Veterans Advocate Helps Shape Boston’s Policy on Dioxin Pollution

By Leigh DuPuy

Paul Atwood of the Joiner Center recently shared his expertise on the deadly effects of Agent Orange with the Boston City Council in their consideration and ultimate passage of a citywide dioxin-pollution policy. Atwood, a longtime veterans advocate, is one of six asked to testify in support of Resolution #0389, which establishes city purchasing guidelines to reduce people’s exposure to the known carcinogen.

"Dioxin is the second most toxic chemical in the world after plutonium, and it is everywhere," says Atwood, an authority on the effects of dioxin exposure from the spraying of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. "In fact, every person has a body burden of dioxin in their fat tissues."

The landmark resolution, the first of its kind on the East Coast, marks the initial steps by Boston officials to reduce purchases of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in construction materials and paper products whose manufacture creates dioxin as a by-product. Boston is the third city in the nation, following the lead of environmentally conscious San Francisco and Seattle, to establish dioxin-reduction policies.

"We live in the most industrialized nation in the world," says Atwood, pointing to the numerous health problems that arise from exposure to toxins. Dioxin, a family of toxic and persistent chemicals, is known to cause cancer at extremely small doses and has also been linked to other health problems, including diabetes, infertility, and immune system suppression. "One of the more disturbing aspects of dioxin in the environment is that it is a known promoter of other carcinogens."

Atwood, a research associate with the Joiner Center and faculty member in the American Studies Program, was asked to provide testimony before the council twice, in July and October. A scholar of the Vietnam War, Atwood compiled the 1990 report "Agent Orange: Medical, Scientific, Legal, Political, and Psychological Issues," following the first national conference to examine the effects of dioxin exposure, held at UMass Boston in 1987.

In his allotted ten minutes, Atwood gave evidence of the continued deadly effects of dioxin here and in Vietnam. "Nineteen million gallons of herbicide was sprayed in an area the size of Massachusetts," Atwood says of the chemical defoliant used by the American military from 1961 to 1971. Many Vietnam veterans suffer major health problems caused by their exposure to Agent Orange, and the conditions in Vietnam testify to the toxin’s frightening durability. "It is in the soil and the vegetation, carried out into the water--Vietnam has the highest rates of birth defects in the world," says Atwood.

Other Boston residents who spoke in favor of the resolution include Nick DeMarino, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 718; Roger Swartz from the Boston Public Health Commission; and Louise Forrest Bowes from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The lead sponsor of the resolution was City Councilor Felix Arroyo, formerly of the Gastón Institute.

Image: Paul Atwood, research associate at the Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences and faculty member in the American Studies Program, testified twice before the Boston City Council in support of a citywide dioxin pollution policy. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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