Vietnam ‘Agent Orange’ victims call on Olympics to drop Dow Chemicals

Victims of ‘Agent Orange’, the herbicides dropped by US bombers during the Vietnam war in the 1960s, have formally written to the London 2012 Olympics organisers this week to protest at Dow Chemical’s �7 million sponsorship involvement.

The victims’ association in Hanoi is asking Lord Coe’s committee to drop Dow Chemical, which manufactured Agent Orange.

“The Olympics stand for the triumph of the human mind and body as athletes engage in competition,” its letter stresses.

“Dow was one of the main companies that produced and supplied toxic chemicals to the US military for use in South Vietnam, the herbicides collectively called Agent Orange that contain Dioxin, one of the most toxic poisons known to science.

“Millions have died and hundreds of thousands of children have been born with birth defects.”

The letter follows a vote by Tower Hamlets Council last month calling on the Olympics committee to drop Dow as a sponsoring partner, in response to a deputation by veteran East End CND campaigner Len Aldis.