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Scientology offers cure for Agent Orange
Source: Agencies |
September 7, 2012, Friday
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Print Edition
ALLEGED victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam are set to receive a controversial "detoxification" treatment developed by the Church of Scientology.
Scientologists use the "Hubbard Method" - which involves saunas and vitamins - to try to cure drug addiction and alcoholism.
The church set up a center in New York after the 9/11 attacks offering a similar service for first responders who may have been exposed to toxins.
Many researchers criticized the method as pseudoscientific and useless.
A hospital official and state-controlled media said 24 people were at a Hanoi hospital yesterday waiting for the program.
The US military dumped some 75 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971, decimating about 2 million hectares of forest.
Dioxins in it have since been linked to birth defects, though the US maintains there is no evidence of any link between Agent Orange and health problems among Vietnamese.
US Embassy spokesman Christopher Hodges said Washington was not funding the program. "We are not aware of any safe, effective detoxification treatment for people with dioxin in body tissues," he said.
The "Hubbard Method" is named after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. In 2004, adherents traveled to Indonesia to offer massages to survivors of the Asian tsunami, claiming they could relieve trauma.
Scientologists use the "Hubbard Method" - which involves saunas and vitamins - to try to cure drug addiction and alcoholism.
The church set up a center in New York after the 9/11 attacks offering a similar service for first responders who may have been exposed to toxins.
Many researchers criticized the method as pseudoscientific and useless.
A hospital official and state-controlled media said 24 people were at a Hanoi hospital yesterday waiting for the program.
The US military dumped some 75 million liters of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971, decimating about 2 million hectares of forest.
Dioxins in it have since been linked to birth defects, though the US maintains there is no evidence of any link between Agent Orange and health problems among Vietnamese.
US Embassy spokesman Christopher Hodges said Washington was not funding the program. "We are not aware of any safe, effective detoxification treatment for people with dioxin in body tissues," he said.
The "Hubbard Method" is named after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. In 2004, adherents traveled to Indonesia to offer massages to survivors of the Asian tsunami, claiming they could relieve trauma.
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