The tests were conducted by a Ford Foundation-funded project, implemented by Hatfield Consulting Company, Office 33 of the Government and the Ministry of Health in Hai Chau and Thanh Khe district from 2006.

Dioxin detoxication at the Da Nang Airport.

These people were randomly selected for testing. They were not named in the list of Agent Orange victims and did not have symptoms of dioxin infection like other victims. They lived around the Da Nang Airport, a hot spot for dioxin infection in Da Nang.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien, Chairwoman of the Da Nang Association of AO/Dioxin Victims, Da Nang has more than 5,000 dioxin-infected people, including over 1,400 children. Most of them are seriously deformed and they cannot take care of themselves.

The testing results which were made public last week surprised Hien because the list of AO/Dioxin victims is no longer 5,000.

In early September, 25 people will be detoxified by Hubbard method at Hanoi’s Army Hospital 103.

After the test results was announced, many people who live around the Da Nang Airport also wanted to be tested but they were afraid of high costs for testing and they did not know how to begin.

On August 9, the Ministry of Defense kicked off a project to treat dioxin-infected environment at Da Nang Airport. The ministry’s partner in the $41 million project is the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

The project will last until 2016, by scooping up around 73,000 cu.m of soil and deposit it for detoxification by heat.

Compiled by Mai Lan

Source: vietnamnet.vn