Nearly 170,000 people living in Bien Hoa and Phu Cat airports, two hotspots contaminated with dioxin in Vietnam after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, have been no longer exposed to the dioxin/orange agent risks thanks to a cleanup project funded by the UN Development Program (UNDP). The result is part of the $5-million “environmental remediation of dioxin contaminated hotspots in Vietnam”, focusing on Bien Hoa airport in the southern province of Dong Nai and in Phu Cat airport in the central province of Binh Dinh. Kicked off in 2010, the project aims to minimize the disruption of ecosystems and health risks for people in the contaminated hotspots of Bien Hoa, Danang and Phu Cat airbases. Vietnam has several hot spots contaminated with Agent Orange/dioxin, including the aforementioned airports that were used as airbases of the U.S. troops in the war. Between December 1969 and March 1970, about 25,000 liters of the toxic spilt over the tanks by the U.S. troops. The U.S. has supported Vietnam to remove dioxin and is supporting the country to carry out a dioxin cleanup project costing $84 million in Danang airport, marking Washington’s 1st involvement in cleaning up dioxin residue in the Southeast Asian country after the war. (Tin Tuc - News Mar 20 p5, Dangcongsan.vn Mar 19)
