The United States military used much more Agent Orange and other defoliant spray during the Vietnam war than previously thought, scientists say.
Many Vietnamese have been affected by Agent Orange
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A new study of US military records also found that the amount of cancer-causing dioxin chemicals in the spray has been seriously underestimated.
The report, commissioned by the US Government, is the culmination of a five-year project by environmental health experts at New York's Columbia University.
Between 1961 and 1971, the US military sprayed parts of southern Vietnam with defoliant chemicals - such as Agent Orange - with the aim of allowing the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies to spot Vietcong forces moving in the forests.
The Columbia team painstakingly examined operational records of individual spraying missions in Vietnam, and cross-referenced them with procurement records showing which kinds of defoliant were used at which times.
We think there was at least twice as much dioxin as had been thought before - and that number is a conservative estimate
Professor Jeanne Stellman
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They conclude that 77 million litres of Agent Orange were used - rather than 70m litres as has been estimated previously.
But according to project leader Professor Jeanne Stellman, the most significant finding concerns dioxins - chemicals known to cause cancer.
"We think there was at least twice as much dioxin as had been thought before - and that number is a conservative estimate because it seems very likely that much of the earlier Agent Orange was much more heavily contaminated with dioxin," Professor Stellman said.
'Millions' affected
Her team has published their work in the scientific journal Nature.
But it also forms part of a report which the US Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned from the National Academy of Sciences.
It will almost certainly increase pressure within the United States for a comprehensive medical assessment of veterans exposed to Agent Orange, but also pressure from within Vietnam for assistance and compensation.
The Columbia team concludes that "millions of Vietnamese were likely to have been sprayed upon directly".
Previous research has found that some Vietnamese have 200 times the normal level of dioxin in their bodies.
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