Researcher Links Elevated Levels of Dioxin in Vietnam Vets
                           To Agent Orange Exposure
                    by Judy Daubenmier (Associated Press)
                      Lansing State Journal (Newspaper)
                              September 9, 1991


  A researcher studying Vietnam veterans from Michigan has found high levels of
dioxin from Agent Orange in their blood more than 20 years after the defoliant
was sprayed on Southeast Asian jungles.

  Dr. Arnold Schecter said the elevated levels were found in five of 20 blood
samples tested this summer.

  Levels ranged from 22 parts per trillion to 130 parts per trillion.  The
average American's blood has between 3 parts per trillion and 6 parts per
trillion.

  Schecter said the research, done for the Michigan Agent Orange Commission,
eventually could help scientists determine what level of exposure to the
herbicide is a health risk.

  "The question is what dose did they get and what dose level do we need to
be concerned about," said Schecter, professor of preventive medicine at the
State University of New York.

   The chairman of the Michigan Agent Orange Commission said the Michigan
study is the only remaining hope for anxious veterans.

   "All veterans who served in the Vietnam conflict should definitely be
concerned," said Keith Mino.

   "We know that they're suffering health effects.  Wherever I've traveled,
I've met with Vietnam veterans who are dying.  I've met with widows who have
watched young men die of strange, rare forms of cancer.  It's been a terrible
thing to witness."

   Dioxin, the by-product that occurred in the production of the jungle
defoliant, has been shown to cause cancer, still births and birth defects in
laboratory animals.

   Vietnam veterans blame the herbicide for more than two dozen health
problems.  But the Veterans Administration has agreed to compensate veterans
for just three conditions.  Those are chloracne, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and
soft-tissue sarcoma.

   Mino lost his 2-year-old son to a rare for of liver cancer.  He fears that
was linked to his service in a part of Vietnam that Agent Orange turned from
a dense jungle into barren sand dunes before he arrived.

   About 109,000 of the 400,000 Michigan residents who served in the military
during the Vietnam War filled out Agent Orange questionnaires for the
commission in 1987 and 1989.  About 161,000 Michigan residents served in
Vietnam.

   The 20 veterans whose blood was tested came from 2,000 who said they had
handled Agent Orange or were part of Operation Ranch Hand, the Air Force
mission responsible for spraying Agent Orange.

   Schecter said medical records will be reviewed to see if any of the five
with high dioxin levels have a history of cancer or if their children have
birth defects.

   Harry McGee, chief of veterans health promotion for the Michigan Department
of Public Health, said dioxin levels will be studied in another group of 29
veterans.  They had high exposure to Agent Orange and have developed cancer
or have children with birth defects.

   The uniqueness of the Michigan study is the long period of time since
veterans initially were exposed to Agent Orange, McGee said.

   "We're looking at a period long enough after the war that cancers would
be expected to show up.  Some of the studies done elsewhere looked at cancers
10 years after the war and some you wouldn't expect to see for 20 years.
Hopefully, we're looking for a better perspective than some of the other
studies," McGee said.

   McGee said in the planning stages is a study of other veterans with high
dioxin levels to see if dioxin can be found in their semen.

   Also on the drawing board is a study using death certificates to compare
the death and cancer rates of Vietnam veterans with the general population,
he said.

   The only other state with an active Agent Orange research program is New
Jersey.  Schecter said research is continuing in Vietnam, where many of the
32 million residents of the south were sprayed with 12 million gallons of the
herbicide.

   PCBs may add to or multiply the toxic effects of dioxin so including them
gives a clearer picture of the threat to veterans' health, he said.

   Schecter plans to complete his research on dioxin levels by October 1992.
But full answers will take more time.

   "We're coming closer than we were five years ago but it's probably going
to take another five to 10 years before we can tell someone, you do need to
be concerned or don't need to be concerned," he said.

   Mino sand the commission's other goal is to prick the nation's conscience
into aiding veterans it has so far ignored.

   "All we've ever asked for is honesty.  Help us find the truth.  We're
hoping once we've established the truth the government will admit we've done
a terrible thing and help these people, help their widows," he said.

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Michigan Agent Orange Commission
Michigan Department of Public Health
Center for Health Promotion
3423 N. Logan/Martin L. King Jr. Blvd.
PO Box 30195
Lansing, MI  48909