# Frawley → Farnham memo, 12 July 1965 (Hercules / Dow, dioxin in 2,4,5-T)

**What it is.** A confidential internal memorandum by **J. P. Frawley** of the **Hercules Powder Company**,
dated **12 July 1965**, recording a telephone conversation three days earlier (**9 July 1965**) with **Earl
Farnham of the Dow Chemical Company**, about dioxin (TCDD, "acnegen") contamination of the herbicide 2,4,5-T —
the Agent Orange component. This is the "other file": the private register of alarm running underneath
Frawley's public posture that trace contaminants were *toxicologically insignificant*.

**Grade.** `[CONFIRMED-primary]` for content — recovered **verbatim** in the veterans' own litigation brief
and independently **logged, by Bates number, in Dow's internal privileged-document index**. The legible
page-image itself ("better copy at p. B18977") has not been pulled; the A303 copy is marked illegible. Do not
cite a Bates/DocumentCloud id as if the scan were in hand — cite the two attestations below.

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## Attestation 1 — quoted verbatim in the veterans' MDL brief

Held locally: `toxicdocs/3unclear__xxxx__na__Dioxin__jyBDvYGzG58gkKk3VmDbjxLK5.txt` (Agent Orange MDL
plaintiffs' brief; the memo is narrated and quoted at ~l.14013–14038). The brief's text:

> An answer to that can clearly be seen in a confidential memorandum of J.P. Frawley, dated July 12, 1965, of
> the Hercules Powder Company which relates to a telephone conversation dated July 9, 1965 with Mr. Earl Farnhan
> [*sic*] of Dow Chemical Company. Mr. Farnhan was convinced that no one else in the industry had done anything
> to remove the contaminant from their 2,4,5-T. Mr. Farnhan further stated that Dow was **extremely frightened
> that this situation might explode**. Mr. Frawley quotes Mr. Farnhan as stating that Dow [is] "aware that their
> competitors are marketing 2,4,5-T which contains **alarming amounts of acnegen** and that if the government
> learns of this the whole industry will suffer. They are **particularly fearful of a congressional
> investigation** and excessive restrictive legislation on the manufacture of pesticides which might result."

## Attestation 2 — Dow's own privileged-document index ("DOW DATA")

Held: the **DOW DATA — Privileged & Confidential** litigation index (DocumentCloud doc *Dowdat1*, id `3418806`),
page 19, entry for Bates **A303** (date code **650712** = 12 Jul 1965):

> A303 — Hercules Powder Company — 650712 — Illegible memo about phone call from Dow re: chloracne and "alarming
> levels" of dioxin, Dow "extremely frightened that this situation might explode", "particularly fearful of a
> Congressional investigation". **Better copy at p. B18977.** — Author: Ford, J.J. — Key words: 2,3,7,8-TCDD;
> 2,4,5-T; Hercules; Dow; chloracne; Congressional investigation; restrictive legislation.

(The same DOW DATA page logs the **24 March 1965 Dow Midland meeting** — Bates 650325, "Dow; Hercules; Hooker;
Diamond Alkali present" — at which "repeat exposure can create a real problem even at 1 ppm TCDD," establishing
that the contamination was understood industry-wide months before the Farnham call.)