WASHINGTON
(AP) -- There may be an association between exposure to Agent
Orange in Vietnam and getting diabetes later in life, according
to a new Institute of Medicine study. But the analysis stopped
short of saying the link was conclusive.
Vietnam veterans
have sought to have diabetes added to the list of diseases linked
to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
Last year
a task force at the Department of Veterans Affairs concluded there
was a connection between the disease and exposure to the chemicals,
and a later Air Force analysis also found a connection. Other
studies, however, said there was insufficient evidence to link
the two.
The new analysis
concludes that "there is limited/suggestive evidence of an
association between exposure to the herbicides used in Vietnam
or the contaminant dioxin and Type 2 diabetes"
The Vietnam
Veterans of America welcomed the new report.
"We're
delighted and feel vindicated," said VVA vice president Rick
Weidman. He said the veterans group will be calling for immediate
recognition of the disease as service-connected and will urge
screening of veterans to detect the disease in its early stages.
During Vietnam
thousands of veterans were exposed to Agent Orange, a defoliant
used to clear areas of jungle so the Viet Cong could be seen and
attacked from the air.
"Research
findings that have now accumulated over a long period of time
seem to support the possibility of a link between Agent Orange
exposure and Type 2 diabetes," said Dr. David J. Tollerud,
chairman of the committee that prepared the study for the Institute,
a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. Type 2 diabetes
strikes adults, in contrast to Type 1, which begins in childhood.
Tollerud is
director of the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health
at Hahnemann University School of Public Health in Philadelphia.
He added,
however, that the increased likelihood of contracting the disease
from herbicide exposure seems to be small.
"The
known predictors of diabetes risk -- family history, physical
inactivity and obesity -- continue to greatly outweigh any suggested
increased risk from wartime exposure to herbicides," he added.
Under the
law governing Agent Orange, Vietnam veterans need not prove a
direct causal relationship to receive service-based compensation
for certain diseases. The diseases currently on the list include
Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, respiratory cancers, soft-tissue
sarcoma and prostate cancer, but not diabetes. Veterans' children
with spina bifida, a congenital birth defect of the spine, are
also eligible for benefits and health care.
The VA commissioned
the Institute's analysis and spokesman Jim Benson said it is now
under study at the agency.
The National
Academy of Sciences is an independent organization chartered by
Congress to advise the government on scientific questions.
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