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AO/dioxin still causes sufferings for generations of Vietnamese
AO/dioxin still causes sufferings for generations of Vietnamese
Fifty years ago the US stopped spraying Agent Orange (AO) through Vietnam, however, people still suffer from severe hereditary defects to this day, wrote a recent article published by German daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau (FR).
On January 7, 1971, a US Air Force aircraft took off for the last time to spray the chemical warfare agent over Vietnamese fields and forests. "Agent Orange" was the most harmful and the most widely used, the article said.
The toxic chemicals were provided by Dow Chemical, Monsanto (through Mobay, a joint subsidiary with the Federal Republic of Germany Bayer AG), and a handful of others. Dow Chemical also supplied napalm to the US armed forces until 1969.
It went on to say that by January 7, 1971, the US Air Force had flown 6,542 flights to spray more than 20 million barrels of the chemicals over Vietnam’s southern region.
More than 20 percent of the forests of in the region were "defoliated" at least once and ten million hectares of agricultural land were destroyed.
The actions were secret until the end of 1965, the article added.
It was only when inquiries were made in the US Congress that the government declared that it was by no means a chemical warfare, but that herbicides were used to destroy the crops of Vietnamese farmers in the south.
The author cited estimates of the Vietnamese Government that four million Vietnamese were exposed to AO/dioxins, with severe damage that extends to the present day.
The poisonous chemicals penetrated the soil and groundwater, while it is believed that the former US bases where the chemical barrels were stored are also contaminated.
After long disputes, started in the 1990s, some of the US soldiers who suffered severe damage due to contact with dioxin received compensation. The Vietnamese victims, however, have not received any.
Although the governments of US President George W. Bush and Barack Obama had presented Vietnam close to 100 million USD for an ecological cleaning programme, in 2016, the cost of cleaning a stretch of the dioxin-contaminated Passaic River in New Jersey was estimated at 1.4 billion USD, the article pointed out./.
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All comments [ 20 ]
More than 4.8 Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin. Tens of thousands of them have died and millions still suffer from serious diseases caused by the toxic chemical.
Agent Orange/dioxin causes genetic defects that carry over to multiple generations.
Over the past several years, Vietnam has fine-tuned policies and laws that address the consequences of Agent Orange/dioxin and help AO victims.
The State allocates millions of dollars annually to care for and rehabilitate the victims.
Vietnam has 9.2 million national contributors. 320,000 of them participated in the war and had children who are affected by AO/dioxin.
Under the Law on the Disabled, we have identified 3 million people with disabilities and more than 1 million of them receive monthly allowances.
In the last five years, multiple resources have been mobilized to build care, rehabilitation, and vocational training centers and houses and provide production capital for AO victims.
The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin plans to propose revisions to the Ordinance on National Contributors to better support AO victims.
justice is needed to make peace, and no one has the right to produce hazardous chemicals that affect many generations, regardless of wartime or peacetime.
The US chemical companies produced herbicides that seriously destroyed the environment in Vietnam but have yet to be subject to any punishment.
Although Vietnam has attained miraculous changes in many fields, the country remains blighted by toxins which are not only harmful to environment but also affect seriously human health, causing many potential dangerous diseases with heredity factors.
These diseases have made people sickened, disabled, suffered from interminable pains and deep psychological wounds together with prolonged and profound social consequences.
It is estimated that 4.8 million Vietnamese have been exposed to dioxin, including about 3 million Agent Orange victims (many of them are children). Tens of thousands of people have died in a painful death and resentment due to incurable diseases. Many female victims have experienced reproductive problems. Many of them have been deprived of the ability to bear children and to experience the joy of being a mother. The most disastrous is tha their offsprings, those who did not take part in the war also become Agent Orange victims with born malformations. They cannot enjoy the minimum happiness to lead a normal human life.
Agent Orange/Dioxin victims (AO victims) are the poorest among the poor, the most miserable among the miserable.
the chemical warfare waged by the US against Vietnam was the biggest and longest one with the most disastrous aftermath in human history.
The term Agent Orange/Dioxin refers to toxins containing dioxin.
Due to the great amount of toxins sprayed many times for a long period of time, the environment has been seriously polluted, changing the ecosystems and killing many plant and animal species.
support of the community and society is not enough as AO/dioxin victims remain the poorest people of the poor and suffer the most.
Agent Orange/dioxin is the cause of many tragedies, depriving countless Vietnamese people of the right to a normal life.
Hundreds, thousands of victims are wrestling every hour, every day with the pain and their disabilities to live a decent life and contribute their voice to the fight for justice.
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