Agent Orange (AO)
Agent Orange (AO) is a potent defoliant herbicide, primarily recognized for its extensive application by the US military during the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971. Approximately 19 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed over Southeast Asia, with around 11 million gallons being Agent Orange, a mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. Notably, 2,4,5-T contains dioxin, particularly 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), a highly toxic compound with long-lasting effects on both the environment and human health. The spraying aimed to clear jungles and disrupt enemy supply lines, resulting in significant environmental damage, including deforestation and altered ecosystems, particularly in mangrove forests.
Exposure to Agent Orange has been linked to severe health issues in both military veterans and Vietnamese civilians, including various cancers, skin diseases, and reproductive problems, with some effects persisting in subsequent generations. In Vietnam, the long-term health impacts have led to malformations and birth defects in children of those exposed. Efforts to address these health consequences have been ongoing, including the establishment of support systems for affected individuals and comprehensive studies to understand the extent of dioxin contamination. The legacy of Agent Orange serves as a critical reminder of the unforeseen consequences associated with the use of chemical agents in warfare.
Agent Orange (AO)
DEFINITION: Powerful defoliant herbicide, best known for its extensive use by the US military during the Vietnam War
The spraying of Agent Orange resulted in the deforestation of large sections of Southeast Asia, and exposure to the herbicide has been linked to the development of serious health problems in both military personnel and civilians.
Between 1962 and 1971, some 19 million gallons of herbicides were sprayed by the US military over South Vietnam and Laos by airplane, helicopter, boat, truck, and manual sprayers in an effort to reduce for enemy troops and to destroy enemy crops. About 11 million gallons of this total was sprayed in the form of Agent Orange, a fifty-fifty mixture of the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T combined with a kerosene-diesel fuel for dispersal. The principal components of both 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T decompose within weeks after application; however, 2,4,5-T contains between 0.05 and 50 parts per million of dioxin, primarily 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), which is among the deadliest chemicals known and which has a half-life of decades. Approximately 368 pounds of were released during the spraying, with profound effects on both the of the region and the subsequent health of US military personnel, the residents of Vietnam and Laos, and their offspring.
Agent Orange constituted about 60 percent of total volume of herbicides sprayed by US personnel in the region; other substances used included dinoxol, trinoxol, bromacil, diquat, tandex, monuran, diuron, and dalapon as well as compounds known by such code names as Agent White, Agent Blue, Agent Purple, Agent Green, Agent Pink, and Agent Orange II (“Super Orange”). In addition to 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, various mixes included picloram (a growth regulator similar to 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T) and cacodylic acid, an arsenic-containing that dehydrated and killed plants. Unlike 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, which acted on plant surfaces, mobile picloram penetrated soil to be absorbed by roots and induce systemic effects.
Military Background
The US military developed weapon herbicides during World War II at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, and considered using them against Japanese food plots on Pacific islands. The British used herbicides in Malaya in the 1950s to destroy rebel food plots. Domestic tests of Agent Orange were conducted at Camp Drum, New York, and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, in the 1950s. The first field tests were conducted in South Vietnam in 1961 and in Thailand in 1964 and 1965.
“Operation Ranch Hand” was the code name given to the US Air Force program of application during the Vietnam War. The program involved a total of thirty-six aircraft that sprayed roughly 10 percent of the area of South Vietnam. The spraying and defoliation targeted jungles, inland forests, camp edges, roads, trails, railroads, and canals to make enemy movement conspicuous and easier to attack. Because of the possible to the crops of the United States’ South Vietnamese allies, spraying of enemy food plots was not as extensive. In addition, the Army Chemical Corps conducted truck, helicopter, and manual spraying (particularly around base camps and transportation routes); the US Navy, using small riverboats, sprayed edges of rivers and canals; and Special Forces troops conducted covert spraying operations.
Environmental Damage and Health Impacts in Vietnam
Many of the trees in the tropical mangrove forests near the southernmost coasts of South Vietnam were killed by a single spraying. It was estimated that it would take up to a century for the mangrove forests to recover without reseeding. Since these and adjacent waters served as breeding and nursery grounds for wildlife, the area’s ecology was catastrophically affected.
Inland forests were less sensitive to Agent Orange. They usually recovered after single or double sprayings with only temporary foliage loss. However, three or more sprayings eventually induced tree death and converted forests to grasslands. Subsequent wildfires often burned seeds and seedlings of native trees, further delaying recovery. Erosion washed sediment into deltas near river outlets, compounding environmental damage. Since approximately one-third of sprayed land was sprayed more than once, and 52,600 hectares (130,000 acres) were sprayed more than four times, damage to Vietnam’s ecology was extensive.
Elevated concentrations of toxins have continued to affect Vietnam’s and environment. Because of the persistent effects of dioxin, which is fat-soluble and bioaccumulates up the food chain, health problems related to the spraying have affected not only Vietnamese people alive during the war but also their offspring. Malformations and birth defects are common in Vietnamese children, and other maladies are suspected to be linked to dioxin exposure.
It took more than two decades for a serious effort at characterizing and alleviating these problems to being, in large part because it took years after the war for the problems to become recognized. In addition, Vietnam had other pressing economic, military, and rebuilding concerns. In the 1990s, the Vietnamese National Committee for the Investigation of the Consequences of the Chemicals Used During the Vietnam War, also known as the 10-80 Committee, solicited international help. In an effort to determine existing dioxin levels, from 1994 to 1998, Hatfield Consultants of West Vancouver, British Columbia, sampled soils, crops, fish, poultry, livestock, and human blood in the A Luoi Valley in central Vietnam near the old Ho Chi Minh Trail. The investigators also performed satellite characterization of topography changes in the Ma Da region of southern Vietnam caused by defoliation and sediment washing.
The Vietnamese Red Cross established a fund for Agent Orange victims in 1998. That same year, Vietnam’s prime minister ordered the first nationwide survey of Agent Orange-related problems. Vietnam also established several “peace villages,” each of which could accommodate up to five hundred patients with health problems related to Agent Orange.
Health Effects in American Vietnam Veterans
Agent Orange and dioxin are now known to have caused comparable health problems in American veterans of the Vietnam War. Health problems linked to include the cancers soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Hodgkin’s disease and the skin diseases chloracne and porphyria cutanea tarda. There is a definite correlation between Agent Orange exposure and respiratory cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy, and spina bifida (abnormal spine development in children of veterans). Other suspected health effects include immune system disorders, reproductive difficulties and cancers, diabetes, endocrine and imbalances, cancer in offspring, and malformations and defects (there is much stronger evidence linking birth defects to dioxin in Vietnamese). It appears that many of these health problems (including spina bifida, birth defects, immune system problems, and cancer propensity) can be passed on to the children and even the grandchildren of those initially exposed.
These issues were controversial for years after the war, but as evidence accumulated, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) eventually addressed the issue. Free medical examinations and care were offered to Vietnam veterans with suspected Agent Orange-induced problems in 1978. By 1981, the VA had established a program providing follow-up hospital care to veterans with any health problem of which the cause was unclear. The VA began providing monthly compensation for veterans exposed to Agent Orange with any of the health conditions for which there is a proven cause-and-effect or positive correlation. Also, compensation, health care, and vocational rehabilitation have been provided to children of veterans with spina bifida. The VA presumes that all military personnel who served in the Vietnam theater were exposed to Agent Orange.
Other groups of people—including farmers, foresters, ranchers, chemical industry workers, incinerator workers, and paper mill workers—are often exposed to trace dioxin and related chemicals such as at levels in excess of those experienced by the typical Vietnam veteran. Workers in these areas occasionally exhibit increased frequencies of diseases (for example, prostate cancer is especially common among farmers). Trace dioxins are commonly produced by the burning of chlorine-containing organics and other chemical processes. It is likely that nearly all persons in the industrialized world have some amount of dioxin in their bodies. However, because of many epidemiological and exposure variables, symptoms vary widely, and it is difficult to establish conclusive links between symptoms and particular chemicals or activities.
Defenders of the spraying program in Vietnam point out that the use of Agent Orange and related herbicides was successful in meeting the US military’s goals and, hence, likely saved the lives of many American servicemen. Moreover, although the resulting environmental and health effects might have been less severe if another chemical had been used rather than the dioxin-containing 2,4,5-T, dioxin’s long-term effects were not known at the time. The long-term consequences of the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam thus drive home the lesson that unanticipated outcomes often result from the employment of new technologies.
Bibliography
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