All language subtitles for The.People.Vs..Agent.Orange.2021.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX]

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- All these people
here to enjoy the

outdoors and boy, they have
no idea what just drove by.

And we'll go right up the
top of the mountain and...

spray 'em all.

Douglas County Parks
picnic area here.

Swift Water Park.

So we'll go up top
and toxify things.

- These helicopters
flying over the ridge

spraying something and they
didn't even see the kids.

The kids were all fishing or
just playing by the river.

And the kids were all
choking and gasping.

That night they were
all really sick.

They had diarrhea, they were
having trouble breathing.

We went down to the
river that next day

and that's when we
found dead ducklings

and dead crayfish, dead trout.

We called the Forest Service

and they said, "Oh no,
it's perfectly safe."

It was a mixture 2,4-D
and 2,4,5-T, Agent Orange,

that was banned in Vietnam
and nobody realized

that the same chemicals
were being used here.

And it's still going on.

- Agent Orange
was a tremendously

destructive component of a
tremendously destructive war.

In its own unique
way, Agent Orange was

the most destructive instance

of chemical warfare
in modern history.

- You're such a
good puppy, uh-huh.

You're gonna be a big help?

This is our newt pond.

If the sun comes out,
the newts will come out

but they're all in
hiding, and in the spring

which probably in another
month, they have orgies.

Really, I have X-rated
pictures of my newts.

[chickens clucking]

When I was still five
years old or something,

I read everything, cereal
boxes, the New York Times.

I mean it just didn't matter

and it was still during the war

and I read something
about all the birds

being killed by oil spills
from ships being blown up

and that's what I worried about

during the War was
all those birds.

You coming, Mike?
You gonna help me?

And I started writing letters.

I'm not sure who I sent
them to or [chuckles],

wanting someone to take
care of those birds, please!

Maybe that was the beginning
of my activism, I have no idea.

We moved here in '74.

The kids were just
part of this landscape.

They were down along the river.

They knew everything
that lived down there,

the dippers and
they're called dippers

because they'll sit on
a rock and bow to you.

My kids loved it, I mean
they were part of it.

There were beavers and
otters in the river then too

and of course all the fish
and the herons and ospreys.

So they just were part
of that, they loved it.

There was nothing
to worry about.

[saw buzzing]

[vehicles rumbling]

[truck beeping]

[Carol] Clear-cutting
is one of the most

insane things you could ever do.

It's like strip mining a living
organism, which a forest is.

They weren't required
to replant and most

of those clear-cuts developed
into huge brush fields.

Anything that would save the
soil was better than nothing.

Then all of a sudden
they were faced

with this law that says
you can't clear-cut

unless you replant
within three years.

So then they had to
clear all the brush

on these old clear-cuts so
they could replant them.

It just all coincided

with the end of the use of
Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Michael Newton from
Oregon State University

was getting surplus
barrels of Agent Orange

that the Air Force couldn't
use anymore in Vietnam

and was praising the
use of these things

and how they were going to
transform forestry forever.

And they started to
just blanket these

huge clear-cuts with
a lot of Agent Orange.

It drifts, and we could smell
it and within a few days,

our garden was dead, the
kids were all sick again

and the dog got so sick he died.

[ominous tones]

One woman had had
14 miscarriages

and hunters were
finding deformed deer,

baby fawns with no eyes.

Geese were hatching with
horrendous deformities.

They had their feet
on backwards, they
had crossed beaks.

Some of them had only one wing

or a little crippled up,
you know what I mean?

We just didn't know
until we were hearing

the same thing from
other people and that

it didn't happen until
the spraying happened.

That first meeting
we had out here,

no one knew what they were
spraying or what it was for.

A lot of people
just assumed, well,

it's the government doing
it, it must be okay.

We invited the Forest Service

and we were basically saying

"This is what's happening
to us and maybe you

don't know about it but now
you do and you need to stop."

And of course they didn't
take us seriously at all.

We call ourselves the
document junkies, you know?

Yeah, "no trace Of
contamination found."

That's the lies
they got published.

- Carol has been just
a tireless champion

for uncovering true,
factual, scientifically-based

information and trying to get
that before decision makers.

[protesters chanting]

These people were just
literally at their wit's end

and I remember sitting
there thinking Bruce,

there's some way you've
gotta help these people.

They are literally --
nobody's willing to help 'em.

And I said, you've gotta
produce the experts

and if you can produce
the experts, I'll take

your case on and we'll
go to battle over it.

[camera snaps]

- It was raining a minute ago
and the sun just came out.

So I just wanted
to document this.

I think this is why you're not

supposed to spray at
certain temperatures

and obviously you're
not supposed to spray

during the rain because
it goes right down

into the creek and over
there and over there.

Anyways, everything's going
into the creek around here.

These vapors, I'm
breathing 'em right now.

I'm in a gas chamber right now.

These chemicals volatize.

[helicopter whirring]

You gotta be f'ing kidding me.

I just got sprayed again.

[horns honking]

- [Reporter] At the White House,

the stage of history is set
for first meeting between

President Eisenhower and Senator
Kennedy since the election.

- When Eisenhower passed over

the national security
apparatus to John Kennedy,

how scared we had
to be that Communism

was on the march and we had
to stop it wherever it was.

Kennedy loved the idea
that American ingenuity,

not just big, scary bombs but

different, more surgical kinds
of technologies could be used

to defeat these insurgencies.
And Agent Orange,

herbicides in general, was
part of that strategic view.

[dramatic trumpet music]

- [Spokesman] Here at the Dow
Chemical Company in Midland,

Michigan, revolutionary
chemical killers are being

produced to help rid us
of these costly pests.

One of the newest and most
versatile weapons in Dow's

arsenal of chemical warfare
is 2,4-Dow weed killer.

Proved in action
against hundreds

of weeds and a wide
variety of crops.

2,4-D is a growth regulator
type of weed killer.

The action is physiological,
appearing to upset the plant's

growth processes and causing
gradual but certain death.

- The Saigon government in 1961

was a vociferous proponent

of the use of
herbicides in Vietnam.

The Diem government was
fighting a Communist insurgency

in the South that was
supplied by the North.

[gunfire clacking]

They felt that the insurgency

was a major threat
to their existence.

- Okay.

This is in October, 1961.

Things haven't really
gotten started yet.

These are Telexes: it's a
message from Ambassador Nolting

but basically saying President
Diem is begging people

to spray crops and there's
so much doubt and confusion

in Washington about
whether to do this or not.

- And as long as they controlled
the defoliation program

in a very professional way,
then there wasn't any concern

that the prohibitions of
the Geneva Protocol applied.

"The President has
approved the recommendation

of the Secretary of State
and the Deputy Secretary

of Defense to participate
in a selective

and carefully
controlled joint program

of defoliant
operations in Vietnam,

starting with the
clearance of key routes

and proceeding thereafter
to food denial."

- [Zierler] - Take
away the forest cover,

take away the
insurgents' capability

to hide and conduct
guerrilla ambush operations.

But once the overall
war escalated, the
defoliation program

just sort of followed rather
mindlessly right behind it.

Spraying millions of gallons
of highly concentrated

herbicides indiscriminately
over vast areas of forest

many times over is
chemical warfare.

It was highly destructive
and it was massive.

It was a weapon of
mass destruction.

- Ranch Hand was
the name for the

herbicide defoliation
program run by the Air Force.

I was sent over to
Vietnam in May of 1971

to do the final
historical write-up

of the Ranch Hand program.

I had made friends with a young
Army lieutenant over there

and he came to me one
afternoon and said,

"We have received orders
from headquarters."

This was 1971.

"We are to dump the
computer and erase it."

Not download it and
ship to Washington.

"Dumped," he said.

He said, "If you want
any of that information

for your report, you're
gonna have to come

with me tonight and we'll
go over to MACV Headquarters

and I'll get you into my office
and we'll print 'em out."

And he turned on the machine

and we printed out
a stack like that,

that had missions,

sorties, how many
aircraft in every mission,

coordinates, how many
gallons dropped, the dates,

everything for all of
Southeast Asia including Laos.

My report indicated that

there were some real problems

developing from people
exposed to Agent Orange.

I finished my report
and it was immediately

classified SECRET and the
government kept it locked up

for over 35 years and
denied that it even existed.

- It was tantamount to
a cover up regardless.

There was information that
was withheld, distortions

that were commonplace,

that did a real disservice

to the veterans and
to our rule of law.

All of that occurred with
far greater regularity

and at far higher levels than
I would like to acknowledge.

- [Clary] The powers that
be went to great lengths

to play down--

to deny--any effect
of the TCDD, dioxin,

in the herbicide.

- When we started
the litigation,

this became a real
David and Goliath act

because we had the
whole U.S.Attorney's
office representing

the Federal government
and the largest law firm

in the state of Oregon
representing I.F.A.,

which is a front
group for the chemical

manufacturers and
for timber sprayers.

The Forest Service had been
unwilling to do any kind

of community health
survey after the spraying

to see if anybody was
in fact being harmed.

It was simply saying,"Our
chemicals aren't
harming anybody."

But it wasn't looking to
see if they were harmed.

- My cousin, she said
she had a miscarriage

and a friend of mine, she
did have a miscarriage.

- [Reporter] And this was all

in this area where
they're spraying?

- Yeah.

- The women have lived in areas

that have been sprayed
very close to their homes.

Many of us have
gravity-feed water systems.

And the dates that
they were sprayed

are really amazing
because all of the areas

were sprayed within a month
before the miscarriage.

- And it was very stunning

that they would spray an
area and within a month

the miscarriage
rate--what they called

the spontaneous abortion
rate--would skyrocket,

according to the hospital data.

- Between my husband and I
and our nurse practitioner,

we delivered between 100
and 150 children a year...

seeing a larger number
of birth defects

than we would've expected.

We saw a number of
congenital hearts.

And I think it was 1978, I
delivered an anencephalic child.

That's a child that doesn't
have basically the normal brain.

In my lifetime of
delivering babies,

I would not expect
ever to see one.

And about a year later,

we delivered a second
anencephalic child.

Those odds were
just astronomical

that a small practice like ours

would have two
anencephalic children.

All of these
chemicals are suspect.

We know in animals that
they cause birth defects.

Why are we using them in humans?

It made me realize that
there was something going on

and the something
that I was aware of

was broadcast spraying
of herbicides.

At that point, it was mainly
2,4-D over our water supplies

because we drink surface
water at the coast.

[ominous tones ]

[camera snaps]

- Down below me is a
dam and a water supply.

If this camera shows it,
there's the helicopter

on the ridge right
there by the trees.

So we're gonna be
spraying right below it.

Crazy!

That whole unit over there
is dead, dead, dead, dead

and they're spraying
more chemicals on it

right now as we speak.

I gotta hold this low because

right over there is the
honcho of the forest.

So basically we
dropped 1160 gallons

into this right here

and it is, I'm gonna
show you real quick,

it's gonna go basically right
down into that watershed

and the unit's already
de-weeded anyways.

I don't know why they did that.

And here's the reservoir,

I'm down here at the reservoir.

And we're gonna go spray

on the other side of
the reservoir now.

Both sides of the watershed.

[Darryl coughs]

My throat is burning.

- The kids were involved in
the whole herbicide battle.

They were helping
write the newsletters

and draw the pictures
and help with signs.

There's the poster
that Daphne made.

She did that when
she was about 11.

They were right in
the thick of it.

We had like five minutes
to come up with a name

for this group: Citizens
Against Toxic Sprays, CATS.

It wasn't the most imaginative
name but it worked, I guess.

Hi.
- Hi, Carol.

- And it wasn't until
basically CATS was formed

and started questioning it
with filing a court action

and then it suddenly
got some attention and

there was a lot of pushback

from the chemical companies
and the timber companies.

- Chemicals are
being used as a means

of achieving environmental
goals, really.

The attack is not scientific,
it's purely emotional.

The public does not understand
and we unfortunately

haven't successfully
communicated to
the public as yet.

Take 2,4,5-T for example.

2,4,5-T is about as
toxic as aspirin.

The safety factor in
the use of 2,4,5-T

is far greater than the safety
factors in use of aspirin.

Now does the public
understand that?

- [Carol] Documents disappearing

is a common thing I think
in this whole story.

Susan Swift's health study

that she was doing of
everybody in this valley...

she had done door-to-door survey

of peoples' health and the
children's health and animals,

anything that people
could report about

and her house getting broken
into and this health study,

all the data she had
collected, it was gone.

- I was just taking information

and gathered the data together

and I created a
questionnaire to go

and I interviewed every home
up and down Five Rivers Road.

There was an enormous amount

of small tumors
and miscarriages.

Right after that, my box of

documented forms
disappeared out of my house.

The board members of
Citizens Against Toxic Sprays

were going to Eugene
over the mountain

taking these Forest
Service roads,

just going straight up
and over the mountain,

all gravel little logging roads,

and we were being
followed by a shiny sedan

with guys in suits.

And that was pretty bizarre.

[low, ominous tones]

- One Saturday morning
when my husband

was making rounds
at the hospital,

two fellows in suits
showed up at my front door

and said they wanted to
talk about the herbicides.

And I said that was fine.

My two children
were running around

very happily playing.

They didn't really say
where they were from.

I said, "Come on in,
have a cup of coffee."

Because I had had a
number of reporters

and other people show up.
And then when they said,

"Do you know at all times
where your children are?"

I realized that I didn't.

And I said it was time
to end the interview

because it was clearly a threat
against me and my children.

And it worked, I'm done.

- [Bruce] A van that had dark
tinted windows on both sides

suddenly showed up outside
of Carol and Steve's house,

who were the leaders of

the Citizens Against
Toxic Spray movement.

- This is for Sadie.

The car was parked here but
they were walking up here

with all their gear, obviously
thinking I wasn't home.

He didn't really explain
why they were here.

It was when I
realized the other guy

was sneaking up there
and talking to the kids,

then I got kind of angry.

He was asking them
all about what kinds

of deformed critters we had in
the freezer--because we did!

We saved a bunch of
them hoping to get 'em

analyzed to see what was in 'em.

- But the rear door flew open
as it drove away and they

could see that there were
large video cameras in there.

- [Carol] The phone company
itself, their employees

told us that our phones
were being tapped.

Steve would get in the car

and he would usually
drive over the back roads.

Nobody drives over
there, nobody did then.

Suddenly, there'd
be a car behind him

and it would stick
to him all the way

every time they went to
the valley to do anything.

Who is it? We don't know.

Is it government people?
Is it industry people?

There was no way to really know.

- [Bruce] It was an obvious
attempt to try to intimidate

the folks who were
bringing this litigation

to try to reduce
herbicide aerial spraying.

- Well, we won a
temporary injunction.

What the Judge in the CATS case,

thanks to all those
scientists and studies

that we were able to
compile, ruled was that hey,

you've got to include in
your environmental impact

statement the effects of
these chemicals in Vietnam.

And that was a blow to the
Forest Service because by then,

there were some really
documented impacts in Vietnam.

We felt vindicated
in a lot of ways

but his injunction only
applied to 2,4,5-T,

which was half of Agent Orange.

The CATS case generated
quite a bit of publicity

just because it was so amazing
that these people living

out in the woods could sue the
Federal government and win.

It was kind of unheard
of at that point,

especially on an
environmental issue.

So other people
were contacting us.

They were all experiencing
the same thing.

This was people in other
places in Oregon, in

the state of Washington, in
Idaho, in Northern California.

There were even requests
from places back east.

- [Susan] One thing I'll
never forget is that just

gathering scientific data
from Oregon State University,

what we were able to find
from their own library,

studies in Idaho of
roadside spray workers

that showed deformed sperm
after the spray season.

- So we put together
an information packet

and then they could use
that information to take

their own actions and file
their own cases, whatever.

[ominous music]

There were negative feelings
toward what we were doing.

The propaganda put out by

the chemical companies
and the timber companies

that number one, there's
nothing wrong with the sprays

and number two, these people
are just the lunatic fringe.

They convinced the
loggers or some

of them anyway that
they were gonna all

be out of work if they
couldn't use the herbicides.

- The house was on fire when
Carol came up the driveway.

The house was totally in flames.

Patrick said he stopped her,

that she grabbed a knife
off his belt and started

running up the hill and he
just grabbed her and held her.

And he felt sure
that Carol was gonna

try to take her own
life that night.

The Van Strum
children were gone...

And we all crumbled, we all
just couldn't believe it.

- The firefighters
said it was arson.

It's hard to talk about
it, I just can't really.

They had done the absolute
worst thing anybody

could do to me and they
couldn't do anymore.

Okay everybody, who's hungry?

Yes, you want some brekker.

The animals were still here.

I think that's what
kept me going, you know?

It was what was left of my kids

was what they loved, you know?

Oh boy, here you go.

Oakey's the big
one, 30 years old.

He's very intuitive.

Like if you're really upset
about something, he will come

and just like lean against
you and be comforting.

Hey, Rudy-tooty.

He wants to help you feel
better, I don't know.

I rely on him.

[Carol laughs]

This was the garage,
there was no floor here.

And so we put a floor
in and I just was living

in this room and I still am.

In a way, it was in honor of
my kids I had to keep going.

They fought this fight
too, it wasn't just me.

And the only thing was to
keep going for their sake.

- The Federal government
basically federalized

all the chemical companies
to do nothing but produce

Agent Orange and other chemicals
for the war in Vietnam.

And they knew that the
more they produced,

the more money they would make.

So they, in order to

deliver as much as they could
as quickly as they could,

they violated then
existing industry standards

for the production of herbicides

by using a process
that was much shorter,

at higher temperatures,

that was responsible for
the presence of the dioxin

in the ultimate chemical
substances that were created.

And they knew that it posed
a risk to individuals.

They knew that it posed
a risk to the land.

They knew that it
contained a poison

and they knew that the
effects could be devastating.

- While I was
preparing my report,

I came across a letter that
I got out of headquarters

that was from Dow to the
government and back and said,

"We cannot produce
the quantities

of Agent Orange you want
and maintain the low level,

insignificant level,
of TCDD, dioxin."

And they went back and said,

"Don't worry about it,
we need the quantities.

Besides, it's gonna be sprayed
on the jungle over there.

There aren't gonna
be any people there.

And if they happen to
get into it, so what?

We're at war."

- In a letter from
Dr. James Clary,

an Air Force scientist, saying
that he and others involved

in Ranch Hand knew that
Agent Orange was harmful.

- We knew dioxin

is an extremely
potent carcinogenic,

mutagenic, meaning it causes
chromosomes to mutate,

teratogenic, affecting
the fetus of a woman.

Very potent compound.

- National Bureau of Standards

estimate on the half-life
for a dioxin molecule:

two billion years.

That's why EPA regards it
as equivalent to plutonium,

both in its toxicity
and in its longevity,

how long it can persist.

So it doesn't go away,
it goes away politically.

- This is the first time
that the scientists have

ever created a molecule
this toxic and that they

know that even just one
to two parts per trillion

can cause birth defects,
mutations, cancer.

- We sprayed 20 million gallons
of that stuff over there.

Their watersheds
are contaminated.

Their rice fields
are contaminated.

Their wells are contaminated.

Depending on who
you want to believe,

there's four or 500,000 adults

contaminated with it and
half a million children.

[somber tone]

[helicopters whirring]

- The Forest Service never
did spray 2,4,5-T again.

They substituted 2,4-D
on the assumption

that it had no dioxin in it

and that it was safe

and Melyse's water
supply got sprayed.

- [Reporter] Melyse Connelly
was one of the Five Rivers

women who pleaded
with the government

to come and test
their environment.

She remembers that the EPA

sent two scientists
from Colorado.

They took some samples and left,

promising to return in 90 days.

In the meantime, they wanted

Melyse to come up
with more material.

That included a backyard chicken

which she still has in
her freezer and a number

of water samples taken
with special EPA filters.

- We called him, we wrote him.

We wondered where he was.

90 days is what he gave us,

that he would be back
in touch with us.

That was in '79.

'83, here we are.

- Are you angry?
- I'm very angry.

I'm very upset.

- There were samples taken
of people in the area,

of tissue and
blood and I believe

urine as well and
submitted for testing.

Somehow, they disappeared.

How can you have something
like that disappear?

- Well it's both a bureaucratic
bollix and suppression.

- [reporter] Paul Merrell
and Carol Van Strum

have been battling
with the EPA for years.

They're also responsible
for uncovering many

of the EPA documents that
have now come to light.

- The EPA planned ahead of
time with the Forest Service

to come in after they sprayed
and collect the body count.

- [reporter] You're
saying the people

out there were used
as guinea pigs?

- That's right.
- How do you know that?

- From their own documents.

- I'm not sure what's
gonna happen now but

somebody's gonna pay.

- [reporter] Dr. Mike
Newton of Oregon State

says that a recent
study of herbicide

applicators showed no
signs of health hazards.

- They've got to start listening

to some of the residents
and our rights.

I mean I have to move because
my daughter became very ill

just a year ago
with a blood disease

that has been associated
with herbicides.

I feel like I'm just

up against the wall, you know?

And that I've done all
that I can do peaceably.

- This is sort of a cause
of life and death in a way.

- Working within the
system has been done.

The appeals have been done,
lawsuits have been done.

Public hearings,
conferences with officials

have been done and still
the spraying goes on.

- This person has been
contaminated. They spray people!

- [Carol] There've
been incidents

in other parts of
the country where

people have actually shot
at the spray helicopter.

- [Masked Woman] A helicopter
was burned as a message

to the companies who profit
from spraying poisons.

We sabotage
poison-spreading machines

as an act of self-defense.

- [Carol] No one was hurt.

It was the frustration,
even with the CATS case,

that they could still
go ahead and spray 2,4-D

and at that point they
were adding, since they

couldn't use 2,4,5-T,
they added glyphosate

and atrazine and-
- Tordon.

- Tordon.
- All these chemical

cocktails that no one
has ever put together

and tested on any
living creature.

- And so they could continue
spraying is the point.

- [Masked Woman]
Our present health

and genetic future are at
stake. We will strike again.

- Newly released court
documents indicate

that the companies which
manufactured Agent Orange

knew as far back as the 1960s
that one of its ingredients

known as 2,4,5-T contained
the toxic contaminant dioxin.

- It just blew my
mind to see documents,

internal memos from chemical
companies, that would say

"We know this is toxic,
we're gonna sell it anyway."

- Dow realized that
they needed to settle

the Agent Orange case to keep
all that information buried.

In the fall of 1983,

Dow as the leader
of all the 2,4,5-T

manufacturers withdrew all
registrations for 2,4,5-T.

And what that did
was bury everything:

all that evidence of dioxin

in the environment,
in human tissues,

in the Vietnam veterans.

Very, very damaging
information on

the health effects
of 2,4,5-T and dioxin

just was swept under the
rug, went into EPA archives

and it's now gone forever
except what I managed to save.

So that record would
have been dynamite

for the veterans if
that case had continued,

but it didn't.

- The case was not settled
on any scientific basis.

It was settled on
a political basis.

The defendants wished

to avoid further litigation.

The moment it was settled,
their stock went up.

So they made a wise decision.

- I think this is
good for the veterans.

I think it's good
for the defendants.

I think it's good
for the country

because I think it allows
us all now to put this issue

behind us and get on with
the business we have to do.

- My mother had two
miscarriages when my father

came back from Vietnam and
then I was born in '72.

I only weighed three
pounds and four ounces.

My father said he could hold me

in his hand like
this, I was so small.

I'm missing my right
leg below the knee,

my fingers and I'm
missing my big toe

and my other toes
are webbed but, yeah.

My story is not very much
unlike many, many children

in Vietnam and other
American children as well.

So we share the same
type of birth defects.

- No, I don't get any
benefits from the government.

They deny that the children

of male Vietnam veterans

are affected.

My father's own
illness, he died of.

So I'm hoping with your lawsuit,
that things will change.

That it'll stick this time

and many people
will understand how

the chemical companies
have destroyed many people.

- I was getting so angry

that my own government

didn't want to provide help to
veterans who were suffering.

- We had a sense of moral
outrage about what happened

and the fact that we
felt as lawyers, we had

the opportunity and
the obligation to
raise these issues.

[gavel bangs]

And the case died.

It's frustrating.

- Was any assurance
given when you arrived at

the settlement with the chemical
companies and the veterans

that there would not be

any more litigation?

Would such an assurance have

affected your role

when the Vietnamese
people's case came to you?

- I'm not prepared to
discuss the Vietnamese issue.

It was a separate case,

decided long after the
major settlement was

decided upon, accepted
and fully executed.

- [Alan] So then no
such assurance was given

to the chemical companies
in the original case?

- The original case gave

the producers what
they settled for.

- [Alan] And was there finality,

an assurance of
finality to that?

- I thought there was.

- These companies have been able

to avoid accountability
for what they've done.

I think your case is
incredibly important as sort of

the last opportunity that
we may have to hold these

companies accountable for
the wrongdoing that they knew

they were engaged in when they
made this poisonous product.

- The National Forest
here is no longer sprayed

and the reason is a
series of lawsuits

that began with
the CATS lawsuit.

But how about all
those other people?

How about people right
down the road that have

private timberland around
them that's getting sprayed?

- Here he comes, I
gotta reload him.

All these chemicals
are going in there.

All this goes into that truck.

This stuff is nasty stuff.

It's a nasty combo and
it kills everything.

It kills everything including

my ability to breathe correctly.

[camera snaps]

Hold on, it says on the label:

"hazardous to humans
and domestic animals."

And it leaks out
onto everywhere.

There's just so many things
not right about this.

- [Carol] They're gonna
keep these chemicals

on the market no matter what.

The only hope is for
the community rights

movement to keep insisting
that we have the right

to protect all of our
communities from being poisoned.

And maybe it's a pipe dream
but if these corporations

have human rights according
to the Supreme Court,

well damn it, they
should be subject

to capital punishment just
like an individual would be.

[people applauding]

[people applauding]

- It's been hard work
coming for us but-

- A lot of hard work but I want

to emphasize how
important the work is.

Even though you feel sometimes
you're working in isolation,

there's a lot of
people watching this.

- [Amelie] She was diagnosed
with cancer this week.

[thunder booming]

- [Carol] Documents
accumulated over 40 years

of Freedom of Information
Actions that I did,

including several lawsuits

to try to get
documents out of EPA,

PCB lawsuits, the
Agent Orange lawsuits

trying to stop the
government spraying out here.

Then I had a bunch of stuff

from Dow Chemical that
they hoped I'd never get.

I couldn't afford to
store them anywhere

and that's when Peter
von Stackelberg,

the Canadian journalist, drummed
up some funding to get them

all scanned and that was how
the Poison Papers happened.

We must have scanned
close to 200,000 pages.

He could upload them
as they were scanned.

10 hours a day, non-stop.

A lot of the documents involved

the fraudulent testing
of chemical products.

So lawyers now in
bringing these lawsuits

are being able to find that
information and use it.

I hope they'll make trouble.

I mean, that's the whole goal

is to make them available
to anybody that needs them.

[camera snapping]

- Will you film
my tongue please?

Can you see that?

I am at the hospital

and I'm getting ready to go into

the decontamination shower.

I showed them some
of the pamphlets

of

what I got sprayed with
and this one right here,

they seemed to be
very concerned about.

They have told me
to come out here

and stand here because they
don't want me in the hospital

and so I'm being treated like
a biological hazard here.

I just got up.

This is what...

[Darryl coughs]

The only way I can
sleep at night...

is eating lots of those

'cause I can't breathe right
due to these chemicals.

This is my old rag
I have at night

by the bed and obviously,

you can see I'm using
it for, really nasty,

I know this is a nasty video but

this is the crap that's
coming out of me.

[coughs]

- [Susan] There's a
wonderful saying that

if you think you're too
little to make a difference,

then you have never been
in bed with a mosquito.

- It is with great pleasure
that the conference co-directors

of the 36th annual Public
Interest Environmental Law

Conference select Carol
Van Strum as a recipient

of this year's David Brower
Lifetime Achievement Award

in recognition of her
outstanding environmental

social justice work in
Lincoln County, Oregon.

[people applauding]

- I just want to thank everybody
for making this happen.

It's amazing and the other thing

I want to say is that
it was never about me.

It's always

been a lot of other people,

some of them not alive
with us today. [sniffs]

And that's what's gonna make
the changes that are needed.

I think you've got
several generations

coming up of
troublemakers that'll do

a whole lot more than
any of us did, I hope.

[people cheering]

[Music crescendoes]