US starts landmark Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam

[mlurp]

Dang we just continued like nothing has happened to our economy. Now don't get the wrong idea I have two sets of tennis shoes and a very nice warm jacket from Viet-Nam, which I use.

And I do know how much this (once in the water table) can harm peoples bodies.
I lost 2 Nam buddies years ago to the same thing.

And while in the Long Range Recon we did find ourselves in an areas they dump this crap on. And it was twice as no one forgets seeing the damage to the jungle around them once you walk into it. And we did fill our canteens in the river just before entering one place.

Yet why hasn't the Viet-Nam govt., waited so long to get this even started? They have the money. But after 40+ years more people must have died from Agent Orange while they did nothing.

.US starts landmark Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam

By MIKE IVES | Associated Press – 12 hrs ago. 8 August 2012 .......

DANANG, Vietnam (AP) — Vo Duoc fights back tears while sharing the news that broke his heart: A few days ago he received test results confirming he and 11 family members have elevated levels of dioxin lingering in their blood.

The family lives in a two-story house near a former U.S. military base in Danang where the defoliant Agent Orange was stored during the Vietnam War, which ended nearly four decades ago. Duoc, 58, sells steel for a living and has diabetes, while his wife battles breast cancer and their daughter has remained childless after suffering repeated miscarriages. For years, Duoc thought the ailments were unrelated, but after seeing the blood tests he now suspects his family unwittingly ingested dioxin from Agent Orange-contaminated fish, vegetables and well water.

Dioxin, a persistent chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, has seeped into Vietnam's soils and watersheds, creating a lasting war legacy that remains a thorny issue between the former foes. Washington has been slow to respond, but on Thursday the U.S. for the first time will begin cleaning up dioxin from Agent Orange that was stored at the former military base, now part of Danang's airport.

"It's better late than never that the U.S. government is cleaning up the environment for our children," Duoc said in Danang, surrounded by family members sitting on plastic stools. "They have to do as much as possible and as quickly as possible."

The $43 million project begins as Vietnam and the U.S. forge closer ties to boost trade and counter China's rising influence in the disputed South China Sea.

Although the countries' economic and military ties are blossoming, progress on addressing the dioxin legacy has been slow. Washington still disputes a claim by Hanoi that between 3 million to 4 million Vietnamese were affected by toxic chemicals sprayed by U.S. planes during the war to eliminate

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US starts landmark Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam - Yahoo! News

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