Vietnam to commemorate 55 years of Agent Orange disaster

Vietnam will hold a series of events to commemorate 55 years of Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin disaster across the country during July and August.

An international seminar on assessment of consequences of AO/Dioxin in Vietnam will be held in August, said Vietnam association of victims of AO/Dioxin at a press conference on Thursday in Vietnam's capital Hanoi.

Another gathering with the participation of some 1,000 representatives is scheduled to be held on August 10.

These activities aim at increasing public awareness on danger and long-term consequences of AO/Dioxin on environment and human beings, said the association.

Since August 10, 1961 during Vietnam war, the U.S. forces sprayed over 80 million liters of herbicides in Vietnam. Some 61 percent of which was Agent Orange, containing about 366 kg of dioxin, the most potent toxin ever known to human beings, according to earlier statistics by the association.

Three million hectares of forests in Vietnam were devastated. Several species of plants were annihilated and many kinds of animals were extinct and most of water sources were contaminated.

More than 4.8 million people in Vietnam have been exposed to toxic chemicals. Over 3 million of them have been suffering from deadly diseases, including hundreds of thousands of people have been killed by them, according to statistics by the association.

The war has ended for decades, but many areas in Vietnam are still contaminated with residues of toxic chemicals. Generations of children have been exposed directly to the toxic. Enditem