Yellow rain
Yellow rain was a 1981 political incident in which the United States Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused the Soviet Union of supplying T-2 mycotoxin to the communist states in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia for use in counterinsurgency warfare.[1] Refugees described many different forms of "attacks", including a sticky yellow liquid falling from planes or helicopters, which was dubbed "yellow rain". The U.S. government alleged that over ten thousand people had been killed in attacks using these supposed chemical weapons.[2] The Soviets denied these claims and an initial United Nations investigation was inconclusive.
Samples of the supposed chemical agent that were supplied to a group of independent scientists turned out to be
Allegations
The charges stemmed from events in Laos and
A 1997 textbook produced by the U.S. Army Medical Department asserted that over ten thousand people were killed in attacks using chemical weapons in Laos, Cambodia and Afghanistan.[2] The descriptions of the attacks were diverse and included air-dropped canisters and sprays, booby traps, artillery shells, rockets and grenades that produced droplets of liquid, dust, powders, smoke or "insect-like" materials of a yellow, red, green, white or brown color.[2]
Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced in September 1981 that:
- For some time now, the international community has been alarmed by continuing reports that the Soviet Union and its allies have been using lethal chemical weapons in Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghanistan. ... We have now found physical evidence from Southeast Asia which has been analyzed and found to contain abnormally high levels of three potent mycotoxins—poisonous substances not indigenous to the region and which are highly toxic to man and animals.
The Soviet Union described these accusations as a "big lie" and in turn correctly stated that the US government used chemical weapons during the Vietnam War.[8] The American accusations prompted a United Nations investigation in Pakistan and Thailand. This involved five doctors and scientists who interviewed alleged witnesses and collected samples that were purported to come from Afghanistan and Cambodia. However, the interviews produced conflicting testimony and the analyses of the samples were inconclusive. The UN experts also examined two refugees who claimed to be suffering from the after-effects of a chemical attack, but the refugees were instead diagnosed as having fungal skin infections. The team reported that they were unable to verify that chemical weapons had been used but noted that circumstantial evidence "suggestive of the possible use of some sort of toxic chemical substance in some instances."[9]
The US mycotoxin analyses were reported in the scientific literature in 1983 and 1984 and reported small amounts of mycotoxins called
Initial investigation
C. J. Mirocha at the University of Minnesota conducted a biochemical investigation, looking for the presence of trichothecene mycotoxins, including T-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), and deoxynivalenol (DON).[10] This included chemical analyses of blood, urine, and tissue of alleged victims of chemical attacks in February 1982 in Laos and Kampuchea. "The finding of T-2, HT-2, and DAS toxins in blood, urine, and body tissues of alleged victims of chemical warfare in Southeast Asia provides compelling proof of the use of trichothecenes as nonconventional warfare agents. ... Additional significant findings lie in the trichothecenes found in the leaf samples (T-2, DON, nivalenol) and yellow powder (T-2, DAS). ... The most compelling evidence is the presence of T-2 and DAS in the yellow powder. Both toxins are infrequently found in nature and rarely occur together. In our experience, copious producers of T-2 toxin (F. tricinctum) do not produce DAS, and conversely, good producers of DAS (F. roseum 'Gibbosum') do not produce T-2."[10]
Explanation
Honeybee hypothesis
In 1983, these charges were disputed by
The US government responded to these findings by arguing that the pollen was added deliberately, in order to make a substance that could be easily inhaled and "ensure the retention of toxins in the human body".[18] Meselson responded to this idea by stating that it was rather far-fetched to imagine that somebody would produce a chemical weapon by "gathering pollen predigested by honeybees."[17] The fact that the pollen originated in Southeast Asia meant that the Soviet Union could not have manufactured the substance domestically, and would have had to import tons of pollen from Vietnam.[19]: 35 Meselson's work was described in an independent medical review as providing "compelling evidence that yellow rain might have a benign natural explanation".[14]
After the honeybee hypothesis was made public, a literature search turned up an earlier Chinese paper
Mycotoxins
Analyses of putative "yellow rain" samples by the British, French and Swedish governments confirmed the presence of pollen and failed to find any trace of mycotoxins.[18][22] Toxicology studies questioned the reliability of reports stating that mycotoxins had been detected in alleged victims up to two months after exposure, since these compounds are unstable in the body and are cleared from the blood in just a few hours.[13] An autopsy on a Khmer Rouge fighter named Chan Mann, a victim of a putative yellow rain attack in 1982, turned up traces of mycotoxins, but also aflatoxin, Blackwater fever, and malaria.[19]: 33
Surveys also showed that both mycotoxin-producing fungi and mycotoxin contamination were common in Southeast Asia, casting doubt on the assertion that detecting these compounds was an unusual occurrence.[23][24] For example, a Canadian military laboratory found mycotoxins in the blood of five people from the area who had never been exposed to yellow rain, out of 270 tested, but none in the blood of ten alleged victims,[17][25] and a 1988 paper reported that illnesses from mycotoxin exposure may pose a serious threat to public health in Malaysia.[26] It is now recognized that mycotoxin contamination of foods such as wheat and maize is a common problem, particularly in temperate regions of the world.[24][27] As noted in a 2003 medical review, "The government research highlighted, if nothing else, that natural mycotoxicoses were an important health hazard in Southeast Asia."[14]
Reliability of eyewitness accounts
In 1987, the
In 1982, Meselson had visited a Hmong refugee camp with samples of bee droppings that he had collected in Thailand. Most of the Hmong he interviewed claimed that these were samples of the chemical weapons that they had been attacked with. One man accurately identified them as insect droppings, but switched to the chemical weapons story after discussion with fellow Hmong.[21]: 46
Australian military scientist Rod Barton visited Thailand in 1984, and discovered that Thai villagers were blaming yellow rain for a variety of ailments, including scabies. An American doctor in Bangkok explained that the United States had been taking a special interest in yellow rain, and was providing medical care to alleged victims.[19]: 39–40
Possible U.S. origin
A CIA report from the 1960s reported allegations by the Cambodian government that their forces had been attacked with chemical weapons, leaving behind a yellow powder. The Cambodians blamed the United States for these alleged chemical attacks. Some of the samples of "yellow rain" collected from Cambodia in 1983 tested positive for CS, which the United States had used during the Vietnam War. CS is a form of tear gas and is not acutely toxic, but may account for some of the milder symptoms reported by the Hmong villagers.[19]: 39
Scientific conclusions and US claims
The scientific community sees these allegations as supported by insufficient evidence, or as having been completely refuted. For instance, a 1992 review published in
In contrast, as of 1997 the U.S. Army maintains that some experts believe that "trichothecenes were used as biological weapons in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan" although they write that "it has not been possible for the United States to prove unequivocally that trichothecene mycotoxins were used as biological weapons." They argued that presence of pollen in yellow rain samples is best explained by the idea that "during biological warfare attacks, dispersed trichothecenes landed in pollen-containing areas."[2] (Essentially the same position is taken in a subsequent volume in the same series of U.S. Army textbooks published in 2007.[32]) Similarly, the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency argues that the controversy has not been resolved and states that a CIA report indicated the Soviet Union did possess weapons based on T-2 mycotoxin, although the agency states that "no trace of a trichothecene-containing weapon was ever found in the areas affected by yellow rain" and concludes that the use of such weapons "may never be unequivocally proved."[33] A 2007 review published in Politics and the Life Sciences concluded that the balance of evidence strongly supported the hypothesis that some type of chemical or biological weapon was used in Southeast Asia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but noted that they found no definitive proof of this hypothesis and that the evidence could not "identify the specific agents used, the intent, or the root source or sources of the attacks."[34] The Vietnamese and the Soviets have also reportedly used other chemical weapons in conflict, in Cambodia and Afghanistan, respectively.[35][36][37]
Later events
India
An episode of mass pollen release from bees in 2002 in
Iraq
In the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq the Wall Street Journal alleged that Saddam Hussein possessed a chemical weapon called "yellow rain".[40] The Iraqis appear to have investigated trichothecene mycotoxins in 1990, but only purified a total of 20 ml of the agent from fungal cultures and did not manage to scale up the purification or produce any weapons containing these compounds.[41] Although these toxins are not generally regarded as practical tactical weapons,[42] the T-2 toxin might be a usable weapon since it can be absorbed through the skin, although it would be very difficult to manufacture it in any reasonable quantity.[43]
Henry Wilde, a retired US
Radiolab interview
In 2012 the science-themed show Radiolab aired an interview with Hmong refugee Eng Yang and his niece, author Kao Kalia Yang, to discuss Eng Yang's experience with yellow rain. The hosts took the position that yellow rain was unlikely to have been a chemical agent. The episode prompted a backlash among some listeners, who criticized Robert Krulwich for insensitivity, racism, and their disregard for Yang's personal and professional experience with the region in question.[46][47] The negative response prompted host Krulwich to issue an apology for his handling of the interview.[48]
Bulgaria
On 23 May 2015, just before the national holiday of 24 May (the day of Bulgarian writing and culture), yellow rain fell in
Mai Der Vang's Yellow Rain
American Hmong poet Mai Der Vang published Yellow Rain (Graywolf Press, 2021) to critical acclaim and was a 2022 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.[50] The book explores yellow rain in Southeast Asia through the use of documentary poetics.
See also
- Agent Orange
- Red rain in Kerala
- Sverdlovsk anthrax leak
- Aral smallpox incident
- Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War
References
- ^ a b Jonathan Tucker (Spring 2001). "The Yellow Rain Controversy: Lessons for Arms Control Compliance" (PDF). The Nonproliferation Review.
- ^ a b c d e RW Wannemacher; SL Wiener (1997). "Trichothecene mycotoxins: in Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare" (PDF). U.S. Army Medical Department.
- ^ New York Times. September 3, 1987. Retrieved 2009-01-02.
Yellow rain is the excrement of jungle bees. It's yellow from digested pollen grains, and it rains down from swarms of bees too high to be seen. His theory turns out to be exactly right. The Government's own studies, still unpublished, prove that the source is bees, not bombs.
- ^ PMID 12730385.
- ^ PMID 9244333.
- PMID 12068904.
- James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Archived from the originalon 2010-04-07. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
Eyewitnesses claimed that Yellow Rain smelled like gunpowder and left a residue of sticky yellow spots on leaves, rocks, and rooftops. Exposure to high doses reportedly caused heavy bleeding from the nose and gums, blindness, tremors, seizures, other neurological symptoms, and death. Similar incidents were reported in Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) in 1978, after the Vietnamese Army invaded that country to topple the dictator Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge regime.
- New York Times. Retrieved 12 February 2010.
- ^ Report of the Secretary-General on Chemical and Bacteriological (Biological). Weapons[permanent dead link], U.N. Doc. A/37/259, at 26–41 (Dec. 1, 1982)
- ^ PMID 6643363.
- PMID 6216925.
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- ^ PMID 20018570.
- ^ PMID 12857779.
- S2CID 38336939.
- PMID 6709055.
- ^ PMID 3715471.
- ^ JSTOR 1148733.
- ^ ISBN 9780975076958.
- ^ Zhang, Zhongying; Chen Yu-Ming; Chow Shu; Li Min (1977). "A Study of the Origin and the Pollen Analysis of "Yellow Rain" in Northern Jiangsu". Kexue Tongbao (22): 409–12.
- ^ a b Whiteside, Thomas (18 February 1911). "The Yellow Rain Complex (II)". The New Yorker. pp. 44–68.
- PMID 3713819.
- PMID 16346873.
- ^ PMID 19385595.
- ^ PMID 24669408.
- PMID 3183622.
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- New York Times.
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- ^ "U.S. Army Medical Department Center & School Portal" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ A Note from History: Yellow Rain[permanent dead link] Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- PMID 18208344.
- ^ Michael Johns, "Seventy Years of Evil", Policy Review, September 1987, p. 22.
- ^ The Story of Genocide in Afghanistan Hassan Kakar
- ^ Report from Afghanistan Archived 2017-01-28 at the Wayback Machine Claude Malhuret
- ^ Pearce, Fred (2002). "Green rain over India evokes memories of cold war paranoia". New Scientist.
- ^ Bartley, Robert (February 24, 2003). "Two Decades of Warnings, And Now Duct Tape: We've long known the dangers of bio warfare". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
- ^ Bryen, Stephen D. (2002-12-09). "Opinion: Ironic Chemistry: The U.N. Boosts Saddam's Threat". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2010-02-12.
- PMID 9244334.
- PMID 15954722.
- PMID 16908123.
- ^ a b Wilde, Henry (2008). "The "Yellow Rain" controversy: are there lessons from the past?" (PDF). Asian Biomedicine. 2 (5): 421–29. Retrieved 2010-02-10.[dead link]
- PMID 16796036. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
- ^ "The Science of Racism: Radiolab's Treatment of Hmong Experience". 2012-10-23. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ "Yellow Rain". radiolab. Archived from the original on 28 September 2012. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ "From Robert Krulwich on Yellow Rain". radiolab. 30 Sep 2012. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019. Retrieved 17 Oct 2019.
- ^ "Екоминистерството не откри отклонения в жълтия дъжд". Dnevnik.bg (in Bulgarian). 27 May 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
- ^ "Yellow Rain | Graywolf Press". www.graywolfpress.org. Retrieved 2022-08-17.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0-86091-068-8.
- Martin, Susan Boyles; Anne Clunan; Lavoy, Peter R. (2008). Terrorism, war, or disease?: unraveling the use of biological weapons. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-5977-9.
External links
- The Yellow Rain Affair Matthew Meselson and Julian Robinson
- A Note from History: Yellow Rain[permanent dead link] Defense Treaty Ready Inspection Readiness Program