Traces of dioxin found in streams near Camp Carroll: official

A joint inspection team of South Korean and U.S. officials found tiny amounts of dioxin in stream waters near a U.S. army base where drums of toxic defoliant Agent Orange were allegedly buried about three decades ago, a Seoul official said Thursday.
The team took samples from wells and streams near Camp Carroll last month as part of its probe into allegations by former U.S. soldiers that they helped bury large amounts of the defoliant in 1978 inside the U.S. army base in Chilgok, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
"Traces of dioxin were found in three of the six stream-water samples," the official involved in the joint survey told Yonhap News Agency, requesting not to be named.
The official, however, said the findings do not directly indicate that Agent Orange was buried in the U.S. base. "We need to study more to know whether the dioxin was from the air or from Camp Carroll," the official said.
No dioxin was found in samples taken from 10 wells near the base, he said.
Agent Orange, which was widely used in the Vietnam War, is suspected of causing serious health problems, including cancer and genetic damage among some people, as well as birth defects in their children. The defoliant was contaminated by dioxin, a highly toxic substance.
The team is scheduled to announce the results of its analysis of water samples later on Thursday.