Despite it being over 50 years since the United States stopped spraying Agent Orange (AO) throughout various parts of Vietnam, people are still suffering from the severe hereditary defects caused by the chemical to this day, according to a recent article published by German daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau (FR).

On January 7, 1971, an aircraft from the US Air Force took off for the last time on a mission to spray the deadly chemical over Vietnamese fields and forests, with AO being known as the most harmful and most widely used chemical agent, according to the article.

The toxic chemicals had been provided to the US Air Force by Dow Chemical, Monsanto, through Mobay, a joint subsidiary with the Federal Republic of Germany Bayer AG, and a handful of other firms. Dow Chemical also supplied napalm to the armed forces of the US until 1969.

The article describes that by January 7, 1971, the US Air Force flew 6,542 flights in order to spray more than 20 million barrels of the chemical throughout the country’s southern regions.

More than 20% of forests throughout the region were "defoliated" at least once, with 10 million hectares of agricultural land being destroyed, with these actions being kept secret until the end of 1965, the article adds.

It was only when inquiries were made by the US Congress that the US Government officially declared that AO was not being used as a means of chemical warfare, but as a herbicide to destroy the crops of Vietnamese farmers throughout the south.

The author cites estimates provided by the Vietnamese Government that four million Vietnamese were exposed to AO/dioxin, causing severe damage that extends to the present day.

The poisonous chemicals were able to penetrate the soil and groundwater, while it is also believed that former US bases where barrels of the chemical were stored were also left severely contaminated.

After a long period of disputes, some US soldiers who suffered severe damage due to coming into contact with dioxin received compensation, with the scheme initially starting in the 1990s. Despite this, the Vietnamese victims have not received anything.

The article states that although the administrations of former US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama presented the country with US$100 million for an ecological cleaning programme, in 2016, the cost of cleaning a stretch of the dioxin-contaminated Passaic river in New Jersey was roughly US$1.4 billion.