Agent Pink is the code name for a powerful herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. The name comes from the pink stripe painted on the barrels to identify the contents. It was one of the so-called "rainbow herbicides" that included the more infamous Agent Orange. Agent Pink was only used during the early "testing" stages of the spraying program before 1964.
Agent Pink's only active ingredient was 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), one of the common phenoxy herbicides of the era. It was later learned that a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), is produced as a byproduct of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T, and was present in any of the herbicides that used it. Since Agent Pink consisted entirely of 2,4,5-T it contained many times the level of dioxin found in Agent Orange, which also contained 2,4-D, in which there was lower dioxin contamination.
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