Unexploded ordnance left over from the Vietnam War has killed more than 42,000 people

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_396850.html

Leftover firearms killed 42,000

June 29, 2009

HANOI - UNEXPLODED ordnance left over from the Vietnam War has killed more than 42,000 people in the country since the conflict ended more than three decades ago, and deadly accidents continue daily, a senior military official said on Monday.

US forces used 15 million tonnes of bombs and ammunition during the war and an estimated 800,000 tonnes of unexploded ordnance still contaminates 20 per cent of the country's area, Vice Defence Minister Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Huy Hieu wrote in the state-run People's Army newspaper.

He said it may take more than 100 years to clear the contaminated area.

In addition to the deaths, some 62,000 people have been injured since the end of the war in 1975, and tens of thousands of them are permanently disabled, he said, adding that the ordnance has also caused big economic losses to Vietnam.

[indepat]

1. 30 billion pounds of bombs: how many pounds/tons was that for every man, woman, and child

living then in north Vietnam? :shrug: