The United Nations ratified United Nations General Assembly Resolution 31/72 and the Environmental Modification Convention.Lawsuits filed on behalf of both US and Vietnamese veterans sought compensation for damages.With the exception of liver cancer, these are the same conditions the U. Veterans Administration has determined may be associated with exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin, and are on the list of conditions eligible for compensation and treatment.Military personnel who were involved in storage, mixture and transportation (including aircraft mechanics), and actual use of the chemicals were probably among those who received the heaviest exposures.Several publications published by the Public Health Service have shown that veterans have increased rates of cancer, and nerve, digestive, skin, and respiratory disorders.The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes that in particular, there are higher rates of acute/chronic leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, throat cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, Ischemic heart disease, soft tissue sarcoma and liver cancer.Many experts at the time, including Arthur Galston, opposed herbicidal warfare due to concerns about the side effects to humans and the environment by indiscriminately spraying the chemical over a wide area. defeated most of the resolutions, arguing that Agent Orange was not a chemical or a biological weapon as it was considered a herbicide and a defoliant and it was used in effort to destroy plant crops and to deprive the enemy of concealment and not meant to target human beings. The most affected zones are the mountainous area along Truong Son (Long Mountains) and the border between Vietnam and Cambodia.As early as 1966, resolutions were introduced to the United Nations charging that the U. was violating the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which regulated the use of chemical and biological weapons. The affected residents are living in substandard conditions with many genetic diseases.
A detailed account of how the British experimented with the spraying of herbicides was written by two scientists, E. Woodford of Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Experimental Agronomy and H. But Diem's request launched a policy debate in the White House and the State and Defense Departments. Agent Orange was usually sprayed from helicopters or from low-flying C-123 Provider aircraft, fitted with sprayers and "MC-1 Hourglass" pump systems and 1,000 U. By 1971, 12 percent of the total area of South Vietnam had been sprayed with defoliating chemicals, at an average concentration of 13 times the recommended U. Department of Agriculture application rate for domestic use. but the emphasis is usually given to the jungle defoliation in public mention of the program." Military personnel were told they were destroying crops because they were going to be used to feed guerrillas.Some countries, such as Canada, saw testing, while other countries, such as Brazil, used the herbicide to clear out sections of land for agriculture.The main ingredients of Agent Orange comprise an equal mixture of two phenoxyl herbicides – 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) – in iso-octyl ester form, which contained traces of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD).They later discovered nearly all of the food they had been destroying was not being produced for guerrillas; it was, in reality, only being grown to support the local civilian population.For example, in Quang Ngai province, 85% of the crop lands were scheduled to be destroyed in 1970 alone. military began targeting food crops in October 1962, primarily using Agent Blue; the American public was not made aware of the crop destruction programs until 1965 (and it was then believed that crop spraying had begun that spring).