Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #120516

Jonathan Moore, JD, Moore & Goodman, LLP, 740 Broadway at Astor Place, New York, NY 10003-9518, 212-353-9587, jmoore@gis.net

In February 2004, Vietnamese victims of the Agent Orange campaign waged during the Vietnam War sued Dow Chemical, Monsanto and other chemical companies for injuries caused by their exposure to dioxin, a toxic ingredient found in Agent Orange. This case was similar to that brought over 20 years ago by U.S. veterans who alleged that they were made ill by their accidental, incidental exposure to Agent Orange in the course of their handling and spraying the poison in Vietnam. That case settled in 1984 for 180,000,000. Subsequent to that settlement, and as a result of political pressure brought on the VA, the VA changed its position radically with respect to compensation of U.S. veterans and now compensates U.S. veterans for numerous Agent Orange related illnesses. The Vietnamese case was different than the U.S. veterans in that the Vietnamese have sued on the basis that the conduct of the chemical companies (the U.S. cannot be sued because of sovereign immunity) violated well established norms of international law at the time of the spraying that barred the use of poison as a weapon of war.

Learning Objectives:

• coming soon

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.