Dioxins

[Larry Caldwell]

In article <6vr40t$hme$1 at nnrp1.dejanews.com>, tapiam at my-dejanews.com 
says...

> > The manufacturer and all the military personnel who used it always said that
> > A.O. was harmless.  The wake of its destruction in Vietnam is still noticeable
> > now two decades later.
 
> A.O was used as a weapon, the philosophy of its use was more related to a
> napalm attack to an enemy than a modern farmer using a pesticide in the farm
> where he and his family live. The objective of the use , the handling , the
> precautions during the production and sale of the product are completely
> different

Military surplus Agent Orange was used in the USA by the Forest Service 
for about 3 years in the early 70's.  Even at that time, it was not 
approved for use on food crops or on humans.  Once they got the 
preliminary results on the danger of dioxin residues, they quit using it 
even for military purposes.  The main ingredient, 2,4-5-T, is no longer 
manufactured because it proved impossible to manufacture without traces 
of dioxins.

The chemicals (Orange was a mix) themselves were safe enough.  It was the 
trace contaminants that proved to be the problem.