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Letters: Our French neighbours seem too distant
Connexion reader explains that despite going to lengths to get to know their new neighbours, most do not return the effort
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Letters: Readers trade DIY tips for restoring French properties
Special innovations are often required for older buildings
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Letters: Le Tour de France is more about big business than national identity
A reader takes issue with our columnist's view that the Tour De France reflects 'the state of France itself and its illusions of grandeur'
Think again on dangers of herbicide
RE: THE letter from Rex Barron in the September issue ( Glyphosate herbicide is no danger to humans ). His assertion that “a herbicide … is not dangerous to the human metabolism” is simply not true.
All use of 2,4,5-T (one of the Agent Orange ingredients) has been banned in the USA and Canada since 1985 and restricted by the 75 signatory nations of the Rotterdam Convention since 1998.
There have been numerous scientific studies of chronic health problems and birth defects caused by herbicide use in Vietnam where as many as 2.8 million US service personnel and 4.5 million Vietnamese civilians may have been exposed. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that “up to three million Vietnamese have suffered health effects … of whom at least 150,000 are children with birth defects”, and the US government provides healthcare and compensation to 1.4 million US veterans suffering from illnesses associated with Vietnam service (www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/agent-orange-in-vietnam-program/health-effects)
With such evidence of death and suffering on a huge scale, Mr Barron’s jolly tale of Air Commando pilots enjoying shots of Agent Orange is both inappropriate and offensive.
Richard Conn, Vaucluse