Agent Orange study dropped

From todays New Scientist

US cancels Agent Orange study in Vietnam

Is Agent Orange responsible for deformities in the children and grandchildren of people exposed to it during the Vietnam war? Vietnam claims the herbicide, used by the US to reduce forest cover, is to blame. But the US has never accepted this.

… the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences cancelled the project on 25 February 2005 after “failing to receive the necessary cooperation from the Vietnamese government”.

Last week the class action was dismissed on broad legal grounds – not because of lack of evidence. But the US judge also ruled that no evidence had linked the defendants’ herbicide to the plaintiffs’ exposure to dioxin.

I think you would know my feelings about this. Not only are we being denied solid and critical scientific data, but we are also leaving open one of the most critical questions in the history of modern conflict.

My question would have to be, why can’t another major body take up this task. Why are there no Universities or medical institutes chomping at the bit to uncover the answers to this? Is it because there is no money in it (ie. no grant money from the Industry involved?) or perhaps because people simply don’t see it as a current issue.

You would think images like these would spur people into finding out some hard answers.