Agent Orange was a mixture of herbicides used between 1963 and 1971 during the Vietnam War. It was named for the orange-striped containers in which it was stored. Agent Orange was employed mainly to defoliate forest trees, but, it was also used to destroy the enemy's crops, as I said earlier before. Agent Orange contained two chlorophenoxy herbicides: 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and 2,4- dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). These herbicides were first used in the United States in the mid-1940s to control broadleaf weeds in cereal grain fields, pastures, and turf. They also were used to remove unwanted plants from rangeland, forests, noncropland, and waterways. At the time it was never thought of to use this chemical as a biological weapon in any type of war. By the mid-1960s, chlorophenoxy herbicides had become the most important class of herbicides in the United States.
During the 1970s, health concerns about the herbicides brought about Government restrictions that caused a sharp decrease in the manufacture and use of 2,4,5-T. Since 1983, the use of 2,4,5-T has been prohibited in the United States. Many other countries also have ended its use. Of additional concern is a contaminant commonly called dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p- dioxin, or TCDD), which often forms when 2,4,5-T is manufactured. Of the approximately 75 chemicals in the dioxin family, TCDD is the most toxic. It can cause chloracne, a skin disease, and is suspected to cause some kinds of cancer. The TCDD level in Agent Orange varied from 0.02 to 54 micrograms per gram of 2,4,5-T.
Farmers, forestry workers, and Vietnam veterans exposed to chlorophenoxy
herbicides have been studied to see whether they had a higher incidence of
cancer than would be expected. The results of these studies have been
conflicting and inconclusive, mainly due to the fact that there is not very much information about the effects of Agent Orange.
Copyright @1998 Matt Fields