A Review of Public Health in Vietnam: 50 Years after Agent Orange was Sprayed

Abstract

Introduction For five decades there have been continuous controversies over the use of Agent Orange and other tactical herbicides sprayed for defoliation and crop destruction purposes during the Vietnam-American War (Vietnam War) from 1961 1971. Indeed, few occupational health issues have sustained such international attention as have the use of herbicides in Southeast Asia. The opening and establishment of normal relations in 1995 between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam provided an opportunity for scientists, public health experts, and the media to visit Southern Vietnam, and attempt to assess the long-term impact of the defoliation program. Since that time, there have been hundreds of negative and sensational stories circulated, hundreds of articles published, and an extensive propaganda campaign by the government of Vietnam and others. The search for facts and truths regarding public health in Vietnam as related to the use of Agent Orange has been lost among the continuous media coverage. This article attempts to analyze the public health threat that was posed by the spraying of Agent Orange over 50 years ago. Background To conduct an assessment of the potential public health threat that Agent Orange and its associated dioxin contaminant may have caused after the Vietnam War required documentation on the military herbicides that were used in the Vietnam War; how exposure occurred and was measured; the persistence of the dioxin contaminant; toxicology of the herbicides and dioxin contaminant; validity of the cause of diseases reported; and the politics associated with Agent Orange.