Black shade of orange agent

2001/04/20 Carton Virto, Eider - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Osasuna
• Ingurumena
• Etika

A study from the University of North Carolina found that an orange agent can cause AML leukemia.

The orange agent was used by the U.S. army during the Vietnam War to clear the forests and leave their enemies without hiding. The consequences persist to date: forests damaged by the orange agent do not have new leaves and many people and children born later suffer malformations and diseases caused by the mixture of herbicides. A study conducted in 1969 showed that dioxins, one of the components of the orange agent, could cause congenital malformations in laboratory animals and in 1970 the American army stopped using the herbicide. Too late.

Since then it has been detected that the orange agent is directly related to several diseases. In addition, diseases occur not only among those who suffered directly the effects of the herbicide, but also among their children. Numerous studies have shown that the orange agent causes bifida spine, respiratory tract cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, various skin diseases, sarcoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphomas.

Discovery by review

Last year the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States commissioned Dr. Irva Hertz-Piccioto of the University of North Carolina to review the investigations related to the orange agent, whose conclusions have been those that have been brought today. After reviewing hundreds of research, he has confirmed the relationship between the aforementioned diseases and the orange agent and has claimed that there may be one more. In fact, the children of veterans who participated in the Vietnam War have seen that there are more cases of CDM leukemia than usual.

Two investigations have been conducted, one among Australian veterans and another among American soldiers who agreed to be in contact with the orange agent. Dr. Hertz Piccioto points out that the risk of your children suffering from CDM leukemia is 70% higher than that of the children of people who have not been in contact with the orange agent.

The National Academy of Sciences has immediately announced that there is no strong cause-effect link, but casualties are great. To begin with, the association is only seen between the orange agent and CDM leukemia, but CDM is a relatively rare type of leukemia. In addition, the strongest links occur in children who have been diagnosed with CDM leukemia at very early ages, in which the disease is more likely to be caused by the damage suffered by the parents.

In one street, in the other vale

The complaint speaks of 100,000 soldiers who may be damaged by orange agents, but it says no word in Vietnamese. Taking into account that the orange agent was launched mainly through planes and helicopters, it is to be assumed that the effects have been much more violent in the Vietnamese, who did not return home after the war. They still live under the tracks of the orange agent.