DAYS of the DOWNFALL ep. 43 : CARCINOGENIC CONTROVERSY

#carcinogenic #controversy
#SKYcircus #PoliticalFiction
#DaysoftheDownfall #DazeofOurLives

#Defoliation /ˌdiː.fəʊ.liˈeɪ.ʃən/: the process of leaves falling off a plant, or of making this happen...
#OperationRanchHand
Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 19 million U.S. gallons (72,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides[1] over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. Areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. Nearly 20,000 sorties were flown between 1961 and 1971.[2]

The "Ranch Handers" motto was "Only you can prevent a forest"[1] – a take on the popular U.S. Forest Service poster slogan of Smokey Bear. During the ten years of spraying, over 5 million acres (20,000 km2) of forest and 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) of crops were heavily damaged or destroyed. Around 20% of the forests of South Vietnam were sprayed at least once.[3]

The herbicides were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force flying C-123s using the call sign "Hades". The planes were fitted with specially developed spray tanks with a capacity of 1,000 U.S. gallons (4 m3) of herbicides. A plane sprayed a swath of land that was 80 meters wide and 16 kilometers (10 mi) long in about 4½ minutes, at a rate of about 3 U.S. gallons per acre (3 m3/km2).[4] Sorties usually consisted of three to five aircraft flying side by side. 95% of the herbicides and defoliants used in the war were sprayed by the U.S. Air Force as part of Operation Ranch Hand. The remaining 5% were sprayed by the U.S. Chemical Corps, other military branches, and the Republic of Vietnam using hand sprayers, spray trucks, helicopters and boats, primarily around U.S. military installations.[5]

The herbicides used were sprayed at up to 50 times the concentration than for normal agricultural use.[citation needed] The most common herbicide used was Herbicide Orange, more commonly referred to as Agent Orange: a fifty-fifty mixture of two herbicides 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxy..