Toxic Epidemics: Agent Orange Sickness in Vietnam and the United States.
Social scientists studying toxic epidemics have often endeavored to shed light on the differences between scientists' and nonscientists' epistemic perspectives. Yet, little attention has been paid to the processes through which a toxic epidemic emerges as a phenomenon. A Luoi Valley of Central Vietnam was extensively sprayed with chemical defoliants (including Agent Orange) during the Vietnam War. The latent toxic effects of these chemicals, however, went largely unnoticed until the late 1990s. By juxtaposing the history through which the notion of "Agent Orange Sickness" emerged in the United States with an ethnographic study of A Luoi, I explore the notion of poison under which Agent Orange became recognizable as a poison.
a Department of Anthropology , Osaka University , Suita , Osaka , Japan.
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Uesugi
D015085:2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000506:poisoning; D015084:2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid / Q000737:chemistry / Q000506:poisoning; D000014:Abnormalities, Drug-Induced / Q000208:ethnology*; D000328:Adult; D000075182:Agent Orange; D060432:Anthropology, Medical; D002618:Chemical Warfare / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011041:Poisoning / Q000208:ethnology*; D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000506:poisoning; D011247:Pregnancy; D014481:United States; D014728:Veterans; D014744:Vietnam / Q000208:ethnology; D047829:Vietnam Conflict
D000072317:Polychlorinated Dibenzodioxins; D015084:2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid; D000075182:Agent Orange; D015085:2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid
Agent Orange Sickness; Vietnam War; poison; population; toxic epidemic