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Dioxin pollution sample essays
The effects of Agent Orange on soldiers and the public
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Agent Orange which is also known as orange herbicide was used during the Vietnam War by the United States as an strategy to expose their enemies and deny them the access to food (Department of Veteran’s Affairs 2013). The use of agent orange brought a lot of devastating effects such as health risks and damage to the environment such as loss of biodiversity in the forests of Vietnam. The purpose of this essay is the health and environmental effects caused by the toxic component TCDD, which agent orange contains. This essay will discuss the toxicity of the chemical structure of Agent Orange and the intended consequences of its use. Finally, it will discuss the unintended consequences of its use and its long term effects.
Agent Orange is a mixture consisting of two phenoxy acids which are 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. However, an toxic dioxin known as 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) was found to have contaminated trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5,-T) (Hoenemeyer 2013). TCDD polychlorinated dioxin causes various health problems and can cause miscarriages during pregnancies. It form color is transparent to white at room temperature (National Toxicology Program, Department of Health and Human Services 2011). On Table 1 below it can be concluded that TCDD is is very volatile and has a very low solubility on water. It also has a very high melting point.
Table 1. Chemical and physical properties of TCDD.
Source: Public Health Service, 2011
TCDD is usually formed by burning compounds that contain chlorine with hydrocarbons. It is a toxic dioxin because it contains a chlorine atom in its 2,3,7 and 8 position in the molecule as the figure below shows (Dioxinspin 2007). The amount of contamination of TCDD depends on the pressure and temperature when the reaction was done. The chemical formula for TCDD is C12H4Cl4O2
Source: Campbell & Thacker, 2011
The figure below shows the problem that caused the creation of TCDD on Agent Orange which was an exceeding temperature for the reaction causing the 2,3,5 chlorophenol molecules start reacting with each other forming TCDD (Campbell & Thacker 2011).
Source: Campbell & Thacker, 2011
Orange Agent was intended to be used as an strategy to help win the Vietnam War. The use of Agent Orange was to refuse cover to the guerillas by destroying all the foliage areas and eliminate the communication between them. Also to destroy their supplies of crops. Another use of Agent orange was to make some areas inhabitable so that villagers will move out and the military can use it for strategies.
The Unnatural Causes: Collateral damage video directed by Stange (2008), explains how the U.S. military has contributed to the disruption of the Marshallese culture, life, and overall good health. The army base Kwajalein and the island of Ebeye are only three miles apart and are living in completely different worlds. The Marshallese people living in Ebeye suffer from high rates of Tuberculosis (TB), poverty, and crowding. The Marshallese people are also suffering from high rates of chronic diseases. The video lastly explains the everlasting impact that the U.S. military has inflicted on Marshallese people through dislocation.
These applications include pesticide, herbicide, defoliating agent such as Agent Orange, cleaning agent and electrical insulation. Consequently, human exposure to dioxin is not a recent phenomenon and the dangers of dioxin are not unknown. Only in recent years, especially after the Vietnam War, has the media concentrated on the dangers and impact of dioxin. The physical effect of exposure to dioxin was first seen in skin diseases developed by chemical plant workers in 1895. Exposure to dioxin results in a type of skin disease like acne called "chloroacne," since its cause was initially and incorrectly linked to chlorine gas.
In the article, “A Legacy of Illness: The Healing Process Is Far From Done” by Amanda Spake, the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War is shown to be detrimental to Vietnam War veterans’ mental and physical health. The aftermath and effects of the agent did not and still does not receive the acknowledgment it deserves. The depth of the mental and physical distress of Vietnam veterans exposed to the agent is dismissed by the Veteran Administration, Department of Veteran Affairs and the general public. It is from this lack of awareness for the hardships of the veterans of the Vietnam War endangered by Agent Orange that their psychological and physical struggles stem.
Why has the use of Agent Orange become so controversial? The Americans dropped the atomic bomb to end World War II and did not have the backlash that it had, and still has, with Agent Orange. The ver...
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Schecter, Arnold, et al. "Recent Dioxin Contamination From Agent Orange in Residents of a Southern Vietnam City." FFRD. N.p., May 2011. . Rpt. in JOEM. Vol. 43. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. 5. FFRD. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.
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EPA. (2009, December 29). Retrieved January 15, 2011, from Toxicity and Exposure Assessment for Children's Health: http://www.epa.gov/teach/
and N-Butyl Ester 2,4,5,-T, Agent Orange made many Vietnam soldiers go insane (Vietnam Veterans, 11-10-2000). This atrocious chemical lead and still today leads to death, deformation, and diabetes. Dr. Joel E. Michalek, who deals with statistics for the air force, was the first to notice a link between Agent Orange and diabetes. But the federal government was not willing “...to spend millions of dollars on such studies”.
Johnson, it was time to change the way we were distributing our forces to help aid the Southern Vietnamese military forces (History.com, 2010). The use of aircrafts first started out to transport wounded off the battlefield, but quickly turned into the use of different chemicals such as agent orange, to destroy brush for troops to travel through easier. Operation Rolling Thunder started out as just a discussion among those of higher ranking command, but on March 1965 the talk became action (Pike, 2016).
The relationship between conventional and guerilla operations was a key element of the Vietnamese communists’ “Dau Tranh” strategy to fight and win the Vietnam War. A brief description of the Dua Tranh (meaning struggle) strategy is appropriate since it was the basis for North Vietnam’s success. The strategy consisted of an armed struggle and a political struggle. The armed struggle began with Stage One hit and run guerilla tactics to “decimate the enemy piecemeal and weaken then eliminate the government’s administrative control of the countryside...
Does a soldier have wounds that a doctor cannot see? Sometimes the most harmful effects of war are emotional wounds. Hemingway displays the theme that war causes emotional damage in his novel The Sun Also Rises. Some veterans suffer from emotional pain as a result of war, whereas others are able to grow from the experience.
The nuclear bomb was the most devastating weapon ever created by man. It was developed between 1942 and 1945 during the second World War. The project to build the worlds first atomic weapon was called The Manhattan Project. The nuclear bomb was based on the idea of splitting an atom to create energy, this is called fission. Three bombs were created, “Trinity”, “Little Boy”, and “Fat Man”. “Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, proving the theories, engineering and mathematics of the bomb to be correct. Shortly after that, not more than 2 months, the U.S. performed the first actual nuclear attack in the history of war. The bomb “Little Boy” was dropped on the town of Hiroshima, instantly killing thousands. “Fat Man” was dropped shortly after on the town of Nagasaki. After the bombing almost all scientist involved with the creation of the bomb regretted its construction and spoke out against the abolishment of nuclear weapons.
In comparison, “They also pointed out that factors other than exposure to the herbicide showed themselves as possible causes of some of the problems. These factors included alcohol consumption and heavy smoking.- the researchers said that they could not find among the ranch handers a set of symptoms or a pattern of symptoms to suggest a solid connection between present-day health problems and exposure to Agent Orange in the past (Dolan 76).” Although the damages of Agent Orange were given little attention, a few investigations and minor court cases attempted to settle the devastation. In an effort to research, “Maude De Victor tried to determine if Operation Ranch Hand aircraft sprayed ground
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States approached military action and helped establish the role of the United States within the new world order.