Chemical bonds
June 22, 2011
Vietnam's legacy of dioxin-related birth defects has been an enduring sore point in the country's relations with the United States since the end of the Vietnam War.
But even this source of animosity finally appears to be giving way to conciliation, more than three decades after the end of the conflict.
Last Friday (17.06.2011), Vietnamese soldiers started searching the grounds around Danang Airport for unexploded ordnance - a key preparation in a joint project with the United States aimed at cleaning up dioxin contamination left over from the war.
Danang, on Vietnam's southern-central coast, is known as one of the country's three major dioxin "hotspots."
The cancer-causing chemical leached into the soil starting in the 1960s, after US planes began spraying Agent Orange. A defoliant, Agent Orange was intended to rob communist forces of food and shelter in the forests of South Vietnam.
"I think it's fair to say that dioxin contamination in Agent Orange was one of the single-most neuralgic issues in the US-Vietnam relationship," US Charge d'Affaires Virginia Palmer said.
"So the fact that we've been working together for five years to find joint solutions to the environmental problems, in particular, and to work together on health issues is hugely important and has had very nice repercussions for the rest of the relationship."
Cleaning up a 'hotspot'
Though efforts to clean up the effects of Agent Orange have been underway for the past decade, the project in Danang follows a new agreement signed in May to bolster that work.
Palmer described the beginning of the remediation project as "a really big day" in the two countries' ties. According to the US embassy in Hanoi, Washington has provided almost $42 million since 2007 toward the effort to clean up the effects of Agent Orange.
There are few places where the painful impact of Agent Orange has been more deeply felt than in Danang. During the war, the US army used an airbase there as a storage facility for the defoliant. Over a 10-year period, US planes sprayed more than 50 million liters of the poisonous chemical.
According to Hatfield Consultants, a Vancouver-based agency that has investigated the impacts of Agent Orange around Danang, improper disposal of containment barrels led to severe contamination of the area's river system.
In a statement posted on the US embassy's website, Major General Do Minh Tuan, Deputy Commander of the Anti-Aircraft and Air Force Service, said the initiative that began on Friday would help remediate large swathes of land.
"The successful implementation of this project will remove dioxin from 29 hectares of soil that can be used for economic and commercial activities, and reduce human exposure to the chemical and potential health impacts," he said.
The human cost
Today the consequences of dioxin contamination are still evident in Danang - underscoring the need for clean-up efforts.
Some 5,000 people in the city still suffer from the effects of exposure to Agent Orange, and blood samples among locals indicate the presence of dioxin at over "100 times globally acceptable levels," according to a report by Hatfield's consultants.
"The use of this defoliant is still inconceivable to me today," said Tran Thanh Hiep, who served as an ally of the US, fighting for the South Vietnamese Army during the 1960s.
At the time, his job put him in constant contact with Agent Orange. Today, he must cope with high blood pressure, lung and heart problems. His 35-year-old daughter is mentally disabled.
"It was inhumane to use poison to win the war and not think about the consequences," Tran said. "If it had only made the leaves fall off the trees, there would have been nothing to say against it, but many people have died because of the poison - that's just too much."
Youth at risk
Dioxin is a stubborn toxin – it doesn't breakdown easily, and once released into the environment, it becomes gradually more concentrated as it makes its way up the food chain.
Even small doses are problematic, because they accumulate in fatty tissue and can be passed on to offspring through pregnancy.
Because of this, many of those still paying the price of the war were born long after it ended: Some 1,400 of those suffering from dioxin exposure in Danang are children and young people.
Ngyen Thie Hien runs a children's home on the outskirts of the city, where 80 of those children live.
Ngyen said she is glad that Washington and Hanoi followed through on their agreement, but she hopes funding for the project isn't just spent on the clean-up effort alone.
"The children in our home are like candles in the wind, they need so much help and they also need a portion of the funds made available," she said.
For her - and those suffering health effects from dioxin exposure - environmental remediation is crucial, but so too is making sure that people burdened by the cruel legacy of Agent Orange get the medical help they need.
Author: Udo Schmidt (arp)
Editor: Nathan Witkop