refused access to data on the imported chemicals 20 years ago on confidentiality grounds.
However, the LAC report revealed that, under 1973 poisons regulations, no licences or restrictions applied to the sale of herbicides using 245-T and no record of sale was required.
In 1981, the Queensland Cabinet committee charged with probing the health effects of 245-T exposure found no evidence that its continued use would "in any way harm the health and well-being of any members of the general public".
The chemical, later banned, had been in use by the 1980s for 30 years and was registered in Queensland for use on 93 weed types.
The LAC report estimated that "virtually all first-year plant (sugar) cane is sprayed with 24-D or 245-T". "This area amounts to 112,000 ha." It also noted that "one of the most important uses of 245-T is in the control of brigalow regrowth".
"In the brigalow development areas it is estimated that of the 1.1 million ha being developed, over 70 per cent has a regrowth problem. One treatment for this is to spray 245-T from the air".
The State Government spent about $3.5 million a year in crown forests on weed control, with 245-T forming a major part of its armoury.
Gold Coast resident Andrew Rayner said yesterday from Wesley Hospital that he was convinced his cancer stemmed from a decade working with the herbicide. Mr Rayner said he had spent from 1963 to 1973, mostly in NSW and Canberra, spraying 245-T without protective clothing and with "very, very sketchy" chemical use instructions.
"We were totally covered in it all day and every day," he said. The herbicide was applied, with little dilution, from misting machines strapped to the back of workers, Mr Rayner said. "We would kill (plants) without being near them - just the smell of it."
A spokesman for Primary Industries Minister Henry Palaszczuk said yesterday the search for any missing, dioxin-laced drums of 245-T would be comprehensive. He called on federal customs to release their records.
Families of dead men seek 245-T inquiry
privacy (c) Queensland Newspapers
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