Twenty-four out of 62 residents living within 1km around Da Nang airbase who have high dioxin concentrations in their blood were taken to Hospital 103 in Hanoi on September 5 for detoxification. The victims were discovered to be contaminated with dioxin as part of a project to survey and control dioxin contamination at the airbase. During the free treatment, which will take about a month, they will be given vitamins in the morning and will then exercise and take saunas to eliminate the dioxin. Associate Professor Hoang Manh An, director of the hospital, said the method had been applied in many foreign countries to treat other problems but Vietnam was the first to apply the method for dioxin detoxification. Deputy Chairman of the Da Nang People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Anh asked the city's Association for Agent Orange Victims to continue joining hands with relevant bodies to list people contaminated with dioxin and set up plans to have them detoxified. The Ministry of National Defense and the United States Agency for International Development are expected to complete the dioxin survey and control project at Da Nang airbase by the end of 2016. The airbase is one of the three of their kind where US troops used to store Agent Orange buckets used to drop the defoliant on Vietnam’s forests. More than 5,000 people in Da Nang City are confirmed to have been contaminated with dioxin, of whom 1,400 are children. (Vietnamplus.vn Sept 6)
