Dr. Schecker teaches at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas. He has been researching Agent Orange for several decades.
He's concerned that residents of Bien Hoa (a U.S. base was located there during the war) and livestock there are showing high levels of toxic chemicals in their bloodstream, some as high as during the spraying in the American War against Vietnam. His studies, conducted with Vietnamese researchers, have found high levels of toxicity in certain fish, chicken and ducks. Food imported from Vietnam to the U.S., however, have not shown any such levels. He is interested in seeing that immigrants from that area who have migrated to the U.S. get tested.
The show airs from 4-5 p.m. today, August 12, 2003, on 88.9 fm in Orange County, Calif., and via the web on kuci.org. Call 949 824-5824 to join the conversation between host Dan Tsang and Dr. Schecter.
The study's release Monday coincides with a report in the Independent that the U.S. military used napalm in Iraq, echoing what the U.S. did in the war in Vietnam decades before. U.S. military personnel are now admitting what the Pentagon denied during the war in Iraq.
Resources:
AP story on Dr. Schecter's study:
Study Says Toxins Still Harming Vietnam
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030811/ap_on_he_me/vietnam_agent_orange_1
Reuters story on study: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20030811/hl_nm/health_vietnam_agentorange_dc_2
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=432201
Dr. Schecter's research article in August issue of the Journal of
Occupational and Environmental Medicine is available to UCI and other
licensed users (typically via academic libraries) via:
http://uclibs.org/PID/4212 [search for Agent Orange in open generic
section of MD Consult]
Also, SaigonTourist is to open complex in San Francisco:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030804/ap_on_re_as/vietnam_us_tourism_2
dan