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    Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins
    Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins
    Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins
    Ebook47 pages35 minutes

    Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins

    By John Stapleton

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    Thirty seven years after the end of the Vietnam War an historic event occurred at busy Da Nang Airport, an Agent Orange hot spot where tonnes of the infamous herbicide were decanted and reloaded on to cargo planes for spraying across the country's lush fields and forests. Dioxin, the accidental contaminant in Agent Orange responsible for many tens of thousands of birth defects and early deaths, is regarded as probably the most poisonous of all the compounds ever devised by man. This 10,000 word page primer records the events which lead up to the year when the wrongs of the past were finally addressed in joint efforts by the American and Vietnamese governments. This short book is the perfect way to bring yourself up to date on this vexed and long running issue.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublishereBookIt.com
    Release dateApr 26, 2016
    ISBN9781456615031
    Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins

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      Book preview

      Agent Orange - John Stapleton

      lives.

      Agent Orange: The Cleanup Begins

      On the morning of the 9 August 2012, Americans in particular but people around the world were astonished to observe an historic event occurring at busy Da Nang airport in Vietnam.The lingering impacts of the infamous herbicide Agent Orange were finally to be addressed, 37 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

      The former American military base at Da Nang was in a sparsely populated rural area outside a village at the time of the Vietnam War, which ended amidst chaotic scenes in 1975.

      The aftermath of the war, impacting on millions of people, has continued in places like Da Nang to the present day.

      Now in the heart of an urban area, Da Nang is adjacent to the sea and was a rest and recreation stop for American soldiers. It is now popular amongst many tourists.

      The generation which grew up with peace demonstrations dividing their country now has the money to pursue their fascination with the first war to be played out on television before an audience of millions.

      Many former Vietnam veterans travel to Vietnam to seek out the places where they served. By the end of the war American forces had utilized a total of 2,735 bases, although the remains of these for the most part are no longer to be seen.

      In 2011 Vietnam received six million tourists. This was up one million from the previous year, perhaps due to political unrest in S.E. Asia’s tourism capital, ever popular Thailand.

      Between 2012 and 2016 some 77,400 cubic metres of soil, 2.7 million cubic feet, are scheduled to be dug up from the Da Nang airport and treated.

      The treatment involves heating the contaminated soil to a minimum temperature of 325 degrees centigrade, the temperature at which dioxin breaks down into harmless compounds.

      The soil is then repeatedly tested until dioxin levels are negligible and it is then re-interred.

      Dioxin is regarded as one of the most toxic, if not the single most toxic, of all the compounds ever synthesized by man.

      It is dangerous at even vanishing levels - 10 parts per trillion or more. It is tested for in parts per quadrillion, an exercise compared to finding a coffee cup in Canada.

      The technical capacity to do this accurately did not exist for some 20 years after the Vietnam War.

      Seven parts per trillion, that is seven molecules of dioxin in an Olympic sized swimming pool, are believed to be the threshold level above which the probability of shortened life spans and birth defects increases.

      The Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that around three million of their countrymen are suffering from the impacts of Agent Orange, with around 150,000 children born with birth defects.

      As well thousands of American veterans and their families have been affected, as well as veterans from other which participated in the Vietnam War, including Australia.

      While the science remains disputed, Dioxin is widely believed to have inter-generational effects.

      Although dioxin is not water soluble, it can persist in soil

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