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Agent Orange Just as the world was getting back to regular life after World War II, another war, including two powerful countries, was about to start. The Vietnam War started in 1950 and lasted until 1973(1). This war involved communist countries such as North Vietnam, The Soviet Union, and China, and anti-communist countries such as South Vietnam, the United States, and the France. The Vietnam War started because North Vietnam and the Viet Minh, wanted to reunify the Vietnam countries under communist rule. Ho Chi Minh, a communist, had been in exile from Vietnam for nearly 30 years (1). When he secretly returned to Vietnam he planned to take over using the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh were composed to fight against the French army in the Cold War. They were fighting for independence from the French rule, which they later won. This then lead to North Vietnam wanting to reunify with the Vietnam Countries under their communist rule.

South Vietnam and other anti-communist countries did not respond well and that is how the Vietnam War started. The United States joined in because of their fear of Communist taking over the Asia continent. Over 58,000 United States soldiers were killed during the Vietnam War(2). In 1962 the United States dropped Agent Orange onto Vietnam crops and forests (2). The soldiers did this because they thought that the Agent Orange would kill the vegetation and forests the Vietnam soldiers were using. This would then in turn become a negative effect for the opposing forces because they would have nothing to eat, it would also eliminate the shielding the soldiers were using from the forests. Agent Orange did do these things initially, but the United States army and the rest of the world were about to find out that this toxin did a lot more than the creators originally planned.

In 1968 the communists bombed 44 providences and suffered a loss but to them they won politically and psychologically. The US drew back and started to find a way for a non-military solution to the Vietnam War. In 1969 the war started to take a direction away from the United States, which is what we wanted. By 1973 the United States had backed out of the war and returned home. All prisoners of war were released and a year later all of the United States is officially out of Vietnam. The weapon Agent Orange created many short term, long term, and immediate effects to the American soldiers and the Vietnamese civilians (2).

Agent Orange was a powerful combination of chemical defoliants. It was a non-commercial grade of herbicides developed specifically for combat operations. The 2 active ingredients in Agent Orange were: dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and trichlorophenoxyacetic acid. With these two ingredients, traces of TCDD, an unwanted by product was formed. TCDD is the most toxic of dioxins and is classified as a human carcinogen by the Environment Protection Agency (3).

Agent Orange led to numerous serious health problems for United States Servicemen as well as the Vietnamese population during the Vietnam War. Northern Vietnam had very dense forests and the United States forces were trying to eliminate the foliage in order to have better visuals of Vietnamese troops (3). Agent Orange was also used to destroy crops that were feeding the Vietnamese troops.

Operation Ranch Hand was the name given to the defoliation program. United States airmen “sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1972” (3). During this process, the chemicals were also sprayed on crops and water supplies of non-combat peasants of South Vietnam. While Agent Orange was the most effective of all of the chemical agents used in Operation Ranch Hand, it led to serious health problems, as discovered years later.

Agent Orange contained “minute traces” of dioxin. In studies done on laboratory animals, dioxin has been shown to be highly toxic even in minute doses. “Questions regarding Agent Orange arose in the United States after an increasing number of returning Vietnam veterans and their families began to report a range of afflictions” (3). In 1979, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 2.4 million veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during their time in Vietnam.

In 1984, seven large chemical companies that manufactured the herbicide agreed to pay $180 million out-of-court in compensation to veterans or their next of kin. Complications arose due to individual veterans filing lawsuits, and in 1991 “President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Agent Orange Act, which mandated that some diseases associated with the defoliants be treated as the result of wartime service and helped codify the VA’s response to veterans with conditions related to their exposure to Agent Orange” (3).

In 2004, a group of Vietnamese citizens filed a class-action lawsuit seeking billions of dollars worth of damages, claiming that Agent Orange left a legacy of health problems and that its use constituted a violation of international law. In 2005, a federal judge in New York dismissed the suit and another U.S. court rejected the final appeal in 2008(3).

From 1961 to 1971 when Agent Orange was used in the Vietnam War, between 2.1 and 4.5 million Vietnamese civilians lived in areas sprayed. To present time, it is unclear as to the exact number of people Agent Orange affected, but according to The Red Cross, the Vietnam nation has reported that 400,000 civilians died as a result of Agent Orange. That number does not include Vietnam soldiers (4).

The immediate effects of Agent Orange first hit the United States intended target; crops, the whole purpose of this toxin was to destroy the enemy’s cover and shelter from US soldiers. From the crops the toxin spread to water and meat (i.e animals). This then lead to the indirect hit of civilians. At first this just affected Vietnam civilians from gathering food and resources, but the health effects rapidly began to arise. According to History.org (3), studies were done on lab animals that were injected with Agent Orange toxins. The results showed that even with minute doses of these toxins, human exposure could be associated with serious health problems such as muscular dysfunction, inflammation, birth defects, nervous system disorders, and even the development of certain cancers. Although birth defects cannot be proven to be the result of Agent Orange exposure, the rate of birth defects in Vietnam has quadrupled since the war.

In 1988, a congress mandated study was preformed called the “Vietnam Experience Study” There were 2 cohort groups, one including Vietnam Vets that didn’t serve in Vietnam the time of the Vietnam war and the other were vets that did serve in Vietnam during the Vietnam war(2). Both groups were interviewed and their medical records were examined. The results of the study showed a higher incidence of spina bifida, anencephaly, and hydrocephalus in children of Vietnam veterans, especially those whose parents had been involved in what were called defoliating missions using Agent Orange. However, while the incidence among the children of Vietnam vets was significantly higher than the control group of other vets, the overall rate was consistent with birth defect rates reported in the general population.

The highest level found/recorded of Agent Orange exposed in a civilian was a person fishing in a lake on the Da Nang Airbase, of over 1,000 ppt(4). In comparison, people in industrial nations such as the United States, that have baseline exposure to toxins have a level of about 3-7 ppt. in their blood. Agent Orange was exposed to nearly 2.8 million veterans, and contaminated the food and water supply with the deadly herbicide(4). Agent orange not only effected soldier’s long term, but many soldiers started seeing symptoms shortly after exposure to the herbicide. Some of the immediate affects that were more common to our soldiers were skin issues, burning eyes and blurry vision. Some skin issues that occurred were rashes, acne, hair loss, brittle nails; some nails even fell off, and increased skin sensitivity to heat and sensitivity to sunburn.

One common disease that happened was called chloracne, this is a skin disease where the skin breaks out in blackheads, cysts, blisters, nodules and the skin can become very thick, flakey and peel. These symptoms occurred shortly after exposure, weeks to months, and could fade away shortly after exposure, but severe cases could continue for years. It also caused some nerve issues, such as tingling and numbness of different parts of the body, depression, episodes of violence due to psychological issues, lack of concentration and many more.

The herbicide also caused abdominal and intestinal issues such as: abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and constipation. It could even cause yellowing of the skin, liver inflammation and ulcers. Agent orange also caused respiratory issues such as, pneumonia, asthma, bronchitis, scaring and inflammation of the lung tissue and COPD. The respiratory issues were caused by inhaling the chemicals that were being sprayed during Agent Orange, and started shortly after exposure. Some of the respiratory issues went away and others will live with them forever.

A few of the other effects of agent orange on our soldiers shortly after exposure were Amyloidosis, where abnormal proteins build up in different tissues and organs, diabetes, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, and infertility. Soldiers who loaded the planes and helicopters had the highest exposure and were more likely to develop the more sever symptoms, but the effects of Agent Orange effected a large majority of our soldiers.

The use of Agent Orange still has an effect on the citizens of Vietnam today. It has poisoned their food and created health concerns. This chemical has been reported to cause serious skin disease as well as a vast variety of cancers in the lungs, larynx, and prostate. The Vietnamese who were exposed to Agent Orange have also reported cancer, blindness, paralysis, muscular disorders, skeletal disorders, and significant weakness. Children in areas exposed to Agent Orange, or have parents who were exposed to agent orange during the war, have been affected and have multiple health problems- including cleft palate, mental disabilities, hernias, extra fingers and toes, and many other birth defects(2).

Epidemiological studies show an elevated rate of diseases and disorders in people exposed to dioxin. These include high rates of cancers, abnormalities, during pregnancies, neurological and metabolic disorders and especially birth defects. Recent laboratory tests of human tissue samples (blood, fat tissue, and breast milk) taken from veterans who were exposed during the war and people living in sprayed areas revealed levels of dioxin higher than levels found in people living in non-sprayed areas of Vietnam as well as people living in industrialized countries (Lance, M).

For the past 53 years, the Vietnamese people have been attempting to address this legacy of war by trying to get the United States and the chemical companies to accept responsibility for this ongoing nightmare. An unsuccessful legal action by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against the chemical companies in U.S. federal court, begun in 2004, has nonetheless spawned a movement to hold the United States accountable for using such dangerous chemicals on civilian populations. The movement has resulted in pending legislation, (11), which provides medical, rehabilitative and social service compensation to the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, remediation of dioxin-contaminated "hot spots" and medical services for the children of U. S. Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese-Americans who have been born with the same diseases and deformities (Lance, M).

To this day, dioxin continues to poison the land and the people. Not only has the exposure of Agent Orange gravely affected the Vietnam Veterans, it has also been a great burden for the US Veterans up to this day. Likewise, US Veteran who were expose to Agent Orange has develop many illness and diseases which was recently updated in 2012. Spina bifida, which occurs when a fetus’s spinal cord fail to develop properly, and birth defects were also a concern for women veterans (9).

Veterans Diseases:

·

· AL Amyloidosis

· Chronic B-Cell Leukemia

· Chloracne

· Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

· Hodgkin’s Disease

· Ischemic Heart Disease

· Multiple Myeloma

· Parkinson’s Disease

· Peripheral Neuropathy

· Respiratory Cancers

· Prostate Cancer

· Soft Tissue Sarcomas

To maintain responsibility, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) “offers health registry exams, health care, disability compensation and other benefits to eligible Veterans.” To be eligible means to be exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during military service. Benefits are also distribute to dependents and survivors of Veterans such as spouses or dependent parents and children of Veterans who has died due to Agent Orange exposure.

Despite the physiological damage, US Veterans were also psychologically neglected. There are articles that indicates how US Veterans experienced toxic injustice, and were deceived by the government. Most in regards to US Veterans with postwar exposure, hence unqualified for the health care and benefits offer by the VA. These US Veterans are having trouble receiving reimbursement for treatments, and facing healthcare issues from Agent Orange. The effect may have taken place after war, but the US Veterans believed VA should still hold accountable for the diseases they have contacted through Agent Orange. This is one of the biggest concern in regards to Agent Orange and US Veterans in which is still have yet to be resolved. Who is to be held responsible?

One particular case involves with Army Veteran Steve House, whom was order to bury 250 barrels of Agent Orange, and had experience postwar exposure in 1978(6). VA denies the stationary holding any kind of remains of Agent Orange, and claim that there was no evidence to show how they were contaminated by Agent Orange. Richard Kramer who also worked along with House, stated that he was treated as if he was psycho, receiving no medical follow-up or attention prior to his first checkup. Even if there were evidences that showed a trace of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (an herbicide component of Agent Orange), and with speculated stationaries under investigation, this case as well as many other similar cases have not been resolved as to if VA will be responsible or whom is accountable.

The Vietnam War began after the World war 11 and consequently many people and soldiers to die. Twelve years later, the United States was still fighting in Vietnam. This war caused many solider deaths and many diseases spread in the air. The Agent Orange chemical started used during the Vietnam War(6).

In 1978, US troops start speaking about Agent Orange which affect them and Vietnamese people started asked the US government to take care of the diseases that caused by the chemical that they used in the Vietnam War. In 1988, congress had performed a study called the “Vietnam Experience Study”, which showed that the Agent Orange created numerous health problems. Although to this day both sides claim they are not to blame for the horrible side effects of this toxin(8).

Then, President Bush signed the legislation in 1991 to help veterans survive and recover from the effects of Agent Orange (7). US veterans and Vietnam civilians were still being neglected and having trouble receiving reimbursement from these treatments from the Bush legislation. In 2012, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), provided some health care to those effected by Agent Orange with affects such as birth defects and diseases such as Chlordane, which was the main disease that lead many people to suffer and dies(10).

When many look back on the Vietnam War, sadly they do not think who won, or what the war was for, people think about Agent Orange, and how it destroyed people’s lives. Because not only did it destroy and affect people’s lives at the time of when the toxin was used, decades ago, but it is still to this day is effecting civilians, and United States veterans. The question the United States has to ponder when thinking about dropping Agent Orange all over the Asia Continent: Was it worth it?

Work citation:

1 Agent Orange. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange

2 The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://embryo.asu.edu/pages/birth-defects-caused-agent-orange

3 History: Agent Orange/Dioxin in Vietnam. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/agent-orange/history

4 Public Health. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/ Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2013

5(2013 - H.R. 2519). (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr2519

6 Agent Orange. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange

7 Make Agent Orange History. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2015, from http://makeagentorangehistory.org/

8 Symptoms of Agent Orange in Vietnam Veterans. (2013, August 16). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/23779-symptoms-agent-orange-vietnam-veterans/

9 Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure toHerbicides (Ninth Biennial Update). (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK195076/

10 Agent Orange and Cancer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/intheworkplace/agent-orange-and-cancer

11WATCH FOR AGENT ORANGE EXPOSURE SYMPTOMS. (2013, May 3). Retrieved April 16, 2015, from http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/watch-agent-orange-exposure-symptoms