Agent Orange Birth Defects

Sprayed extensively by the US military in Vietnam, Agent Orange contained a dioxin contaminant later found to be toxic to humans [7]. Despite reports by Vietnamese citizens and Vietnam War veterans of increased rates of stillbirths and birth defects [8] in their children, studies in the 1980s showed conflicting evidence for an association between the two. In 1996, the US National Academy of Sciences [9] reported that there was evidence that suggested dioxin and Agent Orange exposure caused spina bifida [10], a birth defect in which the spinal cord develops improperly. The US Department of Veterans Affairs' subsequent provision of disability compensation for spina bifida-affected children marked the US government's first official acknowledgement of a link between Agent Orange and birth defects [8]. By 2017, spina bifida [10] and related neural tube [11] defects were the only birth defects [8] associated with Agent Orange.