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

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Complaint alleges Agent Orange risks ignored

TOM PHILPOTT
Colorado Springs Gazette (CO)
May 31, 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 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 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.

A medical service officer, Carter said he thought about the hours he  
spent aboard foul-smelling C-123 “spray birds” after the war, flying  
out of Westover Air Force Base, Mass. He searched online for reports  
of lingering Agent Orange contamination on the planes assigned  
Reserve missions until 1982.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.gazette.com/articles/force-118937-air-aircraft.html

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, 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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