Agent orange footprint still visible in rural areas of central Vietnam

Levels of polychlorinated dioxins/furans (pcdd/pcdf) in selected environmental samples (soils,sediments,fish,and farm animals) were analyzed from the area of phong my commune (thua thien-hue province,vietnam). this area was affected by agent orange spraying during the vietnam war (1968-1971). whereas pcdd/pcdf content in soil and sediment samples is relatively low and ranges between 0.05 and 5.1 pg who-teq/g for soils and between 0.7 and 6.4 pg who-teq/g for sediments,the pcdd/pcdf content in poultry muscle and liver in most cases exceeded the maximum permissible limit of dioxin content per unit fat mass. in some cases of soil and sediments samples,2,3,7,8-tcdd represented more than 90% of the total pcdd/pcdf,which indicates agent orange as the main source. © 2014 jan banout et al.