Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000 by William G. Robbins

Author:William G. Robbins [Robbins, William G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science
ISBN: 9780295989884
Google: NtsTCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 340012
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2004-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

The coup de grace in the forest herbicide controversy involved nine women who lived in forested areas and whose miscarriages coincided with herbicide spraying near the small logging community of Alsea. The story begins with Bonnie Hill, an Alsea high school teacher, who read an article in the summer of 1977 summarizing the research of James Allen of the University of Wisconsin. Allen's inquiries with rhesus monkeys linked exposure to TCDD with adverse effects on reproductive systems and spontaneous abortions. Recalling what seemed to her a high incidence of miscarriages in the Alsea area, Hill gathered information from several women on the dates, location, and circumstances of their miscarriages. In collecting her data, she omitted all miscarriages that had not been handled by a doctor.59 She then visited the offices of the Forest Service, BLM, the State Department of Forestry, and private timber companies and gathered information on the dates, locations, chemicals used, concentrations, and methods of application of all spraying operations. She drew up a chart listing the dates of miscarriages, the dates of the herbicide spraying, and maps that indicated an obvious correlation between spraying and incidences of miscarriage. Hill insisted in 1978 and in a personal interview in 2003 that her findings indicated a correlation only; she never claimed a cause-and-effect relationship. She drafted a letter asking federal agencies to look into the matter. The letter included the signatures of nine women who had a total of eleven medically documented miscarriages—eight of them occurring in 1976 and 1977, years of heavy spraying in the area.60

Hill mailed copies of the letter to public land managers, elected officials, and the EPA. Because of the gathering tempest over the controversial herbicides, the EPA sent an agency team with a detailed eighteen-page questionnaire to interview the Alsea women. The responses to the interview were reasonably consistent and convinced the EPA to turn over the questionnaire data to a team of obstetricians and gynecologists. Because several of the reviewers called for additional data, the EPA recommended an expanded study that would compare the incidence of miscarriages in the greater Alsea area with a comparable control group.61 With little fanfare, the EPA carried out a much larger survey, covering a 1,600-square-mile area in Lincoln and Benton counties. The study, known as the Alsea II to distinguish it from the EPA's initial findings, examined hospital records in rural and urban areas and found significantly higher percentages of miscarriages for the study area, a statistic that was even higher yet following spray periods. The results for the rural and urban control group did not exhibit that pattern of miscarriages. With these data in hand, EPA issued a temporary order on February 28, 1979, suspending further use of 2,4,5–T and Silvex in forest environments. Because they were not informed of the ongoing Alsea II survey, the suspension took Hill and her cohort completely by surprise.62

The EPA's interest in Bonnie Hill's preliminary findings attracted intense media interest. Newspapers printed dozens of articles, radio and television stories aired

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