Dioxin : Vietnamese victims of agent orange

U. S. Army Operations in Vietnam

Published the 27.09.2017 at 15h04

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Keywords :

Vietnamguerredioxineherbicide

It’s been over 40 years since the Vietnam war (1955 to 1975) was completed. But the local population is still suffering the consequences. Agent orange, used by the United States as a herbicide to clear land of battle, covered by the jungle, would still be victims.

A joint study by the university of Kanazawa (Japan) and the ministry of the Environment of vietnam has shown that infants in the most contaminated areas, including through the milk of their mothers, had hormonal levels three times higher than the normal. This presents significant risks to their health.

Dioxins in the environment

Agent orange was used by the american army throughout the 1960s in the south of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, on a large scale. The herbicide is particularly falling leaves of the trees, and allowed the armies of South Vietnam, the United States and their allies to manoeuvre more easily.

But it contains dioxins, substances that are very stable in time, and that persist in the environment. In the contaminated areas, they have integrated the sediment and thus the food chain, in the long term.