What is Agent Orange
Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. The name comes from the orange stripe painted around the barrels to identify the contents.
When sprayed by plane or helicopter, Agent Orange can kill an entire forest. According to eyewitnesses, within 24 hours of application all the leaves on a tree would shrivel up, turn brown, and die, crispy as corn flakes.
Agent Orange was only a code name; the same chemicals were commercially available, sold in stores across North America, used on farms, front lawns, railroads, along highways, and under power lines. The compound contained dioxins, the most lethal chemicals known to man.
The tradition of giving pretty names to ugly things is old as warfare itself. The code name "Agent Orange" was created to simplify an unwieldy chemical name and avoid confusion in the military. Agent Orange was a 50/50 mixture of two chemicals: 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. The name is Agent Orange is much easier to understand than "a 1:1 mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T." Agent Orange also contained diesel fuel or kerosene.
There were many different mixtures of these herbicides that came to be known as the "Rainbow Herbicides." Agent Orange was the most widely used of the so-called Rainbow Herbicides, which also included Agent Purple, Agent White, Agent Blue, Agent Green, and Agent Pink.
The public was told that these chemicals were harmless to humans.
Considering today’s ecological consciousness, it may be hard to believe that people would see the damage done to a mighty oak tree and consider themselves impervious. But before the truth about substances like cigarettes and asbestos was revealed, the long term health effects of a chemical were never considered; only a chemical’s acute toxicity. In other words, common thinking was, "If the spray didn’t kill me, and it killed the tree, well it must be safe for people but not trees."
Agent Purple had a purple stripe painted around the barrels and was chemically similar to Agent Orange, also containing 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. However, Agent Purple was contaminated with three times more dioxin, making it even more deadly. It also contained arsenic.
Agent White is a 4:1 mixture of 2,4-D and Picloram (also known as Tordon 101). Unlike the more infamous Agent Orange, Agent White did not contain dioxin. However, it was contaminated with hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and nitrosamines, both known carcinogens. Around 1985, Dow Chemical was forced to re-certify Picloram after having greatly reduced the amounts of both contaminants.
Over 3.3 million litres and kilograms of toxic chemicals were sprayed at Base Gagetown. (1)