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Agent Orange : The Health Effects Of Agent Orange

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Al Austin, an American war veteran who fought in Vietnam, has suffered from leukemia as a result of Agent Orange exposure. Agent Orange is the common name of the herbicide and defoliant, chemicals used to kill invasive weeds and other foliage, used during the Vietnam War by the United States military throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Over twenty million gallons of the herbicide was sprayed to eradicate the thick mangrove forests native to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, as to improve visibility for American soldiers and to deplete the Vietnamese of their food supplies. However, Agent Orange was later discovered to have highly toxic chemical properties that can cause cancers and birth defects in humans, and some of the compounds found in the herbicide are still present in Vietnamese soil today, rendering former croplands useless for growth. Because of Agent Orange, millions of Vietnamese and Americans suffer from severe adverse health effects, and the wasted farmlands continue to devastate the Vietnamese economy. Although Agent Orange 's use was effective in the United States' deforestation efforts, it has caused both significant health issues in Vietnamese civilians and soldiers and has devastated Vietnam’s environment. Agent Orange acted as a strong herbicide and defoliant that aided the United States in its defoliation efforts during the war. It was developed in the early 1940s by American chemists. The defoliant, coined “Agent Orange” because of the

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