6 Hazardous Chemicals Used in Vietnam War

Vietnam War, maybe most of us often hear or see a photo of a girl called Kim Phuc. So who is Kim Phuc? And what happened to Vietnam War? Without further ado let’s just talk about it a little bit, just to enrich our acknowledgment.

So, Vietnam War happened between 1955 and 1975 which considered as Cold War and also as known as the Second Indochina War. This war happened because of fought between North Vietnam government which follow communism and South Vietnam government which follow anti-communism. This war made Vietnam divided in to 2, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Although these war ended already, but we still could feel the affect which caused by this war. Vietnam nation still divided into two area, lots of disable kids because of the bomb radiation, and much more misery that still remains.

During this war, lots of bombs, missiles, aircraft, and other weapons are used. And the most famous weapons that was used during this war is Napalm, a bomb which famous because of a photograph of a 9 years old girl, Kim Phuc, running naked with a horrible war background behind, which was caused by napalm bomb.

Weapons During Vietnam War

Here are the list of chemicals used in Vietnam War:

  1. Napalm Bomb

“Napalm is the most terrible pain you can ever imagine” said Kim Phuc, one of the napalm bomb survivor with burn scar all over her body.  As we know before that napalm bomb is one of the most famous weapons during Vietnam War, which killed lots of people and also made lots of people got injured. Napalm bomb is a bomb that is made of a mixture of flammable liquid and benzene which is similar to pe6 Chemicals Used In Vietnam War with Descriptiontrol or gasoline. It will destroy thousands houses, kill hundreds of people tragically, and of course injured thousands of people.

  1. Agent Orange

Agent orange is a name for a herbicides that once was sprayed along North Vietnam. It was used between 1961 until 1971 in order to kill crops and trees which were used for a hiding spot. Agents orange contains of 2 herbicides with both of them are in Ester form, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid.

Agent orange was made to kill plants, but turned out, agent orange didn’t just kill plants, but also human. Another information that you might want to know is that agent orange named after a drums that has orange stripes in it.

  1. Agent Purple

We can say that agent purple and agent orange are similar, because they both include in powerful herbicides. Even both agent purple and agent orange have the same ingredients, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. The difference between them are the 2,4,5-T. In agent purple 2,4,5-T was in n-butyl and isobutyl ester form.

  1. Agent White

Believed to be toxic to human, agent white was used after agent orange are unavailable. Contains of 2,4-D and picloram, it sprayed all over thousands square meters of  fields and forest, contaminate almost everything which cause air pollution, water pollution, and when people eat crops which have been contaminated, it will leads to disability because agent white damages human hormone. 

  1. Agent Pink

Like the other herbicides code, agent pink also mainly made of 2,4,5-T. Agent pink made for trial project before going to a larger and more toxic scale, such as agent orange.

  1. Agent Green

Another member of Rainbow Herbicides is agent green. Used for 2 years only, When Vietnam war happened, agent green was mixed with agent pink. It has the same active ingredients as agent pink.

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War Chemicals Impacts in Today’s Life

Chemicals which spread throughout the nation of Vietnam are contaminate almost every mainly sources. Start from soil and it spread to waters along the river and of course it will contaminate nearly every Vietnam’s people whom consume food and drinks. Some part of areas are high to dioxin or you can call as toxic. If this case keep going, it could lead to a very serious problems.

  1. Cancer

Chemicals agents which are spread all over fields and forests, could cause cancer. Chemicals agent are classified into endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC). EDC class cause hormones, especially sex hormones, don’t work properly, they will stop sending signals to organs and will make organ didn’t work properly. 

  1. Disabled

In the past five decades, there are lots of disabled kids are born. It was happened because their mother were exposed to chemicals agents while they were pregnant and the chemicals will transferred through vessels. Disabled kids which caused by chemicals agents are taken care by an organization in Vietnam called Agent Orange Victims Service.

This organization will take care of every child which are disabled, the most common disabled are enlarged head. If people of Vietnam still exposed to chemicals agents, it will dangerous for their kids in the future, there will be more of disability kids.

Afterthought

Wars which happened in the past gave a lot of impacts to our life. Whether it’s a big impact nor the small impact. Like what we’ve discussed above, that war in Vietnam which ended in 1975 still gave a disaster to the nation of Vietnam, although it’s been over for 47 years. Innocent children are being victims, which made everyone feel sad about their future and their life.

Meanwhile, that’s all the hazard list of chemicals used in Vietnam War. War never good nor cool, it’s always take lives, fear and cry everywhere So, spread love and peace around you, so there won’t be any other war which could ruined our future. Keep our world peace, make a better place.