Biology

=Biology= = = HUMAN AND ANIMAL EFFECTS CANCERS CAUSED BY AGENT ORANGE Agent orange can cause a range of cancers. Soft-tissue sarcoma is one of them, which is a cancer that strikes soft tissues like fat, muscles, nerves… CLL is also another common deadly tissue. This cancer is a long term cancer, where abnormalities can happen in white blood cells. Another cancer known as the Hodgkin's disease which is quite rare. It attacks the lymph system which also affects other tumor cells. Since the lymph system help transport a watery fluids which contains immune cell, the person who has a bad lymph are likely to have diseases. Agent orange also cause lung cancers called the respiratory cancer. There are lots of other dreadful diseases can harm peoples who are poisoned by Agent Orange. ANIMALS Farm animals was often shot, to lessen peasant's food supply. A total of 13,000 animals were killed during the war. 72 million liters of chemical sprayed resulted in the death of many animals, and caused health effects with humans. When Agent Orange was used a large amount of coastal birds were dramatically decreased, fishes were killed from their breeding area. CHILDREN The dioxin caused spontaneous abortions, chloracne, skin and lung cancers, lower intelligence and emotional problems among children. Children who had father during the war are most likely to have the diseases. It is also shown that there are levels of dioxin in breast milk. Mothers who fed their children with breast milk shows the dioxin being passed on from a mother to her child. Researchers have hypothesized that about 500,000 children were born with dioxin-related diseases. Agent Orange is still a hazard to many people living in areas where the dioxin is still present. SOLDIERS AND PEASANTS IN VIETNAM Large amount dioxin was used in the war to kill the plants which helped sheltered the Viet Cong faction when hiding. It was also used to take away the Vietnamese peasant's foods and sustenance. It is shown by the AOVF(Agent Orange Victims Fund) that the people living in the north have lower dioxin levels than the south. US SOLDIERS 2.4 million U.S soldiers fought in the war and both the soldiers and their families are affected by the dioxin. The soldiers, not only ride on planes and sprayed the chemicals, but they also sprayed using backpack spray bottles. This cause the soldiers to be more exposed to the chemical. Since Agent Orange is persistent soldiers who came back to sprayed areas can be affected by the poison. When the poisoned return to their families or start a family more people are affected. PLANTS AND OTHER ENVIONMENTAL EFFECTS Agent Orange's main constituent is dioxin, which still exits in soil, water and vegetation during and after the war. The spraying destroyed 14% of Vietnam’s forests, diminished agricultural production and caused seeds poisoned impossible for replanting. A total of 15,000 square kilometers of land were eventually destroyed. Now a days, agriculture in Vietnam continues to suffer problems from the six million unexploded bombs. Several organizations are thinking about to removing these bombs, but the Vietnamese refuses to accept aid from these organization because they don't want to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. It was also estimated that, it would take at least 100 years recover the poisoned plants. Websites of information collected [] [] [] = =