| Efforts to cleanup wartime toxin |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 27 June 2007 | |
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The maps were presented at a June 18-19 workshop on issues related to the US’ use of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam during the war. The meeting was held in Hanoi by the Vietnamese Defense Ministry and the US Department of Defense. The US representatives also presented the results of nearly two years of research, which included the review of tens of thousands of pages of documents and the collection of dozens of oral histories from former Operation Ranch Hand participants. Ranch Hand was the American military campaign to cover the southern Vietnamese countryside with Agent Orange, a defoliant containing toxic dioxin, in an effort to eliminate the Vietnamese’s food supply and ground cover. The Vietnamese representatives meanwhile provided presentations concerning their ongoing sampling and remediation activities at dioxin- affected areas at the Da Nang and Bien Hoa airfields. This is the second workshop held by the two countries' armed forces on the issue. During the first workshop held in September 2005, the two sides discussed the stabilization of sites thought to be contaminated with dioxin as well as soil remediation techniques to address such contamination. During the Operation Ranch Hand, 1961-1971, the US army sprayed 80 million liters of toxic chemical substances on the central and southern regions of Vietnam. The poisonous substances are continuing to harm the Vietnamese environment and millions of Vietnamese people. Share & Bookmark             |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 29 June 2007 ) |
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