Hanoi, Nov 6 (Prensa Latina) A project to decontaminate Vietnam´s environment from dioxins sprayed by the US was presented Sunday in this city by a Japanese scientist before the Vietnamese Association for Victims of Agent Orange.
Ecologist Furukawa Hisao, the project´s author and former professor of Toyo University, presented his concept to clean up areas damaged by this highly toxic product at a working session with the Association members.
The US military showered dioxins over wooded zones of Indochina, Vietnam and Cambodia, and although the pretext was to defoliate trees to deprive guerrilla fighters from refuge, the effects were even felt in its own troops.
The Japanese scientist, also executive director of the Network for Peace and Environment, said that recovering ecosystems affected by dioxin would reduce its harmful effects in humans.
Hisao will call on Japanese and Vietnamese scientists to take part in the project and assist in raising funds from the Japanese people and international community.
In Vietnam over a half million people are Agent Orange victims either from direct contact with the product or from being born with defects resulting from damages to human genes.
Vietnamese Agent Orange victims presented a suit before US courts for manufacturing companies to pay massive indemnities to victims.
The US justice system has denied that right and Vietnam is waiting for an appeal presented to the Supreme Court.
Dioxin is di and tri-chlorophenoxyacetic acids, and has a lasting toxic effect in people