The Pros And Cons Of Agent Orange

A Vietnamese farmer and his family had 500 acres of land used for crops, and this land has been in the family for generations. One day it all changed, all the land became useless and frail, and the family risked starvation and poverty. What happened? The answer was simple, Agent Orange. During the Vietnam War, new chemicals called defoliants were being used as a tactic for military purposes. One of the most common defoliants used was called Agent Orange. These defoliants were used as harmful chemical herbicides to denature the trees and the land of Vietnam and Laos from 1961 to 1972. Agent Orange had a large impact environmentally and medically creating a burden that would remain with us forever. Agent Orange was an important recourse in the military but caused various …show more content…
Herbicides contain many different chemicals, but Agent Orange was used as a general term for defoliants. Agent Orange consists of two chemicals in equal parts, “Agent Orange is a combination of two compounds, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, technically known as chlorinated phenoxy acids in ester form”(Rowan John). These two chemicals made up most of Agent Orange, but were are not the most dangerous compound because there was a mistake in the manufacturing of this defoliant. This mistake in manufacturing resulted in an unintentional byproduct called 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin that contaminated the herbicide into something even more toxic. This contaminate, also know dioxin, was one of the most deadly dioxins to existed. “Levels of dioxin in Agent Orange ranged from less than 0.05 parts per million to almost 50 parts per million”(Rowan, John). The levels of dioxin in Agent Orange varied in ever barrel; this made it impossible to know what areas would have more severe side effects. Agent Orange was later categorized as a human carcinogen, leading to numerous health