2,4,5-T

A chlorinated phenoxy herbicide once sprayed widely on broadleaf weeds, and infamous as a component of the defoliant Agent Orange. Its manufacture left it contaminated with dioxins, including TCDD, among the most toxic synthetic chemicals known, and exposed populations suffered severe health effects. Most countries have since banned it outright. In food safety it survives as a cautionary case: a reminder of how persistent, fat-soluble contaminants can enter soil, livestock and the food chain, and of why modern pesticide registration demands impurity profiling and long-term residue monitoring that did not exist when 2,4,5-T was approved.