Agent Orange: Encyclopedia - Agent Orange

Agent Orange

Agent Orange is the code name for a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used from 1961 to 1971, and was by far the most used of the so-called "rainbow herbicides" used during the program. Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, White, Pink and Green) contained dioxins which have caused serious harm to the health of exposed Vietnamese, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and Americans, as well as their children and grandchildren. Dioxins are recognized as carcinogens and teratogens which, unlike the herbicides, are persistent in the environment and in the human body.

Agent Orange - Description

Agent Orange is a roughly 1:1 mixture of the two phenoxy herbicides in ester form, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). These herbicides were developed during the 1940s by independent teams in England and the United States for use in controlling broad-leaf plants. Phenoxy agents work by mimicking a plant growth hormone, indoleacetic acid (IAA). When sprayed on broad-leaf plants they induce rapid, uncontrolled growth, eventually killing it. When sprayed on crops such as wheat or corn, it selectively killed just the broad-leaf plants in a field, the weeds, leaving the crops relatively uneffected. First introduced in 1946, these herbicides were in widespread use in agriculture by the middle of the 1950s.

It was later learned that a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), is produced as a side effect of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T, and was thus present in any of the herbicides that used it. The National Toxicology Program has classified TCDD to be a known human carcinogen, frequently associated with soft-tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). 2,4,5-T has since been banned for use in the US and many other countries.

The herbicide 2,4-D does not contain dioxin, and remains one of the most used herbicides in the world today.

Diseases sufficiently associated to dioxin are chloracne, soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkins disease, and non- Hodgkins lymphoma. Diseases with limited evidence of an association with Agent Orange are respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, Porphyria cutanea tarda (a type of skin disease), acute and subacute transient peripheral neuropathy, spina bifida, Type 2 diabetes, and acute myelogenous leukemia found only in the second or third generation. Diseases with inadequate or insufficent evidence of an association are hepatobiliary cancers, nasal or nasophargyngeal cancers, bone cancer, female reproductive cancers, renal cancer, testicular cancer, leukemia, spontaneous aborption, birth defects, neontal or infant death and stillbirths, low birth weight, childhood cancers, abnormal sperm parameters, cognitive neuropsychiatric disorders, ataxia, perpheral nervous system disorders, circulatory disorders, respiratory disorders, skin cancers, urinary and bladder cancer. Diseases with limited or suggestive evidence of no association are gastrointestinal tumors such as stomach cancer, pancreatie cancer, colon cancer, and rectal cancer, and brain tumors.

Agent Orange - Use in Vietnam

During the Vietnam War, the US instituted a massive herbicidal program that ran from 1961 through 1971. The aim of the program was two-fold, one to destroy the "cover" provided by the jungle-like forest, and another to deny food to the enemy.

A variety of chemicals, fifteen in total, were tested or used operationally during this program. The primary broad-leaf herbicides sprayed during the "testing" phase of the program between 1962 and 1964 were Agent Orange, Agent Purple and Agent White. The chemicals themselves had no color, the names refer to colored stripes painted on the 55 gallon barrels to identify their contents. Much smaller amounts of other herbicides were also tested, including Agent Pink, Agent Green, Dinoxol, Trinoxol, Bromacil, Diquat, Tandex, Monuron, Diuron and Dalapon. Agent Blue was an unrelated herbicide based primarily on arsenic used to kill rice plants which were not susceptible to the phenoxy-based agents. A variety of Paraquat-related chemicals were apparently also tested in this role. For spraying, the various agents were mixed with kerosene or diesel fuel.

By 1964 the testing phase had ended, and Agent Orange was selected as the most effective agent for "territory denial". Operational use started in January 1965, increasing in breadth as logistical problems were solved. Most of Agent Orange sprayed during the program was delivered from modified US Air Force C-123K Provider aircraft under a program known as Operation Ranch Hand. Other delivery methods included helicopters, truck and hand spraying, notably for the areas directly around US bases. From 1968 on, an improved version known as "Orange II" or "Super Orange" was used as well.

Spraying reached its maximum during the most intense period of the war, between 1967 and 1968. After that the program "drew down", and ended in 1971. By this point an estimated 19 million gallons of herbicide had been sprayed on Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, somewhat more than half of that Agent Orange. Early estimates from 1974 had placed the amounts lower, between 12 and 14 million gallons. In total about six million acres were sprayed in Vietnam alone.

The military effectiveness of the program appears debatable. Many of the areas sprayed were not directly involved in later military actions. Of course, this could be considered as evidence for the effectiveness of the program. Nor does it appear there is any measurable effect on the warfighting abilities of the groups involved, the NVA were able to mount full scale assaults in 1972 with little US intervention prior, which suggests that the program was, militarily, a failure.

==Effects of the program In 1980, New Jersey created the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first state commission created to study its effects. The Commission's research project in association with Rutgers University was called "The Pointman Project". It was disbanded by governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1996.

An April 2003 report paid for by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that during the Vietnam War, 3,181 villages were sprayed directly with herbicides. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million people "would have been present during the spraying." Furthermore, many US military personnel were also sprayed or came in contact with herbicides in recently sprayed areas. The study was originally undertaken for the US military to get a better count of how many veterans served in sprayed areas and researchers were given access to military records and Air Force operational folders previously not studied. The re-estimate made by the report places the volume of herbicides sprayed between 1962 and 1971 to a level 7,131,907 liters more than an uncorrected estimate published in 1974 and 9.4 million more liters than a 1974 corrected inventory. It was produced under contract for the Army by Diamond Shamrock, Dow, Hercules, Monsanto, T-H Agricultural & Nutrition, Thompson Chemicals, and Uniroyal.

The National Academy of Sciences has also noted the harmful effects of the herbicides on US soldiers.

On January 31, 2004, a victim's rights group, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), filed a class action lawsuit in a US Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, against several US companies, for liability in causing personal injury, by developing and producing the chemical. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest producers of Agent Orange for the US military, and were named in the suit along with eight other companies. A number of lawsuits by American GIs have been won in the years since the Vietnam War.

On March 10, 2005, the District Court judge dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the plaintiffs' claims. The judge concluded that Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use by the US; that the US was not prohibited from using it as an herbicide; and that the companies which produced the substance were not liable for the method of its use by the government. The US government, which has sovereign immunity, had not been a target of the lawsuit. However, in 1984, chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange paid $180 million into a fund for United States veterans following a lawsuit.

The VA has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, and spinal bifidia in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as side effects of the herbicide.

Agent Orange - Miscellaneous

• The Union Carbide company produced the constituents of agent orange at Homebush Bay in Sydney Australia where the 2000 Summer Olympics were staged.[1]
• The Uniroyal plant in Elmira, Ontario was one of seven suppliers producing Agent Orange for the U.S. military's use in Vietnam.

Agent Orange - Cultural references

• The Wu-Tang Clan mentions Agent Orange in their song "Reunited". The lyrics include: "...Worldwide total carnage, the sickest flow / that be code named Agent Orange, killin you slow..."
• The German thrash metal band Sodom made an album with lyrical content based on Agent Orange -- "The Fire That Doesn't Burn". The name of the album is "Agent Orange". A song of the same name can also be found on the album.
• R.E.M.'s song "Orange Crush" from the album Green is about Agent Orange.
• Agent Orange is referenced in the film Rambo: First Blood, when John Rambo visits a friend's house (his friend Delmar Berry), and finds out from his wife that he died after the war as a result of Agent Orange poisoning. Rambo is a fictional special forces soldier who fought in the Vietnam War, and, along with Delmar, were the only two to survive combat operations.
• The band Depeche Mode from Great Britain have a b-side instrumental piece by the name of "Agent Orange".
• Singer-songwriter Tori Amos' album Boys For Pele includes a song titled "Agent Orange", but not inspired by the chemical.
• The punk band Agent Orange was named after the chemical.
• The song "Orange" by 10,000 Maniacs is often speculated to be about the substance, often supported by the claim that former singer Natalie Merchant's cousin was born without arms due to Agent Orange.
• There is a character called Agent Orange in the Xanth series by Piers Anthony.
• In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kate Winslet's character mentions on a train that if she had the job of naming hair dye products then her first contribution would be to name an orange hair dye 'Agent Orange'.
• In the film Major Payne, Damon Wayans plays a former military officer who is forced to make ends meet by teaching JROTC at a private academy. When one of the cadets stares at him too long, Major Payne yells "...when a man gets to eyeballing me, it makes my Agent Orange act up!!"
• Rage Against the Machine make a reference to "the agents of orange," in their song Sleep Now in the Fire, from the album The Battle of Los Angeles.
• Director Tony Scott made a short film entitled "Agent Orange" as part of a series of short film / product promotions for Amazon.com. References are overtly about secret agents and the color orange, but subvertly about the toxifying effects of love and relationships.
• As of August 1998, there is a London based specialist cleaning contractor called "Agent Orange Enterprises Limited" which promises efficient cleaning of premises, clearance of gardens, rubbish clearance and a number of other specialist works and who are currently cleaning the offices (or "chambers") of some of Britain top lawyers in the Inns of Court in London.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Agent Orange", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki