Topic
Agent White
About: Agent White is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3 citations.
Papers
1 Jan 2017
TL;DR: In 1970, the U.S. concluded that 2,4,5-T, a component of Agent Orange, the herbicide most heavily used for defoliation, might be teratogenic to humans as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Anti-plant chemical warfare (CW), the use of chemicals to clear vegetation or destroy food crops as a method of warfare, was conducted on a large scale in the Vietnam War of the 1960s and 1970s. Unlike the anti-personnel CW of World War I, which continued until the Armistice, anti-plant CW in Vietnam was terminated while the war was still underway. Already subject to increasing controversy, its limitation and subsequent termination was precipitated by the appearance in late 1969 of a government-sponsored study suggesting that 2,4,5-T, a component of Agent Orange, the herbicide most heavily used for defoliation, might be teratogenic to humans. In consequence, its use in Vietnam was restricted and then prohibited altogether. Although another herbicide, Agent White, remained briefly in use, all large-area defoliation had ceased by May 1970, leaving crop destruction as the remaining form of large-area herbicide operations in Vietnam. After a review of the program requested by the U.S. Ambassador and the Commanding General in Saigon, the ambassador telegraphed Washington in early December 1970 their decision that chemical crop destruction should be phased out. Although secret, the content of the telegram became known to the press and was published a week later, followed shortly thereafter by President Richard Nixon’s announcement that there would be “an orderly yet rapid phaseout of herbicide operations in Vietnam.”
3 citations
TL;DR: Agent Blue (cacodylic acid, C2H2AsO2) was the most effective of all the Rainbow herbicides in killing rice and grasses as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The destruction of the South Vietnamese rice (Oryza sativa L) crop using an arsenic-based herbicide known as Agent Blue during the American Vietnam War (1965-1972) was not a secret; however, it received little media attention in the United States. Republic of Vietnam and United States (U.S.) militaries began destroying food crops (rice) in November of 1962 primarily via aerial applications in the Mekong Delta and Central Highlands of South Vietnam. Spraying of Agent Blue on 100,000 ha of mangrove forests and about 300,000 ha of rice paddies just before rice harvest time resulted in the destruction of the standing crop and rendered the land contaminated with arsenic (As). Six Rainbow herbicides, commonly called Agent Orange, Agent Green, Agent Pink, Agent Purple, Agent White, and Agent Blue, were sprayed on wetlands, rice paddies, forests, mangroves, bamboo and military base perimeter fences to defoliate jungle vegetation, reveal guerilla hiding places and destroy the food supply of enemy troops. South Vietnamese farmers, U.S. and Republic of Vietnam military personnel, and communist insurgents were exposed to these herbicides with immediate and longer term impacts on personal health, civilian household food security and population-wide famine. Agent Blue (cacodylic acid, C2H2AsO2,) was the most effective of all the Rainbow herbicides in killing rice and grasses. Manufacturing of cacodylic acid began in the late 1950s in the U.S. at the Ansul Company chemical plant in Marinette, Wisconsin and Menominee, Michigan. During the Vietnam War, ocean going ships were loaded with 208-liter Agent Blue barrels and shipped via the St. Lawrence Seaway to the coast of South Vietnam. Arsenic (As) is a naturally occurring element that is found throughout SE Asia deltas including the Mekong Delta. Today arsenic contaminated rice and groundwater are growing concerns as neither naturally occurring arsenic nor anthropic arsenic have a half-life and cannot be destroyed. Anthropic arsenic has remained in the Mekong Delta environment for the last 60 years and added to persistent As contamination in water supplies, sediments and soils. Water soluble arsenic primarily leaches into the soil root zone and the groundwater or is carried by floodwater into adjacent waterways or volatilized under anaerobic rice paddy conditions as gaseous arsine. The health of 15 million Vietnamese people living in the Mekong Delta is at risk from the combination of manufactured and natural As in drinking water and food supply. The As in the contaminated rice paddy soil, sediment and water is up taken by fish, shrimp or by crop vegetation and trace amounts can end up in the food supply (rice grain) or be bioaccumulated by the fish, shrimp and birds which when eaten were bioaccumulated in the Vietnamese people. It is urgent that elevated As concentrations in water supplies and agricultural products be identified and mitigated through better run-off control and groundwater management; improved rice genetics and alternate crop selections; shifts in crop management associated with tillage, fertilization and phosphorus use; and systematic monitoring of food and drinking water.
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 |
| 2017 | 1 |