Agent Blue

Agent Blue is the military code name of a defoliant made from the aqueous mixture of the herbicide dimethylarsinic acid (5%) and its sodium salt, sodium dimethylarsinate (26%).

It was used in the Vietnam War to destroy grass plants, especially rice .

The name comes from a blue stripe around the US Army barrels .

Agent Blue was first used in November 1962 and remained the means of choice for destroying crops throughout the Vietnam War. The use in such "crop destruction" projects had to be approved by the White House until 1963 . Then this task was transferred to the American ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam . Before July 1969, the only Agent Blue used was Phytar 560 from Ansul Chemical Company. Between 1962 and 1964, 25,650 liters of Agent Blue were consumed in powder form; from 1964 to 1971 it was 4,715,731 liters of an aqueous solution with 360.3 gl ⁻¹ dimethylarsinic acid. In addition to Agent Blue, around four million liters of other herbicides , mostly containing 2,4,5-T , were sprayed over fields in enemy territory.

Over the course of the war, Agent Blue was applied to nearly 5 million liters, while Agent Orange , the herbicide most commonly used, had sprayed 46 million liters.

Web links

• Werner Gallo - The direct effects of the poison war in Vietnam on people (and the environment) and their continued impact as a contaminated site

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on defoliant. In: Römpp Online . Georg Thieme Verlag, accessed on October 1, 2014.
2. ^ ^{A b} Jeanne Mager Stellman, Steven D. Stellman, Richard Christian, Tracy Weber, Carrie Tomasallo: The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam . Nature, April 17, 2003, Vol. 422, pp. 681-687, doi: 10.1038 / nature01537 .