The US imposed a military government on Puerto Rico a century ago when it was seized from the Spanish. Since 1980 it has been used for test firing of depleted uranium munitions, chemical contaminants have found their way into ground water, local crabs have 20 times the normal levels of heavy metals, cancer rates amongst the island's population is twice the national average. Monsanto were the main supplier. The Agent Orange produced by Monsanto had dioxin levels many times higher than that produced by Dow Chemicals, the other major supplier of Agent Orange to Vietnam. Dioxins are one of the most toxic chemicals known to man.
Permissible levels are measured in parts per trillion, the ideal level is zero.
The levels found in domestic 2,4,5-T were around 0.05 ppm, that shipped to Vietnam peaked at 50 ppm, ie 1,000 times higher than the norm. Almost immediately workers started getting sick with skin rashes, inexplicable pains in the limbs, joints and other parts of the body, weakness, irritability, nervousness and loss of libido,' to quote Peter Sills, author of a forthcoming book on dioxins. A wide range of products manufactured by Monsanto have been contaminated with dioxins, including the widely used household disinfectant Lysol. An investigation by Cate Jenkins of the EPA Regulatory Development Branch documented a track record of systematic criminal fraud. The Times Beach incident occurred when local contractors were hired to spray the town's dusty roads with emulsified oil.