Vietnam will develop its own technique to clean up dioxin left from the Vietnam War instead of relying on U.S. collaboration.
Colonel General Nguyen Chi Vinh,
Deputy Minister of National Defense, told a Friday meeting Vietnam targets to
complete dioxin remediation across all contaminated areas that have been
detected by 2025.
Affected areas include Bien Hoa
Airport, the most contaminated spot in the country in Dong Nai Province,
neighboring Ho Chi Minh City, and A So Airport in central Thua Thien-Hue Province.
Related agencies will continue to
investigate the current status of toxic chemical and dioxin residues in other
areas sprayed during the war that last from 1955 to 1975.
Vietnam is expected to develop its
own method of cleaning up dioxin, with all such projects thus far completed in
collaboration with the U.S.
Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S.
army sprayed some 80 million liters of Agent Orange, compounds of dioxins and
dioxin-like mixtures, over 78,000 square kilometers (30,000 square miles) of
southern Vietnam.
Dioxin, a highly toxic chemical
contained in the defoliant, stays in the soil and at the bottom of lakes and
rivers for generations. It can enter the food chain through meat, fish and
other animals, and has been found at alarmingly high levels in human breast
milk.
Between 2.1 to 4.8 million
Vietnamese were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals, which
have been linked to cancers, birth defects and other chronic diseases.
No comments:
Post a Comment