The Telegraph reports that the United States has announced it will begin a $47 million operation to clean up remnants of the Agent Orange defoliant remaining from the Vietnam War. The operation will clean a 47-acre site where the dioxion was once stored, seeking to remove remnants that seeped into both soil and groundwater.
American forces sprayed approximately 21 million gallons of Agent Orange in search of North Vietnamese forces during the war, stripping two million acres of forest. The Vietnamese government has blamed the chemical for birth defects in 150,000 residents and physical ailment in about a million others.
