President
Obama’s visit to Vietnam last week was certainly eventful. The US president
announced plans to strengthen international ties and lift the decades-long ban
on selling lethal weapons to the country. He also met with human rights
activists, sampled street food in Hanoi and was serenaded by one of the
country’s best-known female rap artists.
Absent
from the trip, however, were any fresh commitments to help the victims of Agent
Orange – a herbicide sprayed during the Vietnam War over vast areas of the
country’s forests and farmland that has since been linked to death, disease and
disability.
Agent
Orange – named after the orange stripes on the barrels used to transport it –
was used extensively by the US military to remove forest cover and destroy
militia crops from 1962 to 1971 during the war. It shouldn’t have had any
direct effect on the people of Vietnam as its own active ingredients – the
herbicides 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic
acid (2,4,5-T) – only affects plants. But the mixture was contaminated with a
highly toxic dioxin called 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD), formed as
an unintended by-product during the 2,4,5-T manufacturing process when
temperatures were too high. By the time anyone realised this it was far too
late – more than 40 million litres of contaminated Agent Orange had been dumped
on about 12% of the total area of South Vietnam.
It had
been hoped – and rumoured – that the president would meet with some of the
victim support organisations during this week’s visit, or announce a new
funding commitment. But his only mention of Agent Orange – during a speech in
Hanoi on 24 May – merely stated he was proud of the current US-funded clean-up
efforts, which are only tackling the worst-hit areas. For many, this highlights
the US’s unwillingness to address a tragedy that has persisted for decades.
Lasting impacts
The
effects of TCDD poisoning have been extensively studied in animals. In rats, it
has been associated with tumours, premature death and birth defects even when
consumed in extremely low quantities. Authorities in Vietnam say millions of
lives have been ruined by exposure to TCDD through contaminated crops or water.
Incidences of several types of cancer – including childhood leukaemia – are
higher in areas where contamination is most severe, and children have been born
with birth defects and severe mental and physical disabilities, often unable to
communicate, feed or look after themselves. TCDD is incredibly stable in soil,
which has allowed it to persist for decades after the spraying of Agent Orange
stopped. The Hatfield Group – a consultancy based in Canada – has worked on
environmental monitoring of TCDD in Vietnam for 20 years, and has identified
dozens of ‘hotspots’ where contamination is most severe. They have also
measured and noted the high concentration of TCDD in the blood of people
inhabiting these regions.
But the
issue of health impacts remains controversial. ‘The difficulty … is that proof
of the connections is quite elusive for many reasons, including inadequate
research and a political and professional environment that has not always
encouraged independent, objective research,’ says Chuck Searcy, a US veteran
now based in Vietnam who runs the Agent Orange Working Group charity. He adds,
however, that for him and many others the available evidence is compelling that
the contamination has had a significant impact on the health of people in
Vietnam, and in many cases exacerbated problems caused by poverty and poor
access to healthcare.
As debate
around the extent of its effects has raged on over the years, the US has been
reluctant to commit money and resources to deal with the aftermath of Agent
Orange use. Initially it only provided a modest amount of compensation to
veterans who could show that their health problems were likely to have been
caused by handling the contaminated herbicide. But the tide is starting to
turn. In recent years, the US government has agreed to fund efforts to clean up
the contamination, and a mammoth effort to decontaminate 90,000m3 of soil from
Danang Airport – one of the worst affected regions – began in 2012, organised
and funded to the tune of $100 million (£68 million) by the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID).
Slow progress
Cleaning
up TCDD is easier said than done, however. Though it is very persistent in
soil, the contamination only extends a couple of metres down. But the existing
approach of scooping up the contaminated top layer of soil and dumping it in
designated landfill sites is far from ideal – the transport process and runoff
from the landfill can spread contamination. USAID’s project is attempting to
implement a more permanent solution, in which the contaminated soil is heated to
break down the TCDD into less harmful products such as water, carbon dioxide
and chlorides.
This
presents logistical challenges, but has been successful with sites elsewhere.
TerraTherm, a company specialising in soil remediation who carried out a demonstration
project in Japan, were chosen by USAID to build the necessary infrastructure at
Danang. Their decontamination system comprises a 100m x 70m chamber to hold the
contaminated soil. It took the best part of a year to build the chamber and
fill it with the first 45,000m3 of soil. Once packed into the chamber, more
than 1000 immersion elements heat the soil until it reaches 335°C – hot enough
to decompose the TCDD. Decontaminating this volume of soil takes several
months, during which time drains and pipes remove the decomposition products
and take them to a nearby plant to be treated, and later released back into the
environment.
The first
45,000m3 batch was completed in 2015, and the treated soil and sediment will be
used to construct a new runway at the airport. The project’s second phase –
originally due to be finished this year, but now projected to go on until 2018
– has begun, and a second lot of soil is currently being loaded into the
system.
Victims neglected
The sheer
difficulty and expense it has taken just to partially deal with one
contamination hotspot highlights just how much of an uphill struggle the
country still faces. The next site to be tackled will be another former airbase
at Bien Hoa, but work has not yet begun.
‘There
has not been much talk regarding the remaining two dozen or so sites which have
been identified, all much smaller, most of them former US bases where Agent
Orange was handled, stored and loaded,’ says Searcy.
Although
the technical clean-up is important, he adds, politicians should not ignore the
need for health and social work interventions focused on helping those who have
already fallen ill as a result of dioxin
contamination.
‘Many of
us – veterans, public health professionals, ordinary citizens are concerned
that not enough attention and resources have been devoted to the plight of
millions of Vietnamese whose medical and health conditions, and home
environments, beg for some intervention and assistance,’ Searcy says. ‘While the
problem may not be deliberately neglected, a comprehensive strategy to truly
help suffering families has not been forthcoming.’
Emma
Stoye
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