[CPEO-MEF] HERBICIDES, GLOBAL: Agent Orange reported buried on Okinawa

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Agent Orange buried on Okinawa, vet says
Ex-serviceman claims U.S. used, dumped Vietnam War defoliant

By JON MITCHELL
Japan Times
August 13, 2011

In the late 1960s, the U.S. military buried dozens of barrels of the  
toxic defoliant Agent Orange in an area around the town of Chatan on  
Okinawa Island, an American veteran has told The Japan Times.

The former serviceman's claim comes only days after Foreign Minister  
Takeaki Matsumoto said that he would ask the U.S. Department of  
Defense to come clean on its use of the chemical on the island during  
its 27-year occupation of Okinawa between 1945 and 1972. The U.S.  
government has repeatedly maintained that it has no records  
pertaining to the use of Agent Orange in Okinawa.

The veteran's allegation is likely to cause considerable concern in  
Okinawa, as Agent Orange contains highly carcinogenic dioxin that can  
remain in the soil and water for decades. The area where the veteran  
claims the barrels were buried is near a popular tourist and housing  
area.


...

For the entire article, see
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110813a1.html

--

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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