Agent Orange

VFP VietNam Tour 8: Da Nang Thermal Dioxin Clean Up

Posted on April 20, 2014 by bcreightonsf

Thermal dioxin desorption system started in Da Nang
TalkVietnam
April 19, 2014
Source: Vietnam News Agency (VNA)
By VietnamPlus

A thermal desorption system was put into operation at Da Nang Airport on April 19, as part of a US-funded project to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil and sediment in the central city.

Senator Patrick Leahy

US Senator Leahy at the ceremony (Source: VNA)
The event saw the presence of Deputy Defence Minister Sen. Lt. Gen. Nguyen Chi Vinh, and US Ambassador David Shear.

Up to 45,000 cb.m of contaminated soil and sediment will be dug and placed in containers. Once being heated up to a temperature of 335 degrees Celsius, nearly 95 percent of dioxin will be destroyed.

The two governments plan to conclude the four-year project by late 2016. For years, both the US Democrats and Republicans have given overwhelming support to Vietnam in dealing with environmental pollution and health care.

-VNA

Read about the history of Agent Orange and Diaxon in Vietnam. Spray first began over 5 decades ago in 1961.

Bill Creighton, April 19, 2014

VFP Vietnam Tour 6: Danang Airport

Posted on April 14, 2014 by bcreightonsf

Agent Orange Remediation Project: Danang Airport, Viet Nam

Veterans For Peace Chapter 160 MemberChuck Palazzo arranged a tour of the Danang Airport Agent Orange Remediation site. It is a rare opportunity and the visit has to be cleared at the highest levels. Very few visitors are allowed entry to the site. Before hand, we received a briefing on the remediation process and safety guidelines, and then, wearing hardhats and safety jackets, we toured the site.

Basically, it goes like this. The on-site dioxin contaminated dirt is placed in a huge dumpster,cooked at extremely high temperatures with all kinds of gadgets, meters, bells and whistles to prevent it from blowing up. Hopefully, it will work. However, for a more detailed explanation, http://www.usaid.gov/vietnam/environmental-remediation.

A question and answered period followed, and the staff was surprised at the level of technical knowledge of some members of our Group.

More about Agent Orange in Vietnam… Read Drew Brown’s  Agent Orange articles forMcClatchy DC.

Bill Creighton, April 7, 2014

The Legacy of Agent Orange

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Paul Cox

I did not look out the window of the Freedom Bird as it lifted off from the Da Nang airport in 1970. I had been there 18 months mostly as a grunt in the Corps. I never wanted to see the place again. Didn’t want to think about it. Had come to despise the war. Was lucky to be leaving in one piece, and wanted to get on with life.

Turns out it wasn’t that easy. The war ground on, and back in the States it was omnipresent—in the news, the music, and my nightmares. Even though I knew too much in my gut about war, I soon learned just how little really I knew about the War. Two weeks before shipping out to Vietnam, I located it for the first time on a globe at the Oceanside USO. And, other than passing a few abandoned French forts during my tour, I hadn’t learned much else about its history or our involvement. So after returning home I read, then read some more. ThePentagon Papers was a revelation; Bernard Fall’s books were insightful and intense; GI Guinea Pigs was infuriating; etc. I learned from that last one that many people, many of them scientists, had believed even during the war that Agent Orange (AO) and other herbicides sprayed over large areas of the war zones weren’t, as we had been told, harmless to humans. …Continue reading →

Len Aldis, Britian Vietnam Friendship Society (BVFS)

Len Aldis is a Brit who has worked hard for decades to bring the Agent Orange (AO) issue to the world’s attention. He is much loved in Vietnam. He publishes a quarterly newsletter on AO, Unexploded Ordances (UXOs) and related news about Vietnam. If you want to get on his email list, write him at the Britian–Vietnam Friendship Society, sign petition “calling for justice.” Below are two videos with Len discussing Agent Orange it’s victims and the status of legal cases in America and France

Len Aldis Update—Agent Orange legal cases in American and France

Talk Vietnam interview with Len Aldes

UNICEF 2010 1st Prize Photo
Ed Kashi: Agent Orange’s Enduring Legacy

UNICEF 2010 1st Prize: Ed Kashi’s photograph of Nguyen Thi Lyn

Vietnam: The legacy of war
The Vietnam War ended in 1975. The USA withdrew their troops and North and South Vietnam were reunited. After 35 years, the world no longer pays attention to the drama. But for the Vietnamese people the legacy of American warfare continues. It was a cruel and brutal war that was also extremely damaging to the environment. US forces used the herbicide Agent Orange to destroy foliage that the North Vietnamese were using as cover. Agent Orange contains dioxins that are known to cause cancer and damage genes. The effects of the toxic substance can be seen among Vietnamese people to this day: cancer, immune disorders and severe deformities. According to official estimates, there are 1.2 million disabled children in Vietnam. In rural areas, the percentage of disabled children is significantly higher than in urban areas. The face of 9-year-old Nguyen Thi Ly is a sad example of this toxic legacy.

Nguyen Thi Ly and all the other affected children photographed by Ed Kashi live in Da Nang.. He particularly cares for the little ‘war veterans’. Da Nang was an American base of operations where tons of Agent Orange were stored for defoliation missions. 56,000 of the city’s 800,000 inhabitants suffer from disabilities caused by this chemical warfare. Today, scientific research on the ecological, social and health effects of Agent Orange is being carried out in Da Nang, funded by the US government and aid organizations.

UNICEF supports Vietnam’s disabled children, mostly through donations from US aid programs, to live as normal a life as possible and to be protected from discrimination. With his photos, he wants to show that war affects the following generations as well – and that there is no end in sight. UNICEF supports aid programs for Vietnam’s disabled children, mostly through donations from the US, so that these children can live as normal a life as possible and are protected from discrimination.

In his photo series, American photographer Ed Kashi shows the everyday life of two families who receive help from the organization “Children of Vietnam”. “I deeply believe in the power of still images to change people’s minds”, Kashi describes his work. Kashi especially cares for the little ‘war veterans’. With his photos, he wants to show that war causes endless suffering – not just for one generation.

Ed Kashi’s Agent Orange’s Enduring Legacy photos
UNICEF’s site
VII Magazine: How Photographers See The World
More information about Ed Kashi