[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL, HERBICIDES: "Agent Orange Contamination Persists In Vietnam"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Agent Orange Contamination Persists In Vietnam
Study Shows Toxic byproducts of Agent Orange continue to pollute the environment in Vietnam, say researchers in the US. 

Asian Scientist
March 12, 2019

Scientists in the US have demonstrated that a component of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam war continues to contaminate the environment in Vietnam, with implications on health and biodiversity. Their findings are published in the Open Journal of Soil Science. 

During the Vietnam War, US aircraft sprayed more than 20 million gallons of herbicides, including dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange, on the country’s rain forests, wetlands and croplands. Agent Orange defoliated the thick jungle vegetation concealing Viet Cong fighters and destroyed a portion of the country’s food crops, but it was primarily the dioxin contaminant that harmed so many Vietnamese and US military personnel. 

In this study, scientists at the University of Illinois (UI) and Iowa State University documented the environmental legacy of Agent Orange in Vietnam, including hotspots where dioxin continues to enter the food supply. “Existing Agent Orange and dioxin research is primarily medical in nature, focusing on the details of human exposure primarily through skin contact and long-term health effects on US soldiers,” said Professor Ken Olson at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at UI and a co-author of the study. “In this paper, we examine the short and long-term environmental effects on the Vietnamese natural resource base and how persistence of dioxin continues to affect soils, water, sediment, fish, aquatic species, the food supply and Vietnamese health.” 

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.asianscientist.com/2019/03/in-the-lab/vietnam-agent-orange-dioxin-tcdd-contamination/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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