Agent Orange discoverer tries to make amends
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He didn't even get credit for its model, a defoliant he developed as a Yet four decades after the toxic compound began ravaging plants, and then
people, Galston speaks about the topic like a man
out to make amends. "I feel this responsibility," Galston,
who lives in At the HCC art gallery, surrounded by a black-and-white photo exhibit
depicting people poisoned by Agent Orange, Galston
urged those in the small audience planning careers in science to know that
anything they do could some day be used in a harmful way. "Look at me — I was a botanist," said Galston.
"I inadvertently found something which, further developed, was used as
an instrument of war." All these years later, Galston, 85, a scientist
and professor emeritus at His lecture drew people new to the topic as well as people fighting to get
reparations for the victims of Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant used to
clear the jungle during World War II and the Vietnam War. It was later blamed for cancer and a host of other ailments. "I never knew," said Katrina Haravata,
19, a Housatonic student originally from the Galston told her Agent Orange was named after
the orange stripe painted around the 55-gallon drums used to store the
chemical. Also attending were Hau Nguyen and Tuan Le,
journalists from a The case was dismissed in a "I will do everything I can to help, but it's a tough job. It's not
going to be easy to convince a court of law," he said. Although Vietnamese scientists have good statistical data to show people
in villages that were sprayed with Agent Orange have much higher rates of
cancer and malformed babies, the scientific data to confirm that Agent Orange
was the cause are scarce. "You cannot experiment on humans," he said. Agent Orange got its start as a defoliant during World War II when
scientists discovered they could regulate the growth of plants through the
infusion of various chemicals and hormones. The military was out to get rid of dense forests that often
shielded the enemy. Galston, a graduate student working on a
doctorate at the He was successful in finding a compound that produced flowering two weeks
earlier. But he discovered if he used too high a concentration, it also made
the leaves fall off as he noted in his thesis before heading off to serve in
World War II. He returned to find that someone else had read his work and had the idea
patented. His compound and others were the basis for Agent Orange. By the time the Vietnam War arrived, it was ready for use. Millions of
gallons were sprayed over Valuable teak trees and mangrove swamps along the estuaries of the delta
south of Once aware of the ecological damage the chemical was causing, Galston and other scientists went to They began to wonder about the effects on people and animals. When they
returned, a committee was formed to study the impact of the spraying. A November 1967 study Galstonled was unable to
come to firm conclusions about Agent Orange but advised its continued use
might "be harmful" and have unforeseen consequences. The spraying was stopped in 1970 after Galston
and others successfully appealed to the Nixon administration. "That was an important victory," he said, adding that the war
continued until 1975, and the decision to stop using Agent Orange
"probably averted a good deal of damage." Still, damage has run into the billions. To this day, the "I consider it a matter of conscience that our wealthy country,
having produced so much damage, should take some action," he said. In 1990, Galston helped to organize a Bioethics
Project at Yale and is a member of the Society for Social Responsibility in
Science. He has had more than 300 scientific articles published. "Agent Orange: Collateral Damage in Linda Conner Lambeck, who covers regional
education issues, can be reached at330-6218. |