US-Vietnam Project Starts Agent Orange re-mediation

(Source-Raw Story)

A US-Vietnamese group said Friday 1.2 million dollars had been spent to contain rainwater run-off from a "dioxin hotspot" at a war-time US airbase that was a depot for the toxic defoliant Agent Orange.

As part of the project, scientists had tested blood and breast milk samples from residents and workers near the base and found they exceeded safe levels of the most toxic dioxin type TCDD "by a wide margin," the group said.

Under the 1961-71 "Operation Ranch Hand" US forces sprayed about 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of Agent Orange and other herbicides on southern and central Vietnam to deprive enemies of forest cover and food crops.

Washington has rejected responsibility for the millions of people Vietnam says have suffered direct or second-generation disabilities due to Agent Orange, with US officials pointing to a lack of mutually agreed data.