2 Answers

See here:  http://www.hillandponton.com/2011/07/direct-exposure-to-agent-orange-2/

Agent orange was to be used in Viet-nam to clear vegetation. Congress stopped its use on humanitarian grounds. Since the military had contracted to buy agent orange regardless of its use it was cheaply sold to every state in the US for ditch bank and roadside brush control. Marsh grass and water weeds like milfoil were also dosed with this compound. AO was sold to NATO countries and any country that wanted the stuff to expose rebel hiding places, bases etc. The US Fish and Wildlife service was among the first to publicly claim environmental harm caused by the use of Agent Orange along the waterways of the Sacramento Delta in California. It was used durning the spawning season of the Striped Bass and their numbers dramatically declined there after. This led to studies of its effects on fish when the specter of consequences on the health of all persons so exposed roared to life.  Funding for research by the Fish and Wildlife Service was drastically cut ending many worthy studies before they could be completed and Congress sought every device and distraction to effect the dismissal of its hazards by funding hysterical claims groups beyond the obvious facts. My research on these issues and related consequences became irreverent when the hysteria went to fetal development in cows, pigs and sheep which were never conclusively proven.