Medical aspects of exposure to Agent Orange

History of Agent Orange

Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant introduced in agriculture in 1946 as an herbicide to aid farmers and was used accordingly throughout 1950, after which its production was switched solely for military uses under the Defense Production Act of 1950. Since then, even though ingredients were commercially available and accessible to the public, mass production became heavily regulated and only a handful of the US Chemical manufacturing companies were able to produce it. Agent Orange derives its name from the distinctive orange bands that were used by the military to mark Agent Orange storage containers in which it was transported, rather than from the color of the substance itself. British Military was the first to use Agent Orange in warfare in Malaya. Later, it was used by the US in the Republic of Vietnam from 1961 to 1971 during the Vietnam conflict. It was used as a defoliant and herbicide in Vietnam to deny the enemy use of jungle foliage, for cover and concealment, and to disrupt food production used to sustain the enemy force (Committee on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. (2011). Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. The National Academies Press.).

Agent Orange is a dangerous pollutant that has caused countless birth defects and cancers in both the Vietnamese civilian populous and the U.S. military personnel that served on land and in brown-water navy units that were responsible for intercostal riverine operations in the Republic of Vietnam. The extent to which US military members were exposed to Agent Orange is still a matter of debate and congressional inquiries to this date over 40 years after its employment on the battlefield ended.

Agent Orange w...

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... of the enemy but from our own efforts to win the war.

Works Cited

Committee on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. (2011). Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure. The National Academies Press.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health . (2007). DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2005-149. In DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2005-149 (p. 298).

Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2012). Article Title. In Veterans and agent orange: Update 2012 (pp. 1-1). National Academies Press.

U.S Department of Veterans Affairs. (2014, 03 18). Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange. Retrieved from Veterans' Diseases Associated with Agent Orange: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp