Hello %username%.
Congratulations: and I continue to poison your brain with information about a wide variety of poisons - strong and not so.
Today we will talk about the topic that, as it turned out, is of interest to the majority - this has already become obvious, especially since the organizer of the competition removed the closest competitor for non-compliance with WADA standards. Well, as usual, after the text there will be a vote on whether to continue and what to continue.
Remember, %username%, now only you determine whether I should continue to tell such stories and what to talk about - this is the rating of the article and your own vote.
So…
"Yellow Rain"
Yellow rain beats on the roofs
On asphalt and on leaves,
I stand in a raincoat and get wet in vain.
— Chizh and Co.
The history of "yellow rain" is the history of epicfail. The name “yellow rain” arose from the events in Laos and North Vietnam that began in 1975, when two governments that were allied with and supported the Soviet Union fought against the Hmong and Khmer Rouge rebels who sided with the United States and South Vietnam. The funny thing is that the Khmer Rouge mainly studied in France and Cambodia, and the movement was replenished by teenagers of 12-15 years old, who lost their parents and hated the townspeople as "accomplices of the Americans." Their ideology was based on Maoism, the rejection of everything Western and modern. Yes, %username%, in 1975 the establishment of democracy was no different from today.
As a result, in 1982, United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused the Soviet Union of supplying some kind of toxin to the communist states in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for use in the fight against insurgency. Allegedly, the refugees described many cases of chemical attacks, including a sticky yellow liquid falling from planes or helicopters, which was called "yellow rain".
Under the "yellow rain" was considered the T-2 toxin - a trichothecene mycotoxin produced during the metabolism of Fusarium mold toxins, which is extremely toxic to eukaryotic organisms - that is, everything except bacteria, viruses and archaea (do not be offended if you are called a eukaryote!) . This toxin causes limentary toxic agranulocytosis and multiple symptoms of organ damage when it comes into contact with the skin, lungs, or stomach. Animals can also be poisoned at the same time (the so-called T-2 toxicosis).
Here is the handsome T-2
The story was urgently inflated, and T-2 toxins were classified as biological agents, which are officially recognized as being capable of being used as biological weapons.
A 1997 textbook issued by the US Army Medical Department claimed that more than ten thousand people had been killed in chemical weapons attacks in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan. Descriptions of the attacks were varied and included aerosol cans and aerosols, booby traps, artillery shells, rockets and grenades that produced droplets of liquid, dust, powders, smoke or "insect-like" materials in yellow, red, green, white or Brown color.
The Soviets denied the US claims and the initial United Nations investigation was inconclusive. In particular, UN experts examined two refugees who claimed to be suffering from the effects of a chemical attack, but were instead diagnosed with fungal skin infections.
In 1983, Harvard biologist and bioweapons opponent Matthew Meselson and his team traveled to Laos and conducted a separate investigation. Meselson's team noted that trichothecene mycotoxins occur naturally in the region and questioned the testimony. They put forward the alternative hypothesis that the yellow rain was harmless bee feces. Meselson's team offered the following as evidence:
The individual "yellow raindrops" that were found on the leaves and which were "accepted as genuine" consisted mostly of pollen. Each drop contained a different mixture of pollen grains—as would be expected if they came from different bees—and the grains exhibited properties characteristic of pollen digested by bees (the protein inside the pollen grain disappeared, but the outer, indigestible shell remained). In addition, the pollen mixture came from plant species typical of the area where the drop was collected.
The US government became very upset, offended, and reacted to these findings, claiming that the pollen was intentionally added to make a substance that can be easily inhaled and "ensure the retention of toxins in the human body." Meselson responded to the idea by stating that it was rather far-fetched to imagine that someone would manufacture chemical weapons by "collecting pollen digested by bees". The fact that the pollen originated in Southeast Asia meant that the Soviet Union could not produce this substance domestically, and would have to import tons of pollen from Vietnam (perhaps in jars of Zvezdochka balm? I should have told Meselson!) . Meselson's work was described in an independent medical review as "compelling evidence that 'yellow rain' may have a common natural explanation."
Following the release of the bee hypothesis, suddenly (as usual) an earlier Chinese article about a yellow droppings phenomenon in Jiangsu Province in September 1976 surfaced. It's amazing that the Chinese people also used the term "yellow rain" to describe this phenomenon (and now talk about the richness of the Chinese language!). Many villagers believed that the yellow dung was an omen of an imminent earthquake. Others believed the droppings were chemical weapons sprayed by the Soviet Union or Taiwan. However, Chinese scientists also concluded that the droppings came from bees.
Analyzes of alleged "yellow rain" samples by the British, French and Swedish governments confirmed the presence of pollen and could not detect any traces of mycotoxins. Toxicological studies have questioned the validity of reports that mycotoxins have been found in presumed victims up to two months after exposure, as these compounds are not stable in the body and are cleared from the blood in just a few hours.
In 1982, Meselson visited the Hmong refugee camp with samples of bee droppings he had collected in Thailand. Most of the Hmong interviewed said they were samples of the chemical weapons they were attacked with. One person accurately identified them as insect droppings, but after his comrade took him aside and said something, he switched to the chemical weapons story.
Australian military scientist Rod Barton visited Thailand in 1984 and found that Thai residents blame yellow rain for various ailments, including scabies, as "American doctors in Bangkok report that the United States has a special interest in yellow rain and is providing free medical assistance to all alleged victims."
In 1987, the New York Times prepared an article describing that field studies conducted in 1983–85 by US government teams provided no evidence to support the original "yellow rain" chemical weapon claims, but instead called into question the reliability of initial reports. Unfortunately, in a country of victorious democracy and unheard-of freedoms, this article was censored and not allowed to be published. In 1989, the Journal of the American Medical Association published an analysis of initial reports collected from Hmong refugees, noting "clear inconsistencies that greatly undermined the credibility of the testimony": a US Army team only interviewed people who claimed to have knowledge of the attacks. with the use of chemical weapons, investigators asked only leading questions during interrogations, etc. The authors noted that the stories of individuals changed over time, were inconsistent with other accounts, and that people who claimed to have been eyewitnesses later claimed to have passed on the stories of others. In short, confusion in the testimony in its purest form.
By the way, in this story there are piquant moments. A 1960s CIA report reported on claims by the Cambodian government that their forces had been attacked with a chemical weapon that left behind a yellow powder. The Cambodians blamed the United States for these alleged chemical attacks. Some yellow rain samples collected in Cambodia in 1983 tested positive for CS, a substance used by the United States during the Vietnam War. CS is a form of tear gas and is not toxic, but may explain some of the milder symptoms reported by the Hmong villagers.
However, there were other facts: an autopsy of a Khmer Rouge fighter named Chan Mann, who suffered from an alleged yellow rain attack in 1982, found traces of mycotoxins, as well as aflatoxin, Blackwater fever and malaria. The story was immediately inflated by the US as evidence of the use of "yellow rain", but the reason for this turned out to be quite banal: fungi that produce mycotoxins are very common in Southeast Asia, and poisoning by them is not something unusual. For example, a Canadian military laboratory found mycotoxins in the blood of five people from an area who had never been exposed to "yellow rain" out of 270 tested, but found no mycotoxins in any of the ten alleged victims of the "chemical attack".
It is now recognized that mycotoxin contamination of products such as wheat and corn is a common problem, especially in Southeast Asia. In addition to the natural nature, military actions also aggravated the situation, as the grain began to be stored in unsuitable conditions so that it would not be seized by the warring parties.
Most of the scientific literature on this topic now considers the hypothesis that the "yellow rain" was a Soviet chemical weapon disproved. However, the issue remains controversial and the US government has not retracted these claims. By the way, many US documents relating to this incident remain classified.
Yes, yes, my friend, Colin Powell was most likely just starting his career in those years - but his business lived, so there is nothing to consider that he invented something new - just as there is nothing to consider that the United States every time comes up with some kind of new technology to fight for their interests.
By the way, other historical cases of “yellow rain” hysteria.
- The 2002 bee pollen mass release episode in Sangrampur, India raised unfounded fears of a chemical weapons attack, when in fact it was due to the mass migration of giant Asian bees. This event revived memories of what the New Scientist described as "Cold War paranoia."
- In the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Wall Street Journal claimed that Saddam Hussein had a chemical weapon called "yellow rain". In fact, the Iraqis investigated T-2 mycotoxins in 1990, but only purified 20 ml of the substance from fungal cultures. Even then, a practical conclusion was made that although the T-2 may be suitable for use as a weapon due to its toxic characteristics, it is practically not applicable, since it is extremely difficult to manufacture on an industrial scale.
- On May 23, 2015, shortly before the national holiday of May 24 (the day of Bulgarian literature and culture), yellow rain fell in Sofia, Bulgaria. Everyone quickly decided that the reason was that the Bulgarian government was critical of Russia's actions in Ukraine at that time. A little later, the Bulgarian National Academy BAN explained this event with flower pollen.
In short, the whole world has long ceased to laugh at the topic of "yellow rain", but the United States still does not give up.
"Orange Agent"
Agent Orange is also a fail, but unfortunately not as fun. And there will be no laughter. Sorry, %username%
In general, for the first time herbicides, or as they were called - defoliants - were used during the Malay operation by Great Britain since the early 1950s. June to October 1952 1,250 acres of jungle vegetation were sprayed with defoliant. Chemical giant Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), which produced the defoliant, described Malaya as "a lucrative experimental field."
In August 1961, under pressure from the CIA and the Pentagon, US President John F. Kennedy authorized the use of chemicals to destroy vegetation in South Vietnam. The purpose of the spraying was to destroy the vegetation of the jungle, which would make it easier to detect units of the North Vietnamese army and guerrillas.
Initially, for experimental purposes, South Vietnamese aircraft under the leadership of the US military used defoliant spraying over small forest areas in the Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) region. In 1963, a larger area on the Ca Mau Peninsula (the current territory of the province of Ca Mau) was subjected to defoliant treatment. Having received successful results, the American command began the massive use of defoliants.
By the way, pretty quickly it was no longer just about the jungle: the US military began targeting food crops in October 1962. In 1965, 42% of all herbicide sprays were targeted at food crops.
In 1965, members of the U.S. Congress were told that "crop destruction is understood to be a more important goal ... but when the program is publicly mentioned, the focus is on jungle defoliation." The servicemen were told that they were destroying the crops, because they were supposedly going to feed the partisans with the harvest. It was later discovered and proved that almost all the food that the military destroyed was not produced for the guerrillas; in fact, it was only grown to support the local civilian population. For example, in Quảng Ngai province, 1970% of the cultivated area was destroyed in 85 alone, leaving hundreds of thousands of people suffering from hunger.
As part of Operation Ranch Hand, all areas of South Vietnam, many areas of Laos and Cambodia were exposed to chemical attack. In addition to forests, fields, orchards and rubber plantations were cultivated. Since 1965, defoliants have been sprayed over the fields of Laos (especially in its southern and eastern parts), since 1967 - in the northern part of the demilitarized zone. In December 1971, President Nixon ordered an end to the mass use of herbicides, but their use was allowed away from US military installations and major population centers.
In total, between 1962 and 1971, the US military sprayed about 20 gallons (000 cubic meters) of various chemicals.
Four herbicide formulations were predominantly used by US troops: purple, orange, white, and blue. Their main components were: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), picloram and cacodylic acid. The most actively used orange recipe (against forests) and blue (against rice and other crops) - but in general there were enough “agents”: in addition to orange, pink, purple, blue, white and green were used - the difference was in the ratio of ingredients and color stripes on the barrel. For better dispersion of chemicals, kerosene or diesel fuel was added to them.
The development of the compound in a form ready for tactical use is credited to the laboratory divisions of DuPont Corporation. She is also credited with winning the first contracts for the supply of tactical herbicides, along with Monsanto and Dow Chemical. By the way, the production of this group of chemicals belongs to the category of hazardous production, as a result of which concomitant diseases (often fatal) were received by employees of factories of the above manufacturing companies, as well as residents of settlements, within the city limits or in the vicinity of which production facilities were concentrated .
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)
2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T)
Picloram
Cacodylic acid
The basis for creating the composition of the "agents" was the work of the American botanist Arthur Galston, who subsequently demanded a ban on the use of a mixture that he himself considered chemical weapons. In the early 1940s, Arthur Galston, then a young graduate student at the University of Illinois, investigated the chemical and biological properties of auxins and the physiology of soybean crops, he discovered the effect of 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid on the flowering process of this category of plants. He found in a laboratory way that in high concentrations this acid leads to a weakening of the cellulose fibers at the junction of the stem with the leaves, which leads to leaf fall (defoliation). Galston completed his thesis on a subject of his choice in 1943. and devoted the next three years to research work on the production of rubber products for military needs. Meanwhile, information about the discovery of a young scientist, without his knowledge, was used by military laboratory assistants at the Camp Detrick base (the lead institution of the American biological weapons program) to clarify the prospects for the combat use of chemical defoliants to solve tactical problems (hence the official name of this kind substances - "tactical defoliants" or "tactical herbicides") in the Pacific theater of operations, where American troops faced fierce resistance from Japanese forces, taking advantage of the dense vegetation of the jungle. Galston was shocked when, in 1946, two leading experts from Camp Detrick arrived at him at the California Institute of Technology and solemnly announced that the results of his thesis work served as the basis for current military developments (he, as the author, was entitled to a state award). Subsequently, when the details of the American military intervention in Vietnam in the 1960s. was covered in the press, Galston, feeling his personal responsibility for the development of the "orange agent", demanded an end to the spraying of the substance over the countries of the Indochinese Peninsula. According to the scientist, the use of this drug in Vietnam "shaken his deep faith in the constructive role of science and led him to vigorous opposition to official US policy." As soon as information about the use of the substance reached the scientist in 1966, Galston immediately wrote a speech for his presentation at the annual scientific symposium of the American Society of Plant Physiologists, and when the executive committee of the society refused to give him the floor, Galston began collecting signatures of fellow scientists in private. petition to US President Lyndon Johnson. Twelve scientists wrote in the petition their thoughts on the inadmissibility of the use of "agents" and the potential consequences for the soils and populations of the sprayed areas.
The large-scale use of chemicals by the American troops led to dire consequences. Mangrove forests (500 thousand hectares) were almost completely destroyed, 60% (about 1 million hectares) of the jungle and 30% (more than 100 thousand hectares) of lowland forests were affected. Since 1960, the yield of rubber plantations has decreased by 75%. American troops destroyed from 40% to 100% of the crops of bananas, rice, sweet potatoes, papaya, tomatoes, 70% of coconut plantations, 60% of hevea, 110 thousand hectares of casuarina plantations.
As a result of the use of chemicals, the ecological balance of Vietnam has seriously changed. In the affected areas, out of 150 species of birds, 18 remained, there was an almost complete disappearance of amphibians and insects, and the number of fish in the rivers decreased. The microbiological composition of soils was disturbed, plants were poisoned. The number of tree and shrub species of the humid tropical forest has sharply decreased: in the affected areas there are single species of trees and several species of thorny grasses that are not suitable for livestock feed.
Changes in the fauna of Vietnam led to the displacement of one species of black rats by other species that are carriers of plague in South and Southeast Asia. In the species composition of ticks, tick-borne mites of dangerous diseases appeared. Similar changes have occurred in the species composition of mosquitoes: instead of harmless endemic mosquitoes, malaria carriers have appeared.
But all this fades in the light of the impact on a person.
The fact is that of the four components of the "agents" the most toxic is cacodylic acid. The earliest studies of cacodiles were carried out by Robert Bunsen (yep, Bunsen's burner is after himself) at the University of Marburg: "the smell of this body causes instant tingling in the arms and legs, and even to the point of dizziness and insensibility ... It is noteworthy that when a person is exposed the smell of these compounds, the tongue becomes covered with a black coating, even when there are no further negative effects. Cacodylic acid is extremely toxic if swallowed, inhaled, or in contact with skin. It has been shown in rodents to be a teratogen, frequently causing cleft palate and fetal mortality at high doses. It has been shown to exhibit genotoxic properties in human cells. Although not a strong carcinogen, cacodylic acid enhances the action of other carcinogens in organs such as the kidneys and liver.
But these are also flowers. The fact is that due to the scheme of synthesis, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T always contain not about 20 ppm of dioxin. .
The Vietnamese government claims that 4 million of its citizens were exposed to Agent Orange and as many as 3 million suffered from illness. The Vietnam Red Cross estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to Agent Orange. Approximately 400 Vietnamese died from acute "Agent Orange" poisoning. The United States government disputes these figures as unreliable.
According to a study by Dr. Nguyen Viet Ngan, children in areas where agent orange was used have a host of health problems, including cleft palate, mental impairment, hernias, and extra fingers and toes. In the 1970s, high levels of dioxin were found in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women and in the blood of US military personnel who served in Vietnam. The most affected areas are the mountainous regions along Truong Son (Long Mountains) and the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. Affected residents in these regions suffer from a variety of genetic diseases.
Click here if you really want to see the effects of 'agent orange' on a human. But I'm warning you: don't.
All of the former US military bases in Vietnam where herbicides were stored and loaded onto aircraft may still contain high levels of dioxins in the soil, posing a health risk to surrounding communities. Extensive testing for dioxin contamination has been carried out at former US air bases in Da Nang, Pho Cat District and Bien Haa. Some of the soils and sediments have extremely high levels of dioxin requiring decontamination. At Danang Air Base, dioxin contamination is 350 times higher than international standards. Contaminated soil and sediments continue to plague the people of Vietnam, poisoning their food chain and causing disease, serious skin diseases and various cancers in the lungs, larynx and prostate.
(By the way, do you still use Vietnamese balm? What can I say...)
We must be objective and say that the US military in Vietnam also suffered: they were not informed of the danger, and therefore they were convinced that the chemical was harmless, and did not take any precautions. Upon returning home, the Vietnamese veterans began to suspect something: the health of most of them deteriorated, their wives increasingly had miscarriages, children were born with birth defects. Veterans began filing claims in 1977 with the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability payments for medical services that they believed were related to exposure to Agent Orange, or more specifically dioxin, but their claims were denied. because they were unable to prove that the disease began while they were in the service or within one year of their dismissal (conditions for granting benefits). We, in our country, it is very familiar.
By April 1993, the Department of Veterans Affairs had only compensated 486 victims, although it received disability claims from 39 soldiers who were exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
Since 1980, attempts have been made to seek compensation through litigation, including with companies producing these substances (Dow Chemical and Monsanto). During the morning of May 7, 1984, in a lawsuit initiated by American veterans' organizations, Monsanto and Dow Chemical's corporate lawyers managed to settle a class action lawsuit without trial, hours before jury selection was due to begin. The companies agreed to pay $180 million in damages if the veterans dropped all claims against them. Many veterans who were victims were outraged that the case was settled instead of going to court: they felt betrayed by their lawyers. "Fairness Hearings" were held in five major American cities, where the veterans and their families discussed their reactions to the settlement and denounced the actions of lawyers and courts, demanding that the case be heard by their peer juries. Federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein dismissed the appeals, saying the settlement was "fair and fair." By 1989, the veterans' fears were confirmed when it was decided how the money would actually be paid: the maximum (yes, exactly maximally!) A disabled Vietnam veteran could receive a maximum of $12 in installments over 000 years. In addition, by accepting these payments, disabled veterans could become ineligible for many government benefits that provided much more monetary support, such as food stamps, public assistance, and state pensions.
In 2004, Monsanto spokesperson Jill Montgomery stated that Monsanto was not responsible at all for injuries or deaths caused by "agents": "We sympathize with people who believe they have been injured and understand their concern and desire to find the cause, but reliable scientific evidence suggests that Agent Orange does not cause serious long-term health effects."
The Viet Nam Orange Agent and Dioxin Poison Victims Association (VAVA), filed a lawsuit "for bodily injury liability, development and manufacture of the chemical" in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn against several US companies, alleging that the use of "agents" violated the 1907 Hague Convention on War on Land, the 1925 Geneva Protocol, and the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest manufacturers of "agents" for the US military and were named in the lawsuit along with dozens of other companies (Diamond Shamrock, Uniroyal, Thompson Chemicals, Hercules, and others). On March 10, 2005, Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District (the same one who presided over the 1984 U.S. veterans class action lawsuit) dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that there was no right to claim. He concluded that Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use in the US; The US was not banned from using it as a herbicide; and the companies that produced the substance were not responsible for the government's method of using it. Weinstein used the British example to help dismiss the claims: “If the Americans were guilty of war crimes for using Agent Orange in Vietnam, then the British would also be guilty of war crimes because they were the first country to use herbicides and defoliants in the war.” and used them on a large scale throughout the Malay operation. Since there were no protests from other states in response to British use, the US viewed this as setting a precedent for the use of herbicides and defoliants in jungle warfare." The US government was also not a party to the lawsuit due to sovereign immunity, and the court ruled that chemical companies, as US government contractors, have the same immunity. The case was appealed and heard by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan on June 18, 2007. Three judges of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Weinstein's decision to dismiss the case. They ruled that although herbicides contain dioxin (a known poison), they are not intended to be used as a poison to humans. Therefore, defoliants are not considered chemical weapons and therefore do not constitute a violation of international law. Further consideration of the case by the entire panel of judges of the Court of Appeal also confirmed this decision. Lawyers for the victims filed a petition with the US Supreme Court to hear the case. On March 2, 2009, the Supreme Court refused to review the decision of the Court of Appeal.
On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed into law US$3 million specifically to fund programs to decontaminate dioxin contamination sites at former US military bases, as well as public health programs for surrounding communities. It must be said that the destruction of dioxins requires high temperatures (over 1000 ° C), the destruction process is energy intensive, so some experts believe that only the US air base in Da Nang will require $ 14 million to clean up, and to clean up other former Vietnamese military US bases with high levels of pollution would need another $60 million.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a visit to Hanoi in October 2010 that the US government would begin work to clean up dioxin contamination at Danang Air Base.
In June 2011, a ceremony was held at Da Nang Airport to mark the start of the US-funded decontamination of dioxin hotspots in Vietnam. To date, the US Congress has allocated $32 million to fund this program.
To help those affected by dioxin, the Vietnamese government has set up "peace villages" each containing 50 to 100 victims who receive medical and psychological assistance. As of 2006, there are 11 such villages. American veterans of the Vietnam War and people who know and sympathize with the victims of Agent Orange supported these programs. An international group of veterans from the United States and its allies during the Vietnam War, along with their former enemy, veterans from the Vietnam Veterans Association, founded a friendship village in Vietnam outside of Hanoi. This center provides medical care, rehabilitation and vocational training for children and veterans from Vietnam affected by dioxin.
The Vietnamese government provides small monthly stipends to more than 200 Vietnamese allegedly affected by herbicides; in 000 alone, that amount was $2008 million. The Vietnam Red Cross has raised more than $40,8 million to help the sick or disabled, and several US foundations, UN agencies, European governments and non-governmental organizations have provided a total of about $22 million for cleanup, reforestation, health care and other services.
Read more about supporting the victims of the "orange agent" .
Here is such a history of planting democracy,% username%. And it's never funny anymore.
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Source: habr.com