Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by United States troops during the Vietnam war in order to reduce forest cover to ensure successful attacks on the VietCong and North Vietnamese troops. Although the effects of Agent Orange on people who may come in contact with the substance and the use of Agent Orange is discussed, the long-term health impacts and effects of Agent Orange on the environment remain unpublicized.
Agent Orange has had long-term impacts on health and severe impacts on biodiversity in the forest areas in which the herbicide was used. Agent Orange contains TCDD, the most powerful in the class of dioxins, dioxins being carcinogenic substances, the use of Agent Orange has led to cancer, birth defects, miscarriages and skin diseases that continue to occur to this day due to the spread of this chemical due to exposure in the environment through soils and sediments and due to consumption of contaminated foodstuffs by local inhabitants as the dioxins are absorbed by farm animals and crops through the soil.
Agent Orange has destroyed the landscape to an extent that regeneration of the same landscape would take years. The U Minh mangrove forests of the Ca Mau Peninsula were especially sensitive to Agent Orange. Most of the U Minh mangrove forests was hence killed and destroyed and the following changes in agricultural uses, increased settlement in the region, salt water intrusions in coastal rivers, and changes in natural water levels has made regeneration very difficult. In terms of animals, fish, especially bottom feeders, are the most affected by Agent Orange due to bio-accumulation and bio-magnification in these fishes although other aquatic animals and plants are also affected by Agent Orange. This bio-accumulation and bio-magnification has in turn also affected the Vietnamese people as fish is the primary protein in their diets which may cause health problems for the people.
Although Agent Orange is widely known for its use in the Vietnam War and the effects of the chemical on those who come in contact with it, the long-term health and environmental impacts of Agent Orange, health impacts of the carcinogenic substances in Agent Orange and destruction of landscape and biodiversity, remain widely unknown despite the magnitude of the impacts.