Jeremy Pearcel 7/7/08
Arthur William Galston; Agent Orange Researcher; 1920 — 15-6-2008
Arthur Galston, a Yale plant biologist who did early research that helped lead to the herbicide Agent Orange, and who then helped raise awareness of the US military’s use of it in Vietnam in the 1960s and its devastating effects on river ecosystems, has died of heart failure in Hamden, Connecticut. He was 88. In letters, academic papers, broadcasts and seminars, Galston described the environmental damage wrought by Agent Orange and travelled to South Vietnam to monitor its impact. From 1962 to 1970, US troops released about 76 million litres of the chemical defoliant to destroy crops and expose Vietcong positions and routes of movement. Galston asserted that harm to trees and plant species could continue perhaps for decades. He pointed out that spraying Agent Orange on riverbank mangroves in Vietnam was eliminating “one of the most important ecological niches for the completion of the life cycle of certain shellfish and migratory fish”.
Tags: Environment, USA, Vietnam, War