HANOI - The spraying of Agent Orange and other toxic defoliants over vast tracts of Vietnam has led to a high and rising incidence of the country's young people suffering fertility problems and even sterility, local newspaper the Saigon Times Daily (SGT) reported Thursday.
The Americans sprayed 72 million liters of these toxic chemicals either overtly or covertly during the Vietnam War, SGT said.
The proportions of miscarriages, still-born babies and children born with chemically induced defects were high.
The proportion of children born with chemically induced defects in Thanh Phong commune in Vietnam's former Song Be province, where was surveyed by Tu Du Hospital, is 1.1 percent compared with 0.4 percent in Ho Chi Minh city. The respective ratios of miscarriages are eight percent and 3.6 percent, and of stillborn babies 12.5 percent and 4.6 percent.
Although the chemical residue has long disappeared, its effects have been visited on later generations. Not only women but men too are experiencing infertility.
|
If you have come to this page from an outside location click here to get back to mindfully.org |