LONDON: The US military used more Agent Orange and other herbicide sprays that contained cancer-causing dioxins during the Viet Nam War than previously thought, scientists said on Wednesday.
Researchers at Columbia University in New York, who reanalyzed military records, said the amount of Agent Orange was underestimated by seven million litres, while twice as muchdioxin was released.
“The estimates of how much chemical we sprayed are greater by about 10 per cent than previous estimates,” Steven Stellman, an author of the study published in the science journal Nature, told reporters.
Viet Nam estimates more than a million of its people were exposed to the defoliant, which it blames on tens of thousands of birth defects and other diseases.
Agent Orange, which got its name because of the coloured stripes on the containers, was sprayed over a wide area of Viet Nam by US forces during the war that ended in 1975. It was used to deprive communist fighters of food and forest cover.
The use of Agent Orange was stopped in 1971 after it was discovered to contain dioxin.
Last year the United States and Viet Nam agreed to investigate the effects of Agent Orange. Exposure to the chemical has been linked to a higher risk of leukaemia and other types of cancer.
When will America take responsibility for it's use of chemical weapons in Vietnam, say sorry and start compensating the survivors and the families of the victims?
Agent Orange remains sticking point in Hanoi-Washington relations
Sun Apr 20, 2:36 PM ET Add Politics - AFP to My Yahoo!
HANOI (AFP) - The management of the consequences of the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam remains a sore point in relations between Hanoi and Washington, despite an agreement signed a year ago to work on the problem together.
Since the end of their brutal war in 1975, the two sides have managed to resolve most of the issues that divided them and now most of their disputes are economic.
But the painful question of dealing with the victims of defoliants used by the US military is yet to be answered.
Between 1961 and 1971, the American and South Vietnamese armies used millions of litres of herbicides containing toxic dioxins to destroy jungle and crops in order to deny their communist enemies food and cover.
The dioxins ended up in the food chain and are today blamed for widespread health problems such as congenital malformation, cancers and paralysis.
In March 2002, bilateral discussions in Vietnam resulted in a draft agreement between Hanoi and Washington to mount a program of scientific cooperation.
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*Originally posted by Abdali: *
Have you seen Rambo II? When he comes home to meet his buddy he finds out he has died of cancer due to agent orange.... Don't raise the question of CW in vietnam coz if you ask the yanks they will tell you nukes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had no fall out either....And DU is as safe as ever.
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That was First Blood, not Rambo II...
I have seen some Nam vets, who said they were given some sort of stimulants to keep them awake 24/7... However, now the disastrous side effects of those stimulants are beginning to show... Most of them are paralyzed, something similar to parkinsons, and some of them cant sleep at night...
*Between 1961 and 1971, the American and South Vietnamese armies used millions of litres of herbicides containing toxic dioxins to destroy jungle and crops in order to deny their communist enemies food and cover. The dioxins ended up in the food chain and are today blamed for widespread health problems such as congenital malformation, cancers and paralysis. *
Vietnam’s Agent Orange Victims File Suit
Wed Feb 4, 9:34 AM ET Add Health - AP to My Yahoo!
HANOI, Vietnam - For the first time, Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange have filed a suit against the U.S. companies that produced the toxic defoliant used by American forces during the Vietnam War.
