Hatfield to identify Agent Orange hot spots

Dec 13, 2003

In November 2003 Hatfield Consultants Ltd. (HCL) held a project kick-off meeting in Hanoi for the project entitled ‘Identification of War Chemical Contamination Hot Spots in Southern Việt Nam.’ The one-year project is funded through the Ford Foundation Office for Việt Nam and Thailand and will be managed in Việt Nam by the 10-80 Division (Ministry of Health), and executed with the technical assistance of Hatfield Consultants Ltd. (West Vancouver, Canada), and the American Friends Service Committee (Ha Noi, Việt Nam).

During the Việt Nam conflict, over 72 million liters of defoliant herbicide was sprayed over forests and crops of southern Việt Nam to deny their use by opposition forces. Sixty-one percent of the chemicals used were Agent Orange, a 50:50 mixture of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D herbicides). The defoliant was contaminated with a very toxic form of dioxin (TCDD) known to have effects on human health. Dioxin has been classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as a carcinogen.

The project is designed to identify chemical reservoirs/hot spots and assist and educate local people to minimize further contamination. The priority is to identify high-risk groups, such as children and pregnant/nursing women, who may be exposed to elevated levels of dioxins resulting from proximity to contaminated hotspots. Defining which specific locales in southern Việt Nam contain dangerously high levels of dioxin will allow the Ministry of Health to develop remediation and monitoring plans.

For more information, please contact us:

Thomas Boivin
President
HATFIELD CONSULTANTS PARTNERSHIP

E-mail: hcp@hatfieldgroup.com
Tel.: +1 604 926 3261
Toll-Free: 1 866 926 3261