About the Author
John Hopkin
John Hopkins was working at a Veterans Administration Hospital in Pittsburgh Pa where he won a Superior Performance Award for his work on Patients Rights, when he proposed to study Agent Orange for his Doctoral Dissertation.
The Dissertation Committee at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health approved and he moved to the hospital’s outpatient department to begin an investigation into the Agent Orange experiences among Vietnam Veterans. Having already received a Masters in Public Health including a thesis on Veterans with chronic Schizophrenia, his work on Agent Orange’s effects on soldiers and the political and legal policy issues, in real time, offered a look at Public Health Politics from a unique vantage point.
Fast forward forty years and the same elements of correlation and causality in the Agent Orange controversy are back on trial over “forever chemicals” (nano particles) and the separate continued used of a weed killer/herbicide, glyphosate.
The original project proposed a political/legal/public health resolution to the Agent Orange litigation which never materialized. This revised edition revisits the strengths and weaknesses of the scientific methods to determine causality (or not).
Vietnam Veterans, contemporary scientists, lawyers and followers of Public Health will find PHP and AO an informative blue print for the next round of any new industrial products with immediate benefits and unknown future consequences.