[CPEO-MEF] Viet vets and dioxin

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Cancer Risk Increased for Vietnam Vets Who Didn't Spray Agent Orange

Source: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 
Newswise
April 15, 2005

Even Vietnam veterans who were not involved in spraying Agent Orange
experience higher levels of dioxin contamination, which is linked to an
increased overall risk of cancer, reports a study in the April Journal
of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the
American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

The study, conducted by a group of U.S. Air Force and other researchers,
analyzed cancer rates among nearly 1,500 Air Force veterans who served
in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, but did not actually spray
Agent Orange or other herbicides. The men served as a comparison group
in a previous study of cancer risk in veterans of Operation Ranch Hand,
the unit responsible for spraying Agent Orange.

Even though they didn't work with Agent Orange, veterans in the
comparison group had significant blood levels of TCDD, the highly toxic
dioxin contaminant of Agent Orange. The current study was designed to
assess whether low-level exposure to TCDD affected the later risk of
developing cancer.

...

For the entire press release, see
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/511148/


-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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