[CPEO-MEF] HERBICIDES, GLOBAL: "New data on Agent Orange use during the US’s secret war in Laos"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

New data on Agent Orange use during the US’s secret war in Laos
Successive US governments have been reluctant to come clean over the human and environmental cost of the secret war in Laos. As Philipp Barthelme explains, declassified spy satellite imagery can now help us track potential dioxin exposures from the use of Agent Orange.

By Philipp Barthelme
Conflict and Environmental Observatory
October, 2024

Introduction

During the Vietnam War, the US military sprayed more than 74 million litres of Agent Orange and other herbicides, causing detrimental and ongoing environmental and health effects that are thought to have affected millions of Vietnamese people, as well as American military personnel. However, many questions remain over the extent and impact of the spraying during the American Secret War in neighbouring Laos. Unlike in Vietnam, Laotians affected by the herbicide spraying have received little to no support in the past, despite recent surveys indicating that thousands could still be affected by congenital birth defects associated with Agent Orange exposure.

This report uses declassified US spy satellite imagery taken during the war to identify areas sprayed with herbicides in southeast Laos. The aim is to revise declassified spraying records to provide a completer and more precise picture of the spraying in southeast Laos. This will help guide the surveys and ground samples that are needed to understand past harm and current risks, and therefore the support required by the long-neglected communities affected by herbicide spraying.

…

For the entire article, see
https://ceobs.org/new-data-on-agent-orange-use-during-the-uss-secret-war-in-laos/

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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