HCM City to Build Center for AO/Dioxin Victims

Authorities in Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City have approved a plan to build a center for bringing up and providing vocational training for AO/dioxin victims in the city.  The municipal Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Department of Health, and the Ho Chi Minh City Association of Victims of Agent Orange are assigned to build the center, the Thanh Nien newspaper reported on June 3, giving no more details. Around 4.8 million Vietnamese people, including 7,000 people in Ho Chi Minh City, are exposed to the deadly toxic chemical sprayed by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War and more than three million of them are facing health problems resulted from the exposure.  Earlier on April 18, a large number of social activists and U.S. war veterans joined a demonstration in New York to demand the Dow chemical company to take responsibility for Agent Orange/dioxin victims in Vietnam.