The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

dioxin: manipulation and corruption 67epidemiological study of the links between dioxin and birth defects has everbeen conducted.”“That’s not true,” interrupted Quynh. “Studies by Vietnamese colleagueshave been published showing that in villages sprayed with Agent Orange,rates of miscarriages and birth defects are much higher than in villages thatwere not sprayed. But because these studies were not headed by Westerners,American scientists pay no attention to them. 42“How do you explain that?” I asked, aware that the conversation had enteredsensitive ground.“Dioxin has become a highly political subject,” Schechter said, obviouslyembarrassed. “That’s a shame, because in the end we’re all concerned: we allhave dioxin in our bodies and it’s important to know precisely what its effectsare on human organisms. Unfortunately, scientists are prisoners of intereststhat are outside their control.”Meanwhile, one thing is certain: on March 20, 2005, the Bush administrationannounced the cancellation of a binational research program thathad been initiated two years earlier by an agreement between the UnitedStates and Vietnam. 43 With a budget of several million dollars, the study wassupposed to be headed by Professor David Carpenter of the University of Albany,whom I met in the course of my investigation of PCBs. “This study wasto focus on Vietnamese populations, primarily on the link between dioxinexposure and birth defects,” he explained to me. “Officially, it was canceledbecause of lack of cooperation from the Vietnamese government. It’s truethat the government can be criticized for bureaucratic delays, but I think thedecision was very convenient for the manufacturers of Agent Orange,against whom new complaints had been filed.”In fact, on June 9, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court had decided in favor ofDaniel Stephenson and Joe Isaacson, two Vietnam veterans suffering respectivelyfrom bone marrow cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosedin the late 1990s. Considering themselves unaffected by the 1983settlement, they had decided to sue Monsanto and the other companies.The companies had appealed, but the Supreme Court found against them,opening the way to a new class action that included Alan Gibson as a plaintiffand Gerson Smoger as an attorney. Four years later, the trial had still notbegun.In February 2004, the Vietnam Association of Agent Orange Victims fileda complaint in federal district court in New York. But it was dismissed in