US Airbases Research Articles

Neurodevelopmental Effects of Perinatal TCDD Exposure Differ from Those of Other PCDD/Fs in Vietnamese Children Living near the Former US Air Base in Da Nang, Vietnam

This study reports that children exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetra-chlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD), the major toxin in Agent Orange, from the breast milk of mothers residing near the former Da Nang US air base in Vietnam may have specific alterations in higher brain functions, resulting in social and communication deficits, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). After the age of 8 years, girls with high TCDD showed increased attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like behaviors and altered mirror neuron activity, which is often observed in children with ASD. However, no significant relationship between autistic traits and toxic equivalency values of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (TEQ-PCDD/Fs) was found in these children. Notably, boys with high levels of TEQ-PCDD/Fs showed poor language and motor development in the first 3 years of life, although boys with high TCDD levels did not. However, at 8 years of age, boys with high TCDD showed reading learning difficulties, a neurodevelopmental disorder. These findings suggest that perinatal TCDD exposure impacts social-emotional cognitive functions, leading to sex-specific neurodevelopmental disorders-learning difficulty in boys and ADHD in girls. Future studies with a greater number of children exposed to high levels of TCDD are necessary to estimate the threshold values for neurodevelopmental effects.

Serum dioxin concentrations in military workers at three dioxin-contaminated airbases in Vietnam

An estimated 91,998,400 L of herbicides were stocked at three US airbases in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971. These herbicides were contaminated with 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetraCDD). In 2017, we sampled blood from 120 male Vietnamese military workers in the three dioxin-contaminated airbases (Bien Hoa, Da Nang, and Phu Cat) and from 20 workers at an uncontaminated airbase. 2,3,7,8-tetraCDD concentrations were highest in samples from Bien Hoa (18.2 pg/g lipid), followed by samples from Da Nang (9.2 pg/g lipid), Phu Cat (3.7 pg/g lipid), and the reference base (2.1 pg/g lipid). In Bien Hoa, 31 of the 50 subjects had blood 2,3,7,8-tetraCDD levels in the range of 10–100 pg/g lipid and four subjects had 2,3,7,8-tetraCDD levels that exceeded 100 pg/g lipid. In Da Nang, almost half of the subjects had blood 2,3,7,8-tetraCDD concentrations in the range of 10–100 pg/g lipid. These findings suggest that military workers at contaminated bases are the population most vulnerable to dioxin exposure, especially at Bien Hoa.

The Limits of Authoritarian Rule at the Periphery: The PIDE, the American Airbase, and Social Control on Terceira Island, Azores, 1954–1962

In 1954, the Portuguese political police (Polícia Internacional e da Defesa do Estado: PIDE) created posts in the Azores island of Terceira, with a view to detecting activists against the authoritarian Portuguese regime and strengthening control over a part of the remote archipelago in the Atlantic. The PIDE agents were entering a difficult setting. The local elites and regular police units, and the Portuguese army units in the island, were far from delighted to have to work with the repressive arm of the regime. Exiles and opposition sympathizers from the mainland who lived in the Azores sometimes had a good reputation locally and enjoyed the support of the islanders and the regional elite. This situation created frustration and scorn in the ranks of the police. But Terceira was not only an example of a peripheral zone of a Southern European authoritarian state but also the location of one of the most essential US airbases of the Cold War, on the Lajes Airfield. The massive US troop presence complicated the task of the PIDE agents. It led to questions of access for controlling potential opponents of the regime inside the base, but it also led to a whole range of conflicts and worries about the “Americanization” of the island and (from the point of view of regime hardliners) unwanted cultural exchange. This article analyzes the complex interactions through the interpretation of the formerly unknown PIDE series on Angra do Heroísmo (the island capital) and US American documentation on the Azores from the NARA.

Public health assessment of dioxin-contaminated fish at former US airbase, Bien Hoa, Vietnam

Ponds at the former US airbase at Ben Hoa, Vietnam are contaminated with Agent Orange. The ponds had been used for aquaculture, and in all likelihood, fish from those ponds have been sold to the public. We assessed human exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzo-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) in fish samples from the ponds. For on-base tilapia, muscle concentrations 2,3,7,8-TCDD ranged from 1.4 to 32.7 pg/g. Fat concentrations ranged from 73.3 to 3990 pg/g. Estimated human exposure doses exceed international guidelines and exceed 2,3,7,8-TCDD’s lowest adverse effect levels. The Bien Hoa fishponds are a completed human pathway for TCDD exposure.

Prevalence and Management of Fourth Molars: A Retrospective Study and Literature Review

To evaluate the prevalence of fourth molars and determine if there are differences in occurrence with respect to gender, race, laterality, and site. The charts and panoramic radiographs of all patients referred for third molar consultation between November 2008 and October 2010 at Misawa, US Air Base, Japan were reviewed and data collected included age, gender, and race. Inclusion criteria were minimum age of 18 years and no history of prior third molar surgery. If fourth molars were present, their number, location, size, and shape were noted. Patients with fourth molars were compared to patients without fourth molars with respect to gender and race. Percentages were calculated for laterality and site of occurrence as well. If differences were observed in these parameters, the χ(2) test was used to evaluate if the observed differences were statistically significant. Four hundred nine patients met the inclusion criteria and their charts and panoramic radiographs were reviewed. Fourth molars were observed in 2.2% of the patients. Their prevalence was slightly higher in males (2.2%) than in females (2.1%). They were notably more common in black patients (6.4%) than in whites (0.9%) (P < .005) and they presented more often in the maxilla (78%) than in the mandible (22%) but this difference was not statistically significant (P < .09). Most patients (55%) with fourth molars had them unilaterally. The maxillary fourth molars were typically peg-shaped and small, while the mandibular ones resembled miniature mandibular third molars. The prevalence of fourth molars in this population is 2%. They appear to be more common in black patients and tend to occur mostly in the maxilla unilaterally. When present, the decision to remove these supernumerary teeth should be based on a risk/benefit analysis similar to that of third molars.

GREAT BRITAIN, THE UNITED STATES, AND CONSULTATION OVER USE OF THE ATOMIC BOMB, 1950–1954

ABSTRACTThe subject of when nuclear weapons might have to be employed by the United States during the early Cold War period was the setting for a prolonged and uneasy dialogue within the Anglo-American relationship. While British governments pressed for a formal agreement that there should be prior consultation before the atomic bomb was ever used, the Americans were determined to retain the freedom to take this crucial decision alone. This article explores the debates that ensued and the tensions that were created by this issue, between the meetings of Attlee and Truman in December 1950 and the Indochina crisis of 1954, and highlights the contrasting geopolitical positions of Britain and the United States as they sought to reconcile their views. For the British, playing host to a clutch of important US airbases, the risk of early nuclear devastation in any outbreak of general war was a paramount consideration. Although impatient with British caution, the Americans recognized an overriding need for allied support in general war giving British views the capacity to exercise a restraining influence.

Walking to Greenham: How the Peace-Camp Began and the Cold War Ended by Ann Pettitt (review)

REVIEWS 75I Islam developed at theNizhnii Novgorod Centre forStrategic Research seems too much of a top-down Kremlin project designed to channel and control Muslim radicalism, broadly and perhaps over-freely defined. Helen Faller contrasts Tatars tan with Ukraine, emphasizing the 'emerging social distance between Kazan's two primary language communities' (p. 330), and examining a reality of increasing linguistic reconquest of public space fromRussian. Mikhail Alexseev, on the other hand, looks at a dormant issue inRussia's Far East. Chinese settlement in Primorskii krai has simply not yet been extensive enough to trigger any large-scale counter-movement. In a similar vein, Elise Giuliano provides an illuminating approach to 'theorizing nationalist separatism in Russia'. Historical-institutional and economic structural approaches often tend to over-predict nationalist mobilization, whereas Giuliano is also interested in movements that don't happen. Nationalism 'can come and go within a given population' (p. 55). Giulliano agrees with Mark Beissinger that it is better analysed as a form of 'mass behaviour'. UCL SSEES Andrew Wilson Pettitt,Ann. Walking toGreenhorn: How the Peace-Camp Began and theCold War Ended. Honno Welsh Women's Press, Aberystwyth, 2006. 310 pp. Illustrations. ?8.99 (paperback). In the spring of 1981,Ann Pettitt decided to organize a march ofwomen from Cardiff to the US air base at Greenham Common, Berkshire, to protest against the planned deployment there of Cruise missiles. The march took place from 26 August to 5 September of that year under the aegis of the newly formedWomen forLife on Earth and led to the establishment of the Women's Peace Camp. This, however, is not the story of the Greenham movement as a whole. For that we have David Fairhall's Common Ground: The Story of Greenham (London, 2006). It isAnn's story of what she personally did, thought and experienced (plus, for historical background, the story of her parents' lives before and duringWorld War Two). Ann played a crucial role right at the beginning of themovement, but later itdeveloped inways ofwhich she did not fully approve. Walking to Greenham will be of interest to students of Russia primarily because about half of the book (PartThree: 'The Duck of Peace Flies East') is devoted to her May 1983 visit, togetherwith fellow activist Karmen and specialist in Soviet ecological issuesJean McCollister, to theUSSR. Unlike many Western anti-nuclear campaigners, Ann and her friends were far from naive about theUSSR. Both sides, in theirview, shared blame for the arms race and theCold War, neither ofwhich could be ended without change on both sides. Such change had to include the building of trustat all levels; that required open and authentic communication; and that in turn required the liftingof totalitarian controls in the East. 752 SEER, 86, 4, OCTOBER 2008 This line of thinking led toan alliance with the independentMoscow Group forTrust, towhom theywere introduced by Jean. Attempting to use their status as heroines of the struggle forpeace towin official recognition for the Trust Group, they brought a member of the group along with them to a meeting with the Soviet Peace Committee, provoking an outraged reaction from SPC deputy chairman (andKGB colonel) Oleg Kharkhardin. Neverthe less, their solidarity ? and that of themany otherWestern activists who visitedMoscow in theirwake ? did enable theTrust Group to continue its work and protect it from further repression. And it is significant thatwhile Kharkhardin's mind was tightlyclosed other Soviet participants in themeet ing did not conceal an intense and sympathetic interest inwhat thewomen fromGreenham Common had to say. Readers should not be overhasty in dismissing Ann's claim that shemade an important contribution to opening up Soviet society and ending theCold War. Her testimony serves as further confirmation of the thesis so cogently argued byMatthew Evangelista ? namely, that the Cold War was brought to an end through cooperative interaction between Soviet reformers and Western disarmament activists (UnarmedForces: The TransnationalMovement to End the ColdWar, Ithaca, NY, 1999; see, also, the account ofmy collaboration with Viktor Girshfeld at ). The 'new thinking'was a product precisely of this interaction. To be sure, our effortswould hardly have borne such rapid fruitwere itnot for the rise to power ofMikhail Gorbachev. Ann Pettitt has made a few errors of detail concerning...

The 1950 ‘Ambassador's agreement’ on USAF bases in the UK and British fears of US atomic unilateralism

The article explores the 1950 ‘Ambassador's Agreement’ (named after US Ambassador Lewis Douglas) about establishing long-term US air bases in the UK. During the discussions British representatives expressed resentment of American pressure and were concerned about the expense that developing the bases for American purposes might entail. There were even fears that Washington might use the airfields to launch an atomic bomb attack on the USSR without regard to the views of the UK government. The British consented to providing the bases because they wanted to enmesh the US further in UK and Western European defence. For their part American negotiators had wanted to further US atomic strategy without delay. Although the agreement imposed no restriction on the use of the airfields, some US officials believed that in a crisis the UK government might try to prevent them being used for atomic bombing missions.

An epidemiological study regarding the hearing acuity of residents in the area with high level of aircraft noise: results of hearing tests conducted in the vicinity of Kadena Air Base

Hearing tests, primary and secondary, were conducted in two communities vicinal to Kadena US Air Base in Okinawa from May 1996 to July 1998. The noise exposure expressed in WECPNL as designated by the Defense Facilities Administration Agency ranged from 85 to 95 and above. A total of 2035 subjects aged between 25 and 69 years inclusive were considered eligible for inclusion in this study and among them 137 males and 206 females underwent the primary test. Before the test, subjects were asked about hearing difficulty, tinnitus, otological anamnesis and past experience of noise exposure at work and/or hobbies. The primary test was a pure tone audiometry using the ascending method of limits with 5 dB step at 7 test frequencies of 0.5 to 8 kHz. Forty individuals who were judged to have possible noise induced hearing loss were sent to Okinawa Chubu Hospital as subjects for the secondary test. The secondary test consisted of pure tone audiometry with 1 dB step at 9 test frequencies with the addition of 3 kHz and 6 kHz to the primary test frequencies, a Short Increment Sensitivity Index (SISI), test, tympanometry and audioscan audiometry. Based on test findings 12 subjects were considered to have noise induced hearing loss. The examiners interviewed the 12 subjects again to confirm that they had not experienced habitual or repeated intense noise exposure other than aircraft noise exposure around their homes. The geographical distribution of the subject's residences showed their proximity to the airfield, which strongly suggests that the cause of hearing loss may be exposure to aircraft noise from Kadena Air Base.

'I Had Come as a Friend': Emotion, Cultural, and Ambiguity in the Formation of the Cold War, 1943-45

This article uses four different, primary-source accounts of a key conversation between Ambassador W. Averell Harriman and Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov as a springboard for analyzing the importance of emotions and cultural difference in US-Soviet relations from 1943 to 1945. The essay focuses particularly on Harriman, liaison to the Red Army, John R. Dean, and their efforts to establish closer relations with Soviet officials and to set up US air bases in the Ukraine. Feelings of anticipation, elation, disappointment, and bitterness - all heightened by homosociality -conditioned Harriman's and Deane's evaluation of Soviet policies and the chances for postwar cooperation.