Monsanto launched its weed killers Roundup in 1976 and soon thereafter began genetically modifying plants, making some resistant to Roundup. Photo by AFP
The call comes after a San Francisco jury on August 10 ordered Monsanto to pay nearly $290 million in punitive and compensatory damages to Dewayne Johnson, a cancer patient whose terminal illness was allegedly caused by glyphosate in the company's weed killer product.
"This case is a precedent that dismisses previous arguments that the herbicides supplied to the U.S. Military by Monsanto and other American chemical companies during the Vietnam War are not harmful to people's health," deputy Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Tra said Thursday.
"We believe Monsanto should be held responsible for compensating Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange for the damage caused by the company's herbicides," Tra said.
Founded in 1901 in St Louis, Missouri, Monsanto began producing agrochemicals in the 1940s. It was acquired by Bayer for more than $62 billion in June.
Monsanto was one of the producers of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by U.S. troops to strip Vietnamese forces of ground cover and food. Between 1961 and 1971 the U.S. Army sprayed some 80 million liters of Agent Orange over 30,000 square miles of southern Vietnam.
Dioxin, a highly toxic chemical in the defoliant, has been linked to many major health problems such as cancer, mental disabilities and birth defects.
Millions of Vietnamese over several generations have suffered from health problems due to exposure to Agent Orange, according to government data.
In 2004, Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange filed a class action lawsuit in a New York court against Monsanto, Dow Chemical and more than 30 manufacturers of the toxic defoliant. The case was however dismissed by the U.S. court citing lack of evidence.
On the other hand, Monsanto has multiple times been ordered by U.S. courts to pay compensation to American plaintiffs who suffered health issues from exposure to the company's chemicals.
Sabot15 on August 25th, 2018 at 13:44 UTC »
So, here's the irony that most people don't know. The US government approached US companies, provided the formula and process for making Agent Orange, and then forced said companies to produce certain quantities of the product. Fast forward 20-30 years, and a lot of those companies were facing dozens of class action suits for Agent Orange, to the point that many were going to bankruptcy. When these companies seeked reparations from the government that forced them to produce the material, the Supreme Court denied that ANY of these reparations suits could even be brought to court. Pretty crazy.
One article in a sea of information that exists on this topic.
JoshuaS904 on August 25th, 2018 at 10:08 UTC »
I worked with a guy that suffered from the effects of agent orange. He was US Army, and told me they were told it was completely safe for humans, since it was made to target plants.
I got to watch the man go through a lot, because the VA was constantly changing his medicine (seemed like experimenting).
He also told me they all would get excited when the planes would come and drop the stuff, because it killed the mosquitos. A lot of people would actually stand in the stuff and get covered by it, just to keep the bugs away.
BlackBeardManiac on August 25th, 2018 at 10:04 UTC »
Strange how this is all brought up after a non-US company buys Monsanto.