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Long-Term Effects of Agent Orange

The herbicide called Agent Orange was used during the Vietnam War to eliminate plant cover that could hide enemy forces. Soldiers called the substance Agent Orange because of orange stripes on the barrels. Many serious long-term health problems have been linked to this substance, not from the herbicide itself but from trace amounts of a highly toxic type of dioxin.

  1. Cancer

    • The Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences lists numerous types of cancers with sufficient or suggestive evidence linking them to Agent Orange exposure. These include respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma, soft-tissue sarcoma, Hodgkin's disease and many others.

    Additional Disorders

    • Additionally, type 2 diabetes, peripheral neuropathy and the skin disorder porphyria cutanea tarda are associated with exposure to Agent Orange.

    Birth Defects

    • Serious birth defects of children born to veterans and to the Vietnamese people have been linked to Agent Orange. Although there are many anecdotal reports of birth defects in Vietnam since the war, research findings are inconsistent, making the subject controversial. The IOM has listed spina bifida as a birth defect with suggestive evidence of an association with Agent Orange exposure to the parent.

    Other Childhood Disorders

    • According to the Vietnam Veterans of America, when compared to children of non-veterans in the National Birth Defect Registry, the children of Vietnam veterans have shown consistent increases in learning and attention disorders, skin disorders, allergies and asthma, immune system disorders, some childhood cancers, thyroid disorders and childhood diabetes.

    Remaining Dioxin

    • The Canadian environmental consulting firm the Hatfield Group has researched long-term environmental impacts of Agent Orange and found that sprayed areas do not contain measurable amounts of dioxin, but former military bases do have high levels of dioxin in the soil, making them "hot spots."

    Environmental Impact

    • Spraying of Agent Orange and other herbicides destroyed a large part of the Vietnam ecosystem, including coastal mangrove forests and inland tropical forests. The National Academy of Sciences stated mangrove forests could take 100 years to recover.

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