Dow Pays Dioxin Victims

Dow Chemical Corporation and the United States Forest Service (USFS), co-defendants in a suit brought by victims of herbicide poisoning, agreed to an out-of-court settlement of over $1.1 million last March. The suit, officially dismissed on April I, was filed by five families in Globe, Arizona. They charged DOW and the USFS with responsibility for illnesses-including cancer-which they suffered after a herbicide similar to Agent Orange, called Silvex, was sprayed over their homes in 1969. Both Silvex and Agent Orange contain the contaminant TODD dioxin, one of the most lethal synthetic molecules in existence.

The Globe agreement, in which Dow admits no liability, includes a gag order whereby the amount of the settlement is to remain secret. Payments to the plaintiffs will be discontinued if they divulge the settlement amount. But according to Victor Yannacone, a legal consultant in the Globe suit, "When I left the negotiations on, Friday afternoon, March I, the settlement was up to $1.1 million. I understand they settled for somewhere between that and $I.5 million. "The final settlement. reached on Monday, March 4, includes "between $100,000 and $300,000 contributed by the Forest Service because of property damage and loss of animals." Yannacone said.

The June 1969 spraying, carried out using specially-equipped helicopters, was part of a Forest Service chaparral control project in the Pinal mountains outside of Globe. By reducing the thick brush and thereby allowing moisture to seep into the ground, the Forest Service hoped to increase the water yield in Phoenix. 90 miles away, to reduce wild fire hazards, and to improve the wildlife habitat. Mr. Arvin White, USFS Director of Aviation and Fire Management, said the Forest Service "had no reason to believe the spraying would harm people." They merely "bought the material and sprayed it according to label instructions," he added.

Symptoms reported by plaintiffs in the Globe case included chloracne, pancreatitis, fibrosarcoma cancer, muscular and skeletal problems, elevations of liver enzymes and high chloresterol. Research on dioxin exposure has indicated that it can cause these symptoms. Dr. Susan Daum, an environmental medicine specialist who examined the Globe plaintiffs, concluded "the symptoms and clinical abnormalities which were observed in this population are, with a reasonable medical probability, as a result of toxicity from exposure to the chemical dioxin." Dr. Daum notes that dioxin has a delayed effect. Thus, the Globe plaintiffs "have yet to live out the illnesses which they may develop." In addition, "the younger the person exposed, the more likelihood is that they will develop cancer."

Globe resident Bob McCray and his family were doused twice by the herbicidal spray: once while they were working outdoors on construction of their new home and once after they washed up and were on their way to the local heliport to investigate the spraying. McCray has since developed fihrosarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer. His son, who was an infant at the time, went into convulsions on the afternoon of the spraying. These convulsions, later diagnosed as grand mal epilepsy, continued daily-with as many as 36 per dayuntil he was five years old.

McCray has mixed emotions about the out-of-court settlement. "I wanted to get it all out in public in a court suit." he said, "but emotionally we'd gone 'as far as we could." McCray's opinion on the sprayings and subsequent investigation, however, is not at all ambivalent. In February, 1970. McCraymet with investigators from the United States Department of Agriculture and the USFS whose eventual report concluded the "herbicides caused little damage in the Arizona area." According to McCray, "it was more important to those doctors whether their scotch had soda or water than how we were affected."McCray concluded that the entire USFS investigation was a farce: "How can you have a bank robber investigate his own crime?" he asks. The McCrays kept samples in their freezer of deformed chickens and rabbits born after the ;praying. One day, in the spring of 1970 when the family was out of town, the plug was mysteriously pulled from the freezer, and the evidence was destroyed.

The Globe settlement has important implications for more than 300 other Agent Orange class action suits filed around the country. The suits, which make up the largest product liability case in U.S. history, are the result of a single case filed by Yannacone in January, 19.'9. After the filing was publicized, "the flood gates opened." said Yannacone. He now represents over 7.000 veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during the Air Force's jungle-defoliation activities in Vietnam.

The Globe settlement strengthens the veterans' claims enormously." Yannacone said. Agent Orange has a much higher dioxin level than Silvex; and the veterans were exposed much more frequently and were unable to wash after exposure. "it Dow was willing to pay $1.1 million for those people sprayed once, imagine what you've got with the vets. I think Dow has indicated, for practical purposes, that they recognize that there is a serious problem."

Dow spokesperson Bob Charlton said. "We have not altered our position that. when used as agrichemical tools, these products do not present an unreasonable risk to people in the environment."