New Plan Would Address Agent Orange Legacy in Vietnam

WASHINGTON, June 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A blue-ribbon study group of U.S. and Vietnamese citizens, scientists and policy-makers today unveiled a comprehensive 10-year Plan of Action to address the toxic legacy of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam.

Members of The U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin called upon the U.S. and Vietnamese governments to join with other governments, foundations, businesses, and nonprofits in a partnership to clean up dioxin "hot spots" still causing illness and disabilities in Vietnam, and to expand humanitarian services for people with disabilities in that country.

During the Vietnam War, U.S. forces sprayed some 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides over about a quarter of South Vietnam. The herbicides were contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic persistent organic pollutant, which has been linked to several kinds of cancer, diabetes and nerve and heart disorders in those exposed, as well as to spinal bifida and other birth defects in their offspring.

The Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that three million Vietnamese have suffered health effects from direct or indirect exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides since the war ended more than 35 years ago. They include more than 150,000 of today's children who have birth defects.

Exposure continues today for Vietnamese living near dioxin "hot spots" at former U.S. military installations where the chemicals were stored, handled and spilled, soaking into the soil and contaminating nearby lakes and streams. Fishermen working at a lake on one of the worst sites, the Da Nang airport, for example, were found to have dioxin in their blood at levels hundreds of times higher than international limits. Millions of acres of land denuded by the chemical spraying are also still degraded.

"Questions of responsibility, awareness and data reliability have for too long generated bitter controversy and stalled remedial action," the report states.

The Dialogue Group plan would be a humanitarian effort to clean contaminated soils in Vietnam, restore damaged ecosystems and expand services to people with disabilities linked to dioxin, and to people with other forms of disability, and to their families. The plan calls for an investment of $30 million per year over a period of ten years.

The plan states, "The U.S. government should play a key role in meeting these costs, along with other public and private donors, supplementing an appropriate continuing investment from the government and people of Vietnam."

The funds would support training and education programs, pinpoint and eliminate contamination, and strengthen rehabilitation facilities and therapies.

The Dialogue Group's Plan of Action notes that 2010 marks 35 years since the war's end, the 15^th anniversary of renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and Vietnam, and the 1,000^th anniversary of Hanoi's founding. It calls for support from the U.S. government, other countries, foundations and non-governmental organizations to fund and implement the plan.

"Joining in this effort would be a fitting way for the United States to mark the important historic milestones of 2010 and to confirm and strengthen the growing U.S. partnership" with Vietnam, the plan says.

An embargoed copy of the Plan of Action will be available on June 16 on the Aspen Institute website, www.aspeninstitute.org. Fact sheets on the Dialogue Group and Agent Orange can be obtained at http://www.aspeninstitute.org/policy-work/agent-orange.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute