What's Agent Orange?

You may be asking this question so I'll define what it is and how it works.

I'm not talking about a rock band nor am I talking about some kind of fruit punch! It is a highly noxious poison that was used in VietNam (by our side) to strip the trees of foliage and thus deny the enemy guerrilla forces their cover.

My on-line research led me to discover that what is really happening is that the Agent Orange (and when I use this term, I'm including White, Blue, Purple, etc.; there were Fifteen Herbicides that were sprayed in Vietnam and most of them had the same basic recipe, which included the Dioxin by-product.) is most likely ingested with the fish, rice, sprouts and virtually anything else in the food chain. It is not digested and lodges in the fat cells in your blood.

I've read that it has a biological half-life but I'm not sure I believe that due to my own personal experience (the duration and severity of my "attacks" increased with the time since exposure, which is the opposite of what you would expect in a 'half-life' decay). It seems to be partially released by stress and heat/humidity, causing an allergic-type reaction.

Once it's released, it causes an allergic reaction similar to hives, complete with the rash, itching and burning sensations. These "red burnies", as many vets have come to call the reaction, do not respond to standard medications used to treat such maladies. In fact, I spent five years going to the VA every six to eight weeks to change my prescription, only to find one more thing that didn't work!

You can read the rest of the story at Agent Orange Primer.

We'll talk more later,
Eric Rychener