Vietnam, US still in conflict over Agent Orange burden

CAM TUYEN, Vietnam — Her children are 21 and 16 years old, but they still cry through the night, tossing and turning in pain, sucking their thumbs for comfort.

Tran Thi Gai, who rarely gets any sleep herself, sings them a mournful lullaby. "Can you feel my love for you? Can you feel my sorrow for you? Please don’t cry."

Gai’s children — both with twisted limbs and in wheelchairs — were born in a village that was drenched with Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. She believes their health problems were caused by dioxin, a highly toxic chemical in the herbicide, which US troops used to strip communist forces of ground cover and food.

Thirty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, its most contentious legacy is Agent Orange. Eighty-two percent of Vietnamese surveyed in a recent Associated Press-GfK Poll said the United States should be doing more to help people suffering from illnesses associated with the herbicide, including children with birth defects.

After President George W. Bush pledged to work on the issue on a Hanoi visit in 2006, Congress approved $9 million mostly to address environmental cleanup of Agent Orange. But while the United States has provided assistance to Vietnamese with disabilities regardless of their cause, it maintains that there is no clear link between Agent Orange and health problems.

Vietnamese officials say the United States must make a much bigger financial commitment — $6 million has been allocated — to adequately address the problems unleashed by Agent Orange.

"Six million dollars is nothing compared to the consequences left behind by Agent Orange," said Le Ke Son, deputy general administrator of Vietnam’s Environmental Administration. "How much does one Tomahawk missile cost?"

Between 1962 and 1971, the US military sprayed roughly 11 million gallons of Agent Orange across large swaths of southern Vietnam. Dioxin stays in soil and the sediment at the bottom of lakes and rivers for generations. It can enter the food supply through the fat of fish and other animals.

Vietnam says as many as 4 million of its citizens were exposed to the herbicide and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses caused by it.

But the US government says Vietnamese are too quick to blame Agent Orange for birth defects that can be caused by malnutrition or other environmental factors.

"Scientists around the world have done a lot of research on dioxin and its possible health effects," said Michael Michalak, the US ambassador in Hanoi. "There is disagreement as to what’s real and what isn’t, about what the possible connections are."

Agent Orange Continues to Devastate Viet Nam

In 1975, after a 30 years struggle against a range of foreign forces, the victorious National Liberation Front of Vietnam forces entered Saigon, the capital of the South. For the first time, since its occupation by France in the late 19th century, Việt Nam was independent and no longer subject to the dictates of external powers.

However, while the lengthy and costly conflicts, which had resulted in the loss of 3 million Vietnamese lives, were over, they left in their wake a legacy of debilitating obstacles in the way of the country’s future economic development.

During the latter decade and a half of the war, Việt Nam was subjected to an aerial bombardment three to four times greater than the total tonnage released during WWII.

However, it was the use of chemical defoliants which had the greatest long-term detrimental impact on the country and its people. These chemicals were used by the US military to strip away the lush and abundant forests in the south and centre so the Vietnamese resistance could be better targeted. It was the combination of napalm used to kill trees and vegetation followed by Agent Orange to burn them, prior to their removal by bulldozers, which has had the greatest long term consequences.

Named after the orange strips on its container barrels, Agent Orange was a highly toxic chemical. Between 1962 and 1970, 1.4 billion hectares of land and forest – approximately 12 percent of Việt Nam’s total land area – were sprayed with 80 million litres of this chemical. As a result, 2.5 to 4.8 million people were exposed to the lethal effects of dioxin, an essential component of Agent Orange.

Despite their best efforts to protect themselves by covering their faces with towels drenched in water or even their own urine, many were unable to prevent their contamination from the spilling Agent Orange.

As it fell, the dioxin took root in the land and waters around, entering into the life cycles of the local plants, fish, animals and people. Furthermore, many barrels of dioxin remain buried in the ground and there were numerous accidental spillages. One such spillage entailed the seepage of 22,000 litres of Agent Orange into a lake beside Biên Hòa town, home to 20,000 people. Tests have shown this area to be contaminated to a level 1,000 times that considered acceptable in the US.

Families with members disabled by exposure to Agent Orange, exist in an extremely precarious, economic situation. In a country, which was virtually destroyed by war and further enfeebled by the post-war US-led embargo, it is exceedingly difficult to provide the required care and attention for disabled family members.

The 2002 documentary Battle’s Poison Cloud introduces us to several of these families. In one scene, we meet Nguyên Cảnh whose granddaughter, an Agent Orange victim, has virtually no control over her limbs. At every meal Cảnh must first chew her granddaughter’s food until it is sufficiently soft for her to simply swallow when placed in her mouth. Cảnh worries for her family’s future after her passing, as her granddaughter will have no one to look after her with her daughter-in-law having to work hard in the rice fields to provide for their family.

Research carried out by the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1994 and 1996 described the presence of ten diseases potentially linked to Agent Orange. Four of these diseases had sufficient evidence while the remaining six bore limited evidence of an association between the current ailments and exposure to herbicides.

Based on these reports, President Clinton approved compensation for US personnel who had served in Việt Nam, as well as their children should they become afflicted by any of the diseases described in the Institute of Medicine’s reports. However, no mention was made of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.

A 2003 IOM report emphasised the possibility of undertaking extensive epidemiological research to examine the connections between herbicide use in Việt Nam and the health of Vietnamese citizens and US veterans. However, IOM’s call to the US government to fund such studies proved unsuccessful.

In January 2004, a case was initiated in the New York courts by the Vietnam Association of Agent orange/dioxin Victims and 5 individual victims to obtain compensation for the victims of Agent Orange. Their case was rejected in March 2005 as the judge ruled there was no prohibition on the use of herbicides in International Law. An appeal launched on 30 September 2005 was also rejected.

In the meantime, thousands of people affected by Agent Orange continue to struggle with their disabilities without the economic resources they need to make their lives more bearable. However, they are not alone in their efforts as organisations located in Việt Nam, the US, UK and many other countries, are also working to obtain justice for the victims of Agent Orange.

If you might be interested in finding out more about Agent Orange, its consequences and the ongoing efforts to obtain redress for its victims as well as signing the petition in support of Agent Orange victims, please visit the following website www.lenaldis.co.uk for further information.

Vietnam’s forgotten victims

DANANG, Vietnam — At 46, each year of misery seems to have etched new wrinkles around Tran Thanh Dung’s angry gaze.

When he was child in the early 1970s, Tran says he witnessed U.S. soldiers shoot his parents — both of whom were communist Viet Cong soldiers during the Vietnam War. Bent on revenge, he joined the guerrilla group within hours.

To this day, Tran weeps over the memories of bloodshed and the hellish cries of his dying friends. But one bizarre memory will haunt him forever. "The American airplanes came right toward me and dropped a mist in the jungle, and the next day, the trees were dead,” he recalled. “We weren’t scared. We were confused.”

Thanks to that experience, his son has been unable to walk since birth.

Tran was sprayed with Agent Orange — an herbicide that the U.S. Army used to kill off foliate in Vietnam and Laos during the 1960s and early 1970s, so the Communist forces would have no place to hide.

The defoliant is known to cause a myriad of birth defects in the children of those exposed. Today, Tran’s 18-year-old son suffers from a spinal disorder called spina bifida, an ailment Tran’s doctor said was caused by his contact with dioxin four decades ago.

“It makes all of us sad, our family and the Vietnamese people,” Tran said, adding that he wants the U.S. government to reimburse the families of Vietnamese soldiers for the effects of the spraying. “The problems of war will never leave us.”

During the Vietnam War, the United States sprayed up to 18 million gallons of Agent Orange around Vietnam, according to a study by the Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of the U.S. Congress.

The Vietnamese government, meanwhile, estimates that as many as 400,000 Vietnamese have died from illnesses related to exposure to dioxin, such as cancer. It also claims that up to 500,000 children have birth defects, such as spina bifida, because their parents were exposed.

The U.S. government insists the direct spraying of Agent Orange onto people — like in Tran’s case — cannot be linked to any illnesses in Vietnam. It does admit, however, that when the defoliant seeps into local water and food sources, people can get sick.

“The United States Government advocates the use of sound science,” said Jim Warren, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Hanoi, referring to an alleged lack of evidence for a link between certain illnesses and dioxin exposure.

Critics point out that this claim rests on an inconsistency: that former American soldiers who suffer from illnesses related to Agent Orange are eligible for veterans’ benefits.

Even though critics say the U.S. remains sticky on that one point, others say it’s making progress. In 2007, the U.S. government and the Ford Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit, began funding a clean-up effort at Danang airport, a brutally contaminated site in central Vietnam.

During the 1960s, pilots stored Agent Orange at the airport, which then leeched into the local water supply and soil. Farmers have been unable to grow certain crops for decades. But a 2009 assessment by a Canadian contractor determined the clean-up reduced human exposure “significantly.” The main bulk of the cleaning project is expected to start this year.

Still, that doesn’t wipe away the existing human toll that dioxin has created. Thanks to the contamination at that airport, the city of Danang and surrounding countryside are thought to have among the most dangerous dioxin levels in all of Vietnam.

VA Expands List Of Agent Orange Ailments

Thirty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, many veterans of that conflict are still battling for compensation for diseases they believe are related to Agent Orange, a defoliant that includes several kinds of dioxins.

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced new guidelines that would cover exposed veterans for some additional diseases. But the announcement has drawn criticism.

Vietnam veteran Don Wade used to spend his free time building electronics equipment. The results of his hobby line the walls of the den of his home in Raleigh, N.C. But about a decade ago, Wade, who still looks fit and trim at 61, noticed he had more trouble soldering the tiny electronics. His hand had developed a minor tremor, which has only become worse.

"If I take my medication, I'm good for about a half-hour," he says. "My rigidity is, you know, it's like a glove on your hand. And when I walk, it's like somebody walking in 3 feet of water, 2 feet of sand."

Wade was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2003. He is being treated at the VA Hospital in Durham, N.C., and is happy with the care. But he has never been happy that the VA denied his claim that the Parkinson's resulted from Agent Orange exposure while he was a Marine in Vietnam.

"Basically our job was to unload stuff. One of the items was the 55-gallon drums of Agent Orange," he says. "At that time, I had no inclination that what was being spilled was to some degree toxic."

So Wade welcomed the VA's announcement that it would begin approving compensation claims for Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease and a form of leukemia. Under an existing 1991 federal law, the VA already compensates for treatment for many diseases, including type-2 diabetes.

Wade says the hospital was abuzz with the news.

"There were about five people that came up: 'Did you hear about the VA?' "

Wade knows he came into contact with Agent Orange, but for many vets the connection isn't as clear.

"There is no possibility of proving on an individual basis what the exposure was," says Trude Bennett, a public health researcher at the University of North Carolina who studies dioxin exposure. "Even if you could measure the body burden of the chemicals in someone's body now, it would have dissipated from the time of the original exposure.

"So there's also no way to prove with absolute certainty a causal effect between the exposure and the medical condition."

The VA estimates the tab for treating these newly added diseases at about $40 billion over the next decade.

"We are in a very bad time economically, so suddenly there's been tremendous resistance to implementing this process," he says.

The new VA rules need congressional approval, but some members of Congress have balked at the price and the spiraling costs of disability claims stemming from Agent Orange. Many vets and their advocates, though, see paying for their health care as part of the cost of war.

Congress has until the end of October to decide whether the new rules will stand and whether Wade and thousands of other veterans will have their treatment covered by the VA.

Agent Orange day a cry for help

According to Tran Ngoc Tho, about 4.8 million victims in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange with 500,000 victims suffered from disability and deformity.

 

A day for awareness and victims, August 10 marked the annual Agent Orange Day in Vietnam.

“Normal people cannot fully understand the pain that Agent Orange/Dioxin victims have to suffer. This has been the torment of those who have a conscience and feel a responsibility towards the victims,” remarked Tran Ngoc Tho, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin during his welcoming speech at the “Agent Orange - Message from the Heart” seminar held on August 9 in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to Tran Ngoc Tho, about 4.8 million victims in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange with 500,000 victims suffered from disability and deformity as a result. Hundreds of thousands of victims were killed. Millions of other people, including descendants of those victims, have continued to be affected.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, Vice Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), reported the recent results of the 3rd hearing in the U.S, in which she said, “The U.S. still doesn’t take full responsibility for the consequences that Agent Orange has caused us. They agree to support, but not compensate, and still refuse their legal liability.”

"The U.S. has agreed to help clean up the environment in Vietnam and assist with the rehabilititation of Agent Orange victims, as well as to provide Vietnam with 30 million dollars of annual aid for the next 10 years. This isn’t enough to address the problem, because to do the job well, we need billions of dollars every year,” Phuong said.

VAVA is determined to continue to ask the U.S. to perform legal and moral responsibility to Vietnam and the impact that AO has caused for the country.

Can Tho: Sharing the dioxin pain

In Can Tho City, a ceremony was held on the occasion of Agent Orange Day.

According to Le Phu Tuoi, Chairman of the Can Tho Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, 3,000 out of the 4.8 million Vietnamese exposed to Agent Orange were from Can Tho. Of these 1,300 people are direct Agent Orange victims, 900 people are completely paralysed and immobilised. Most of these victims suffer from life-threatening diseases and live their life in pain and despair.

Over the past 4 years, since it was first established, the association has been able to raise about VND 3 billion (USD 156,000) to help Agent Orange victims. Amongst those victims, many have tried to overcome their fate and produce moving stories about their strength.

Agent orange victims suffer everyday.

Thousands of Vietnamese families suffer as a result of Agent Orange.

Vietnam will continue to fight for justice and save future generations from the effect of dioxin.

Agent Orange children victims attending a ceremony in Can Tho.

The image of a mother holding her son moves the attendees.

Honouring Agent Orange victims who have been able to overcome difficulties.

$300 million for Agent Orange fund

HANOI, Vietnam — Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, a $300 million price tag has been placed on the most contentious legacy still tainting U.S.-Vietnam relations: Agent Orange. 

Nguyen Tuan Tu, a second generation Agent Orange victim who was born without eyes, rests at the Center of Nurturing Old People and Disabled Children at Ba Vi, outside Hanoi, Vietnam in May.

A joint panel of U.S. and Vietnamese policymakers, citizens and scientists released an action plan Wednesday, urging the U.S. government and other donors to provide an estimated $30 million annually over 10 years to clean up sites still contaminated by dioxin, a toxic chemical used in the defoliant.

The funding would also be used to treat Vietnamese suffering from disabilities, including those believed linked to exposure to Agent Orange, which was dumped by the U.S. military in vast quantities over former South Vietnam to destroy crops and jungle cover shielding communist guerrilla fighters.

Quibbling for years Washington has been slow to address the issue, quibbling for years with its former foe over the need for more scientific research to show that the herbicide sprayed by U.S. aircraft during the war caused health problems and birth defects among Vietnamese.

"We are talking about something that is a major legacy of the Vietnam War, a major irritant in this important relationship," said Walter Isaacson, co-chair of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin that released the report. "The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up."

The dialogue group was formed in 2007 to look for ways to address the lingering issue. It is supported by the nonprofit Ford Foundation and coordinated by the nonprofit Aspen Institute.

Their report said nearly $100 million was needed to restore damaged ecosystems and clean up dioxin-contaminated sites, with priority given to three former U.S. air bases in the central city of Danang, and the southern locations of Bien Hoa and Phu Cat — hot spots where Agent Orange was mixed, stored and loaded onto planes during the war, allowing spilled dioxin to seep into the soil and water systems.

Another $200 million would be devoted to expanding care and treatment for Vietnamese with disabilities, including those believed caused by dioxin.

Isaacson said he was hopeful the U.S. government will provide at least half the $300 million needed by 2020, with corporations, foundations and other donors supplying the rest.

'Wounds from the war still remain' "The war is over but the wounds from the war still remain in many areas of Vietnam," Nguyen Van Son, a member of Vietnam's National Assembly, said during the report's launch in Hanoi. "Many Agent Orange victims have died, but many other victims, including children with disabilities, have been fighting diseases under extreme hardship and they are in dire need of treatment and support."

The U.S. military dumped some 20 million gallons (75 million liters) of Agent Orange and other herbicides on about a quarter of former South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971.

The defoliant decimated about 5 million acres (2 million hectares) of forest — roughly the size of Massachusetts — and another 500,000 acres (202,000 hectares) of crops, the report said.

Dioxin has been linked to cancers, birth defects and other ailments. A study released last year by the Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants showed that dioxin levels in some blood and breast milk samples taken from people who had lived near the Danang air base site were 100 times above safe levels.

Dioxin levels in soil, sediment and fish in the same area were 300 to 400 times above international limits. That report estimated up to 100,000 people living near the site still face a potential health risk from exposure.

Dioxin is slow to degrade. It works its way from the soil into the sediment of rivers, lakes and ponds via rainwater then attaches to the fat of fish and ducks, which can be eaten by humans and passed on to future generations.

Health problems The Vietnam Red Cross estimates up to 3 million Vietnamese children and adults have suffered health problems related to Agent Orange exposure. But the U.S. says the number is much lower, with many Vietnamese birth defects instead likely resulting from other health and environmental reasons, including malnutrition.

"We said, 'Let's leave aside exactly who's to blame for which illness that might have occurred,'" Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit group that promotes international dialogue, said by phone from Washington. "It's a mess we made ... and we'll get private money and a little bit of government money and we'll clean it up."

The Vietnam War ended April 30, 1975, when the former U.S.-backed regime in Saigon, the former capital of South Vietnam, fell to northern communist forces, reunifying the country.

Agent Orange has remained a thorny topic between the former enemies despite strong recent partnerships in areas ranging from economic to military. Next month, the U.S. and Vietnam will celebrate 15 years of normalized diplomatic relations.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on Wednesday praised the panel for dealing with a sensitive issue between the countries.

"Their efforts have played an important role in facilitating cooperation between the United States and Vietnam," Crowley told reporters. "We have great interest in the dialogue group's strategic plan, and we look forward to reviewing the details."

The U.S. government has provided $9 million since 2007 to assist with Agent Orange in Vietnam. Another $12 million would be allocated as part of a bill being debated by Congress. A State Department official told reporters during a visit to Hanoi earlier this month that the U.S. hopes to find additional funding for more dioxin-related projects.

UN provides US $5 mil for Agent Orange clean-up

VGP - The United Nations (UN) on Monday announced a US $5 million project to clean up wartime contamination in Việt Nam from Agent Orange (AO) sprayed by the US military.

 

The project by the UN development agency will focus on contamination at the airport in Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai Province, which was the worst-affected site. 

Experts have also identified two other former US air bases, at Đà Nẵng and Phú Cát, as key "hotspots" of dioxin contamination. Dioxin was a component of AO and other herbicides stored at the bases.

According to the UNDP, the concentration of dioxin in the three main hotspots is much higher than nationally and internationally agreed standards. Without action, the hotspots will continue to contaminate the wider environment and pose a serious health risk to people living and working nearby.

Since 2007, the US Congress has funded US $9 million aid to help the clean-up in Việt Nam.  At Việt Nam’s request, the US is focusing its help on the Đà Nẵng site, where operations are expected to begin next year.

Earlier, a joint US-Vietnamese panel on June 16 held press conferences in Hà Nội and Washington D.C. to propose a US $300 million plan of action in the period of 2010-2019 to deal with health and environmental legacy from the US’s use of dioxin in Việt Nam./.