Chemical companies have studied workers accidentally exposed to dioxin, in an effort to prove that they do not have any more cancers than those not exposed. Monsanto has been involved in a number of such studies that have since been questioned as fraudulent. It conducted epidemiological studies in the mid-1980s of workers exposed in a 1949 accident at a Monsanto plant, where herbicides were being manufactured. At the time the studies were conducted, Monsanto faced having to pay out millions of dollars in lawsuits to Vietnam veterans and to its factory workers, who claimed that they were suffering ill effects from exposure to dioxin (Montague 1996).

Monsanto claimed that their studies showed that exposure to dioxin caused no ill-effects apart from an increased risk of getting chloracne. Three of its studies were reported on or published in major prestigious scientific journals such as Scientific American, Science and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). However Monsanto's studies were later discredited during a court case, when Monsanto's medical director admitted that Monsanto scientists:

had knowingly omitted five deaths from the exposed study group and had further reclassified four exposed workers as unexposed, in order to equalize the death rates in the exposed and unexposed workers. The exposed workers, Dr. Roush admitted, had 18 cancer deaths instead of the 9 deaths reported by Monsanto, an over-all cancer death rate 65 percent higher than the normal population rate. (Quoted in Lapp, 1991, p. 12)

When Peter Montague, editor of Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, reported these allegations in his newsletter in 1991, one of the Monsanto scientists, Bill Gaffey, sued him for $4 million for libel. The scientist, then retired, was being represented by a law firm that regularly represents Monsanto. It was a classic SLAPP case intended to intimidate and therefore silence Montague. The lawsuit successfully silenced others from discussing the fraud including the media: "press coverage in the U.S. and abroad dried up once the libel case was brought against Montague." Gaffey died before the case could be tried but not before admitting "under oath that he knew he had been hired in 1979 partly to help defend Monsanto against lawsuits over dioxin." (Coppolino, 1994, p. 24; Montague, 1996)

Medical records, obtained by Greenpeace, of thirty-seven of the exposed Monsanto workers studied for four years following the accident show that the workers suffered "aches, pain, fatigue, nervousness, loss of libido, irritability and other symptoms... active skin lesions, [and] definite patterns of psychological disorders" but that study officially reported only the skin lesions (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.5).

A BASF study of workers exposed to dioxin in an industrial accident at a BASF chemical plant in Germany in 1953 was found to have "presented the data in a way that disguised the cancers" (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.6). An epidemiologists hired by the workers found that two workers suffering from chloracne were placed in the low-exposure or non-exposed group whilst 20 plant supervisers, whom he claims were not exposed, were included in the exposed group to dilute the results. If those 20 people had not been included in the exposed group, the study would have demonstrated a high incidence of cancer among the workers (Montague 1990).

Doubts have also been cast over studies undertaken by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of Vietnam War veterans exposed to dioxin when Agent Orange was sprayed in areas where they were on duty. About 200,000 veterans claimed that they were suffering health problems ranging from cancer and birth defects in their children, to skin rashes, numbness, infertility and radical mood swings as a result of that exposure (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.14). At stake was the reputation of the US government as well as the potential for billions of dollars in lawsuits against chemical companies such as Dow and against the US government.

After three years and millions of dollars spent, the CDC, headed by Vernon Houk, announced that, because of difficulties in identifying who had been sprayed and who hadn't, the study had been abandoned. This was despite an assessment by the National Academy of Sciences, requested by the CDC, that there was sufficient data available to do a credible epidemiological study. The CDC later reported that many of the health problems experienced by veterans, which were more than veterans of other wars, were due to the 'increased stress' involved in the Vietnam War. (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.16)

A Congressional inquiry into the CDC studies later found they were "flawed and perhaps designed to fail" (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.17). Admiral Zumwalt, who now regrets ordering the spraying of Agent Orange when he was in charge of US Naval Forces in Vietnam, has accused the CDC of manipulating data on Agent Orange "in an effort to deny the link between Agent Orange exposure and health effects" as a result of political interference (Lapp 1991, p. 10).

A court case, filed in 1979 by veterans and their families against Dow Chemical and other chemical manufacturers, was settled out of court in 1984 after the chemical companies tendered evidence of the Monsanto and BASF industry studies, which they claimed showed exposure to dioxin caused no long-term health effects apart from chloracne. Seven chemical companies agreed to pay $180 million to the veterans whilst denying that Agent Orange had caused their health complaints (Gibbs & CCHW 1995, p.18).

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Additional Material

Casten,Liane Clorfene, 1992, Anatomy of a cover-up: the dioxin file. The Nation, v255 n18 Nov 30, pp. 658-63.

Coppolino, Eric F., 1994, 'Dioxin Critic Sued', Lies Of Our Times (May) , pp. 23-4.

Gibbs, Lois Marie and The Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, 1995, Dying from Dioxin (Boston, MA: South End Press).

Lester, Stephen, 1997, Industry's "True Lies", Consumer Law Page.

Montague, Peter, 1996, Bill Gaffey's Work, Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, No. 494.

Montague, Peter, 1990, Dioxins and Cancer: Fraudulent Studies, Rachel's Hazardous Waste News, No. 171.

Lapp, David, 1991, 'Defenders of Dioxin: The Corporate Campaign to Rehabilitate Dioxin', Multinational Monitor (October) , pp. 8-12.

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