Derby, Australia
The state of Western Australia admitted last week that its weed-killing program killed or sickened dozens of Aborigines in the 1970s and 1980s. The state initiated the program as a way to provide employment for the poverty-stricken Aborigines, as well as to get rid of invasive species of weeds in the wilderness region. But the herbicide the workers used contained one of the main ingredients of Agent Orange, the toxic substance the U.S. Army used to clear forests in Vietnam. “It’s pretty horrifying,” Western Australian Agriculture Minister Kim Chance told the London Observer. “They were getting bathed in this crap all day.” At least 24 of the workers, many in their 20s and 30s, died of herbicide-related illnesses. The weeds grew back in a few years.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Biden delivers Morehouse graduation speechSpeed Read It was the president's first time addressing a college campus since the breakout of Gaza war protests
-
Iran president dead in helicopter crashSpeed Read Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian were found dead at the site
-
'Time-honored political tactic: Throw your wife under the bus'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
