Agent Orange study finds raised cancer risks

Thursday, January 22, 2004 Posted: 3:18 PM EST (2018 GMT)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Air Force veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War have a higher-than-average risk of prostate and skin cancer, military researchers reported on Thursday.

The ongoing study of 2,000 Vietnam veterans shows for the first time an elevated risk of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Previous studies have found increased risks of prostate cancer, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and also diabetes.

"A new analysis of cancer incidence among Air Force veterans of the Vietnam War found increased risks of prostate cancer and melanoma in those who sprayed Agent Orange and other herbicides," the Air Force Surgeon General's office said in a statement.

It does not find the veterans are any more likely to die of these cancers than the general population.

"It's just because we have new numbers, new exams," a spokesman said. "The guys are getting older, so we are seeing higher incidences."

Between 1962 and 1971 an estimated 20 million gallons of herbicides, including Agent Orange, were used to strip Vietnam's thick forests to make bombing easier.

Veterans exposed to the powerful pesticides have complained for years about a variety of health problems, and in the late 1970s the government started to investigate them systematically.

The latest study, to be published next month in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, is not the last word on cancer and Agent Orange, the Surgeon General's office warned. It has many weaknesses and must be studied along with other research.

For this particular study veterans called the Ranch Hand group are being examined regularly. Operation Ranch Hand was the unit responsible for the aerial spraying of herbicides, and medical experts say they got the highest exposure to Agent Orange, which contains dioxins and other toxic chemicals.

Starting in 1986, their blood was tested for dioxin, a chemical that builds up in the body and that can cause cancer and birth defects.

"The dioxin determinations were accurate but were measured 15 to 30 years after service in the Ranch Hand unit," the surgeon general's statement said.

"The study interpretations are limited because other environmental exposures were not measured."