Dioxin danger persists for Bien Hoa residents

In a house in Trung Dung Ward, Bien Hoa Town, Dong Nai Province, just 30 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, a nineteen-year-old girl was screaming and destroying everything within her reach.

Nguyen Le Phuong Quynh has had regular epileptic seizures since an early age.

Quynh’s family and other residents live in fear of the looming specter of dioxin poisoning, as their ward neighbors a former US army military base during the Vietnam War, where large amounts of dioxin was stored.

Quynh’s mother, Le Thi Thu Lan said, “She was born a lovely baby, but since she has had regular epileptic fits, her body has become stunted.”

Lan said she had spent all their money on Quynh’s treatment but she couldn’t be cured completely.

Quynh’s younger brother, Nguyen Le Hoang Van, who is three years younger, was affected by the poisonous chemical in another way – he was born deaf and dumb.

“We don’t have money to treat them,” said Quynh’s father, Hiep.

“My pay from my work as a mason is not even enough to raise the family.”

Another Trung Dung Ward resident, Nguyen Hong Thao Nguyen, 18, also has a mental disorder.

Her mother Hong Thi Le said, “Doctors said she has a weak heart and lungs and a mental illness from dioxin poisoning.”

Another victim of dioxin in the ward was the family of Nguyen Van Bat.

He said his wife had miscarried five times and the first child was born with cerebral palsy.

There are another 20 victims of dioxin poisoning in the ward and most of them are from poor families.

Records show 67 people in Bien Hoa Town are affected by dioxin, while many town residents continue to cultivate crops and grow cattle, ducks and chickens on contaminated soil.

Dioxin, the highly toxic chemical in Agent Orange, has been linked to a wide range of health problems, from birth defects to cancer.

In Vietnam, some 4.8 million people have been exposed to dioxin.

In March this year, the Ministry of Health issued a list of 17 diseases and deformities related to exposure to dioxin which will serve as a basis for identifying victims of the toxin.

The list includes bronchial carcinoma, tracheal cancer, laryngeal neoplasm, prostate cancer, malignant bone marrow disease and type 2 diabetes.

Congenital deformities and mental disorders in the children of those who were exposed to dioxin are also enumerated in the ministry’s list.

The US and its allies dropped over 11 million gallons of Agent Orange, a toxic chemical herbicide and defoliant, on Vietnam during the war between 1961 and 1971 to deprive their enemies of forest cover and food.

Over 10 percent of the country was sprayed with the herbicide/defoliant and 14 percent of the area targeted was farmland.

Source: SGGP, VNA