[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH, HERBICIDES: C-123 Spray Birds

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Ailing reservists blame postwar 'spray bird' missions

By TOM PHILPOTT
Stars and Stripes
May 26, 2011

In a complaint to the Air Force inspector general, a retired officer  
alleges health officials have known since at least 1994 of Agent  
Orange contamination aboard C-123 aircraft flown by reserve squadrons  
for a decade after the Vietnam War, and failed to warn personnel of  
the health risks.

After the Air Force stopped using UC-123K Provider aircraft to spray  
herbicide on the jungles of Vietnam, some of those aircraft, their  
spray tanks removed, were reassigned in 1972 to new missions at three  
stateside bases.

For the next decade Air Force reservists flew and maintained them.   
Last month one of the post-war crewmen, disabled retiree Maj. Wesley  
T. Carter, 64, of McMinnville, Ore., had a heart attack requiring  
surgery, and also learned that he has prostate cancer.


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.stripes.com/news/ailing-reservists-blame-postwar-spray- 
bird-missions-1.144727

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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