Tomorrow, Monday, May 10, the judgment will be rendered in the lawsuit brought by Tran To Nga against several agrochemical multinationals, including Dow Chemical and Bayer-Monsanto. Since 2014, this victim, during the Vietnam War, of the spraying of Agent Orange, a very toxic herbicide, has been fighting for these multinationals to be found guilty of the consequences for the health of humans, animals and the environment.
- From 1961, the American army dumped millions of liters of herbicides on the Vietnamese and Laotian forests to prevent Vietnamese resistance fighters from hiding and deprive them of food.
- According to the Stellman report published in 2003, these massive sprayings caused the direct exposure to defoliants of 2 to 5 million Vietnamese.
- Of all the vegetation-destroying defoliants, Agent Orange is the most harmful because of the dioxin it contains, which lasts a long time in the body.
- Affected by Agent Orange, American soldiers who had fought in Vietnam were compensated, but the Vietnamese victims were dismissed from their complaints in the United States in 2009.
– Why doctor – You were born in 1942 in Vietnam, still a French colony. At what age were you contaminated by Agent Orange?
Tran To Nga- In Vietnam, I was poisoned for the first time at 23 years old, then I suffered successive sprayings of Agent Orange until I was 27/28 years old.
– How did it go?
I received the first spray of Agent Orange directly on my body, via toxic clouds that fell on me, much like rain. Then, my whole environment was contaminated: I walked on the herbicide for years, I drank it, I ate it, etc…
– Did you feel any immediate effects on your health during the first herbicide sprayings?
Yes. Before the Agent Orange clouds arrived, I was in great shape, and I didn’t suffer from any illness. But right after the first application, I got scab.
– Has Agent Orange had any long-term health effects?
The years following the intervention of the American army, I had a lot of respiratory problems. But above all, I gave birth to a little girl with an incurable heart defect (tetralogy of Fallot). She died at 17 months. As a young mother, I suffered a lot raising a doomed child.
Today, I have probable tuberculosis and type 2 diabetes, which is very common among victims of agent orange. I am also battling breast cancer and heart problems.
– Do you still have an abnormally high dioxin level in your blood?
Yes, lab blood work recently confirmed that to me. At the age of 50, my rate of dioxin is no longer very high, but it remains higher than the European standard, and much higher than the Asian average.
– Are you sure that your health problems are linked to Agent Orange?
To be honest, I’m not sure of anything. But my doctors don’t understand why I have abnormalities in each of my pathologies. For example, my diabetologist can’t explain why I’m allergic to insulin, and my pulmonologist doesn’t know why I’m resistant to rimifon either.
In addition, all the illnesses from which I suffer are on the list drawn up by the American government, which allowed veteran soldiers of the Vietnam War affected by Agent Orange to be recognized as victims of war, and to be compensated.
– How many other Vietnamese have been poisoned by Agent Orange?
It is estimated that 4 million Vietnamese have been poisoned by Agent Orange. This toxic substance is transmitted from generation to generation. People my age have internal damage, but the youngest gave birth to many disabled children, who were born without arms, without legs, without a brain…
– Why do you speak of “ecocide”?
According to scientific research, Agent Orange has contaminated the entire environment on which it has been spilled, making absolutely everything toxic for decades: fruits, vegetables, ground water, soil, rain, cultures… Some affected areas are now desert, and others have produced monstrous fruits, vegetables and animals.
These herbicide sprayings have destroyed 20% of the forests of southern Vietnam and polluted 400,000 hectares of agricultural land. Added to this is the destruction of more than a million hectares of tropical forest and the disappearance of abundant fauna. No disinfection is possible.
– What do you expect from your trial?
Justice and truth. I demand justice for me, for my family and for all the victims of Agent Orange, wherever they are in the world.
– How the opposing parties defend themselves, in particular Dow Chemical and Bayer-Monsanto ?
Several agrochemical multinationals explain that they were, at the time of the Vietnam War, forced to produce Agent Orange, on pain of heavy fines and prison sentences. They also claim that they did not know the actual toxicity of the herbicide. Both of these statements are completely false.
– What about compensation, which American soldiers who fought in Vietnam benefited in particular?
I seek first of all a human and political recognition of this ecocide. The money only comes afterwards.
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