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A Note from History: Yellow Rain

Photo From Web site Photo From Mai Ja Yang




T-2 mycotoxin
1975, Iollowing the Vietnam War, the communist governments oI Vietnam and Laos launched a retaliatory
campaign against Hmong tribesmen in northern Laos, who had sided with the United States during the war and
continued to resist communist rule. That summer, reports came Irom Laos claiming that government Iorces
were using Soviet-supplied chemical weapons to drive the Hmong out oI their mountain hideaways. ReIugees
reported that toxic agents were being delivered by low-Ilying aircraIt; most described an oily, yellow liquid that
sounded like rain when it struck leaves or rooIs, earning it the nickname "yellow rain."
Many people exposed to yellow rain suIIered physical and neurological symptoms, including seizures,
blindness, and bleeding. Similar attacks were reported during the Vietnamese invasion oI Cambodia in 1978,
and in AIghanistan in 1979. Reports Irom Chinese analysts suggest that nearly 10,000 people died Irom these
incidents between 1975 and 1982. The similarities between the descriptions oI the attacks and subsequent
symptoms raised suspicions that the same agent had been used in all three locations.
nitially, U.S. chemical weapons experts were baIIled by yellow rain. The symptoms described by reIugees did
not match the eIIects oI any known chemical weapon agent. However, in July 1981, a U.S. Army toxicologist
noted a striking similarity between the symptoms oI yellow rain exposure and those resulting Irom exposure to
Iungal toxins called trichothecene mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are naturally occurring substances produced by
Iungi, many oI which can be harmIul to animals and humans. Trichothecene mycotoxins comprise a group oI
more than 40 compounds Iound in common grain mold. Laboratory analysis oI a yellow rain sample taken Irom
an alleged attack site in Laos identiIied three diIIerent trichothecenes present in concentrations and
combinations not known to occur in nature.
Trichothecene mycotoxins are believed to have been discovered accidentally by the Soviet military during
World War . During that time, thousands oI Soviet civilians were aIIlicted with alimentary toxic aleukia, a
highly lethal disease with symptoms resembling radiation poisoning. The disease was caused by the ingestion oI
bread made with Ilour contaminated by Iusarium mold, which had grown on wheat leIt in Iields all winter long,
due to the war. This outbreak spurred intensive Soviet research on mycotoxin poisoning as a public health threat.
The Soviet Union also had some manner oI ties to each oI the locations where yellow rain had been reported:
the Soviets supported the Communist Vietnamese Iorces and the Pathet Lao political movement in Laos and
Cambodia, and were directly involved in the war in AIghanistan. U.S. intelligence hypothesized that the Soviets
had recognized the military potential oI trichothecenes and developed them as weapons. n 1981, based on this
hypothesis and the laboratory Iindings, then U.S. Secretary oI State Alexander Haig announced that physical
evidence had been Iound, proving that mycotoxins supplied by the Soviet Union were being used as a weapon
against civilians and insurgents in Southeast Asia and AIghanistan.
The U. S. allegation was not universally accepted. Some nations were unsuccessIul in identiIying mycotoxins in
yellow rain samples, and the United Nations Iound the evidence to be inconclusive. n 1987, a group oI
academic scientists, led by Harvard molecular biologist Matthew Meselson, traveled to Laos to conduct an
investigation. The team noted that some trichothecene mycotoxins occurred naturally in the region. Based on
this and the presence oI pollen in some yellow rain samples, the team oIIered an alternative hypothesis that the
yellow rain phenomenon was not a chemical attack, but the result oI massive swarms oI bees depositing Ieces
over the areas. Such swarms have been documented beIore and since the yellow rain incidentsalthough mass
casualties did not result Irom these swarms. An example oI one such swarm occurred in ndia in 2002. This
incident is cited by proponents oI the bee Ieces hypothesis as supporting evidence. At that time, a yellow-green
rain Iell Irom the sky on the town oI Sangrampur, near Calcutta. Fears arose that the rain might be contaminated
with toxins or chemical warIare agents, but scientists conIirmed that the yellow-green droplets were, in Iact, bee
Ieces containing pollen Irom local mangoes and coconuts. The scientists concluded that the colored rain could
have been caused by the migration oI a giant swarm oI Asian honeybees.
The U.S. government has never retracted the yellow rain allegations, and the controversy has never been Iully
resolved. A declassiIied CA intelligence document written in 1983, suggests that the Soviet Union developed
weapons based on trichothecene mycotoxins as early as 1941 and may have tested them on political prisoners.
The Soviet Union never declared any stockpiles oI trichothecene mycotoxins among their stores oI chemical
and biological weapons, however, and no trace oI a trichothecene-containing weapon was ever Iound in the
areas aIIected by yellow rain. Their use may never be unequivocally proved.




Photos Irom Mai Ja Yang