APSN | Vietnam yet to determine war-era US chemicals cleaning costs: official

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Vietnam yet to determine war-era US chemicals cleaning costs: official

Thanh Nien News - September 24, 2011

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Vietnam has yet to estimate the cost for cleaning up toxic chemicals used by the US in the Vietnam War, the Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper on Monday quoted an official as saying.

Le Ke Son, chief of office of Vietnam's national committee on dealing with consequences of toxic chemicals used by the US military forces during the war in Vietnam, rejected an Associated Press reporter's information that the country would need US$300 million for dioxin cleanup.

"We have never announced the sum before," he said at the press conference to conclude the sixth annual meeting of the Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) on Agent Orange/dioxin. Son said the cleanup work must deal with both environmental and human issues.

The US has pledged $40 million for a detoxification project at the Da Nang Airport – one of the three dioxin "hot spots" – from now until 2014, and the two sides agreed that the cleanup work will finish in 2015, he told the press.

Research for the clean-up of the Phu Cat and Bien Hoa Airports are still underway, he added. Son praised the two-day meeting as the most successful meeting ever of the JAC given the number of attendants and achieved results.