Vietnam Approves More Studies on ‘Agent Orange’
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BANGKOK, Thailand — Vietnam has signed a five-year agreement allowing American researchers to continue studies that have shown extremely high levels of toxic dioxin in the body tissues of people exposed to the herbicide “Agent Orange,” a researcher said Friday.
“Vietnam is an absolute gold mine to learn how dangerous, or not dangerous, dioxin is,” Dr. Arnold Schecter of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the State University of New York said after returning from a two-week trip to Vietnam.
“My guess is millions of people (in Vietnam) have been affected,” he said.
According to U.S. government figures, about 400 pounds of the highly toxic dioxin (2,3,7,8 Tetra-Chlorinated Dibenzo-P-Dioxin) was sprayed over 10% of South Vietnam as a defoliant in the herbicide “Agent Orange” during the Vietnam War.
High Levels Detected
In two previous trips to Vietnam, Schecter found that high levels of dioxin persisted in the bodies of Vietnamese long after the spraying of Agent Orange was stopped, in 1975 at the latest.
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