Why is dioxin called Agent Orange?
Why is dioxin called Agent Orange?
Named for the colored stripe painted on its barrels, Agent Orange — best known for its widespread use by the U.S. military to clear vegetation during the Vietnam War — is notorious for being laced with a chemical contaminant called 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-P-dioxin, or TCDD, regarded as one of the most toxic …
What was the name of a spray used in Vietnam which caused many health problems for former soldiers and their families?
3The U.S. Military and the Herbicide Program in Vietnam. From 1962 to 1971, the U.S. Air Force sprayed nearly 19 million gallons of herbicides in Vietnam, of which at least 11 million gallons was Agent Orange, in a military project called Operation Ranch Hand.
What was the main reason Agent Orange was used in Vietnam?
Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops.
Who invented Agent Orange?
In 1943, the United States Department of the Army contracted botanist and bioethicist Arthur Galston, who discovered the defoliants later used in Agent Orange, and his employer University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to study the effects of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T on cereal grains (including rice) and broadleaf crops.
What is the history of Agent Orange?
About Agent Orange: Agent Orange was one of a class of color-coded herbicides that U.S. forces sprayed over the rural landscape in Vietnam from 1961 to 1971 to defoliate trees and shrubs and kill food crops that were providing cover and food to opposition forces.
What does Agent Orange do to offspring?
The children of Vietnam veterans and occasionally even their grandchildren have also dealt with significant health problems from Agent Orange exposure as well. Birth defects such as neural tube defects are the most common effects of Agent Orange in the second generation exposed to Agent Orange. That’s the bad news.
Who started Agent Orange?
Agent Orange was first used by the British Armed Forces in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. It was also used by the U.S. military in Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War because forests near the border with Vietnam were used by the Viet Cong.
