News of the Week on the connection between soft tissue sarcomas and herbicide exposure and decided results continued to be so equivocal that the best route would be to decide in favor of the veterans and their claims. The committee's review also included a report prepared by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. (Retired) that strongly supported the view that agent orange, and its contaminant 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), is the cause of many veterans' health problems. Said Derwinski of his decision: "I believe this is another step forward in resolving a most difficult and emotional issue. We intend to proceed as quickly as possible to award compensation to these veterans who are so deserving of our care and concern." L o n g - t i m e p r o p o n e n t s of increased compensation to Vietnam veterans for agent orange exposure hail the move as a victory. One of the most outspoken critics of the DVA on the agent orange issue, Sen. Thomas A. Daschle (D.-S.D.), has spent years supporting Vietnam veterans' claims. He said, "I hope this is the end of the nightmare agent orange victims have suffered," Agent orange was a herbicide used in Vietnam from the middle 1960s until 1971. It was a combination of (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxy)acetic acid and (2,4-dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid, contaminated with about 2 ppm TCDD. It is possible that as many as 4 million U.S. combat troops had some contact with the herbicide, but no one knows for sure. Exposure, or presumed exposure, to TCDD has been blamed for dozens of veterans' health problems. Zumwalt's report was critical of previous studies performed for DVA by the Centers for Disease Control, which tried and failed to find direct links between TCDD and a variety of diseases. Zumwalt hints of a conspiracy (he calls it a discernible pattern) among federal agencies to keep veterans from being compensated for their disabilities from agent orange exposure. This new review of agent orange issues was started because of a court case settled last year in California, Nehmer v. U.S. Veterans Administration, in which the VA was found to be setting too tough a standard 8
May 28, 1990 C&EN
for diseases supposedly caused by agent orange. The first result of that decision came last March when Derwinski allowed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in Vietnam vets to be considered a service-related illness. David Hanson
Group seeks release of Chinese scientists In a pattern resembling former activity on behalf of oppressed Soviet scientists, U.S. scientists last week ignited a campaign on behalf of imprisoned Chinese scientists. The action comes almost a year into the political crackdown that began in Tiananmen Square last June 3-4. More than 200 scientists issued an appeal for release and safe passage out of China for astrophysicist Fang Lizhi and his wife, for publication of the names of all scientists and science students imprisoned since June 4, and for amnesty for those accused of nonviolent "counterrevolutionary offenses." Fang, a leading human rights advocate often called "China's Sakharov," has taken refuge in the U.S. embassy. The scientists pledge that until these steps are taken, they will "refrain from participation in any international scientific conferences" in China, and will urge colleagues to do likewise. They will not stop contacts with individual Chinese scientists. A committee is forming to carry on the effort, housed initially at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights in Boston. Signing the statement are such prominent scientists as Nobel Laureates Christian B. Anfinsen, David Baltimore, Hans Bethe, Owen Chamberlain, and Donald Glaser, American Association for the Advancement of Science president Richard C. Atkinson, and former leading Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov, now at Cornell University. The American Physical Society and American Astronomical Society also have expressed support for Fang, with APS pledging no joint programs with the Chinese. And AAAS recently protested on behalf of Chinese scientists (C&EN, May 14, page 11). Richard Seltzer
Federal education plan links scientists, teachers The federal effort to address the dismal state of precollege math and science education in the U.S. got another boost forward last week from the Department of Energy. DOE announced a number of initiatives that place its scientists in the thick of activities aimed at helping teachers teach better and students learn better. Secretary of Energy James D. Watkins and University of California, Berkeley, chemistry professor Glenn T. Seaborg released the report of a M a t h / S c i e n c e Education Action Conference they convened last October at Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. Accompanying the report was a package of recently developed DOE science education programs initiated by the national laboratories. DOE also released several "memoranda of understanding" the agency signed last week with the National Aeronautics & Space Administration, t h e Appalachian Regional Commission, and Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Others are under development with the Department of Education and the Departm e n t of Interior. All spell out specific steps to be taken in cooperative efforts between DOE and each of the organizations aimed at improving science, engineering, or mathematics education. "We are not just talking talk, we are talking about real collaboration," says NASA Administrator Richard H. Truly. With its collection of scientific laboratories, facilities, and experts— some 48,000 scientific and technical personnel—DOE believes it can be a role model and catalyst for other agencies and organizations. The act i o n c o n f e r e n c e , for e x a m p l e , brought together nearly 250 scientists, educators, business executives, and government leaders for three days to develop a set of specific actions for improving math and science education. "Although we will not do all of them," Watkins says, "we are already doing some and we are looking at others." James Krieger
