Research Article Agent Orange Footprint Still Visible in Rural Areas of Central Vietnam Jan Banout, 1 Ondrej Urban, 2 Vojtech Musil, 2 Jirina Szakova, 3 and Jiri Balik 3 1 Department of Sustainable Technologies, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 129 Kamycka, Suchdol, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic 2 Dekonta J.S.C., Volutova 2525, 150 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic 3 Department of Agroenvironmental Chemistry and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 129 Kamycka, Suchdol, 165 21 Prague 6, Czech Republic Correspondence should be addressed to Jan Banout; banout@its.czu.cz Received 1 August 2013; Accepted 16 December 2013; Published 3 February 2014 Academic Editor: Brian Buckley Copyright © 2014 Jan Banout et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Levels of polychlorinated dioxins/furans (PCDD/PCDF) in selected environmental samples (soils, sediments, ish, and farm animals) were analyzed from the area of Phong My commune (hua hien-Hue province, Vietnam). his area was afected by Agent Orange spraying during the Vietnam war (1968–1971). Whereas PCDD/PCDF content in soil and sediment samples is relatively low and ranges between 0.05 and 5.1 pg WHO-TEQ/g for soils and between 0.7 and 6.4 pg WHO-TEQ/g for sediments, the PCDD/PCDF content in poultry muscle and liver in most cases exceeded the maximum permissible limit of dioxin content per unit fat mass. In some cases of soil and sediments samples, 2,3,7,8-TCDD represented more than 90% of the total PCDD/PCDF, which indicates Agent Orange as the main source. 1. Introduction he potential for TCDD contamination in Vietnam is a consequence of the war (1962–1971), during which the US Army forces used about 72 million litres of phenoxy and other herbicidal agents [1]. he spraying started in 1962 and intensiied dramatically during 1967. All applications of herbicides ceased in 1971. Between 1968 and 1971, a total of 6,500 spraying missions were carried out in an area of about 1.5 million hectares, which represents about 10% of South Vietnam. Approximately one-third of the 1.5 million hectares on which the herbicide was applied was sprayed more than once and about 52,000 ha was sprayed more than 4 times. he spray was used on inland forests, cultivated soil (to destroy crops), and coastal mangrove forests. he sprays included several mixtures of defoliants; the most oten used is being the so-called Agent Orange (AO), a mixture of 2,4-D (abbreviation for 2,4 dichlorophenoxy acetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (abbreviation for 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid). Dioxins, particularly the most toxic congener TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), were identiied as con- taminants of this herbicide mixture (TCDD was formed as a by-product in the production of 2,4,5-T). he average concentration of TCDD in AO was 13 mg/kg [2]. Unlike the substances 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T that decompose relatively quickly (within months), dioxins are more stable and persist in the environment for decades. It is apparent that the concentrations of dioxins applied during the war in Vietnam have persisted in the environment until now. he concentrations of TCDD as high as 1000 mg/kg were found in soil and sediment samples more than 30 years ater Agent Orange sprays in most afected areas of Vietnam. Elevated concentrations were also identiied in foods and wildlife [3]. his is evidence of long-term contamination of soil and also of the fact that a 30-year period is not suicient for natural decontamination of these substances. On the contrary, zones of contaminations are expanding from originally contaminated zones [4]. Dioxin contamination of Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2014, Article ID 528965, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/528965