Vietnam - 50 years later
Shadows of Agent Orange
For those of us old enough to remember the Vietnam War - it ended in 1975 - the specter of Agent Orange looms large. The toxic compounds of chemicals - dubbed “Orange” because of the orange stripe on the barrels containing it - sprayed extensively to defoliate the area so as to better detect enemy combatants, caused irreparable harm when it was applied. It turns out it is still causing harm.
In an article The Fog of War published in Science magazine, Dennis Normile documents the struggle of reseachers to document the long-term health effects of this spraying. A 2018 report by the U.S. National Academies of Science found “sufficient” or “suggestive” evidence linking 19 conditions - including such things as cancer, leukemia, hypertension, Parkinson’s, stroke, and hypertension - to the spraying. The studies go on
.
As if that were not enough, in the same issue of Science Jyoti Madhusoodanan writes in the article A 50-Year Shadow of the studies of the lasting effects of the war on those who lived through it as teens. Again 2018 - that is the year that the Vietnam Health and Aging study was started, and while still going on, researchers found increased cases of heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, as well as post traumatic stress. Drawing blood samples allowed them to detect cortisone levels and something called DNA methylation, both of which signal increased feelings of stress, It is not a pretty picture.
One can only imagine the impact on children of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Why do we have to wait for these studies to tell us how horrible will be the efect of war?
Ironically from orange agent we slip to orange toupee
Well said.