According to environmental tests by Canada’s Hatfield Consultants Ltd., there are extremely high levels of the notorious Agent Orange, containing the deadly chemical dioxin, in Vietnam.
Tests found Agent Orange in people, fish and soil near a former U.S. air base in Vietnam. Dioxin levels in the soil, sediment and fish at the site, now home to an airport, are 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted levels. Agent Orange poses a health risk to more than 100,000 people who live in neighborhoods next to the airport.
As part of the brutal war carried out against the Vietnamese people, the U.S. government drenched southern Vietnam with at least 20 million gallons of defoliants, 60 percent of which were the notorious Agent Orange. An estimated 4.8 million people were directly exposed to the chemical, and the effects clearly continue.
The victims of decades of U.S. crimes in Vietnam deserve reparations for this injustice.
