The herbicide was more recently used in Brazil to clear out sections of the Amazon rainforest for agriculture. military in Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War because forests near the border with Vietnam were used by the Viet Cong. and Vietnamese veterans sought compensation for damages.Īgent Orange was first used by the British Armed Forces in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. The United Nations ratified United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72 and the Environmental Modification Convention. The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam resulted in numerous legal actions. Animal species diversity is sharply reduced in contrast with unsprayed areas. Defoliants eroded tree cover and seedling forest stock, making reforestation difficult in numerous areas. Agent Orange has also caused enormous environmental damage in Vietnam. An epidemiological study done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that there was an increase in the rate of birth defects of the children of military personnel as a result of Agent Orange. The United States government has described these figures as unreliable, while documenting cases of leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and various kinds of cancer in exposed U.S. The government of Vietnam says that up to four million people in Vietnam were exposed to the defoliant, and as many as three million people have suffered illness because of Agent Orange, while the Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to one million people were disabled or have health problems as a result of exposure to Agent Orange. Nine chemical companies produced it: Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto Company, Diamond Shamrock Corporation, Hercules Inc., Thompson Hayward Chemical Co., United States Rubber Company (Uniroyal), Thompson Chemical Co., Hoffman-Taff Chemicals, Inc., and Agriselect. During the Vietnam War the U.S military procured over 20 million gallons consisting of a fifty-fifty mixture of 2,4-D and Dioxin-contaminated 2,4,5-T. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, traces of dioxin (mainly TCDD, the most toxic of its type) found in the mixture have caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed, and their offspring.Īgent Orange was produced in the United States from the late 1940s and was used in industrial agriculture and was also sprayed along railroads and power lines to control undergrowth in forests. It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It is widely known for its use by the U.S. Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the "tactical use" Rainbow Herbicides.
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