Scientists call for compensation to dioxin victims
Ha Noi, Nov. 7 (VNA) -- Millions of dioxin victims who have been made handicapped and are living in misery across the country should be promptly compensated.
The message was made jointly by more than 200 local scientists and medical experts attending a symposium on the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin on human health and the environment in Ha Noi during Nov. 6-8.
Participants at the seminar pointed to the need to work out social allowance mechanism and policies, build community medical treatment establishments and peace villages and carry out functional rehabilitation programmes for Agent Orange victims.
Reports presented at the symposium helped clarify the evolution cycle of dioxin sprayed in Viet Nam and its effects on water resources, fauna and flora systems and particularly on human health through many generations.
Dioxin-related research was carried out in all parts of the country, stretching from the northern delta to the central highlands and southern region. A Luoi district in Thua Thien-Hue province and the Tuy Hoa airport in central coastal province of Khanh Hoa have been most seriously affected by Agent Orange. The research showed that dioxin severely affects human health without leaving an impact on the quality of grain, food crops and foodstuff in affected areas.
Medical experts have warned that women diagnosed as in danger of carrying a foetus affected by toxic chemicals should be consulted and provided with information on early intervention solutions so as to minimize the rate of inborns deformities.
Dozens of scientific research projects conducted in different parts of the country by local scientists over the past 30 years unanimously agreed that Agent Orange/dioxin has left an adverse impact on the ecological system, inborn deformities, endocrine and chromosomes of many Vietnamese generations.
Between 1961 and 1971, U.S. aircraft sprayed 72 million litres of toxic chemicals, including 44 million litres of Agent Orange, containing 170kg of dioxin, on almost 2 million hectares, accounting for 10 percent of the total area of the southern region.
When the U.S. war ended in 1975 it left two million affected by toxic chemicals, mainly Agent Orange. In the first decade after the war, about 50,000 children were born with deformities or paralysis to parents exposed to toxic chemicals.--VNA
