- WASHINGTON (AFP) -- An air
force study has found for the first time a sharply increased risk of cancer
among veterans who were exposed to the toxic chemical dioxin while spraying
Agent Orange and other herbicides during the Vietnam War, the air force
said Thursday.
-
- The higher incidence of prostate, skin and other types
of cancer was revealed after analysis of data gathered over the past two
decades for the Air Force Health Study on Operation Ranch Hand was adjusted
to take into account veterans' years in Southeast Asia.
-
- The latest analysis found that veterans who sprayed herbicides
as part of Operation Ranch Hand and who had the highest exposure to dioxin
were more than twice as likely to develop cancer "at any anatomical
site" than unexposed veterans who were in southeast Asia for two years
or less.
-
- The Ranch Hand veterans' risk of contracting prostate
cancer was more than six times greater than that of the other veterans,
while their risk of melanoma, a type of skin cander, was more than seven
and a half times greater, the study found.
-
- But Joel Michalek, an author of the analysis, cautioned
that there was less statistical confidence in the figures for prostate
cancer and melanoma because they were based on a small number of cases.
-
- The analysis will be published in the February edition
of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
-
- Previous analyses of the air force data had found no
increase in the incidence of those cancer categories among Operation Ranch
Hand veterans when compared to other veterans who served in southeast Asia
but did not spray herbicides.
-
- But a couple of years ago, researchers discovered that
veterans who had spent more than two years in Southeast Asia were themselves
at a higher risk of cancer, whether they had sprayed Agent Orange or not.
-
- "So in past analyses when we failed to adjust for
years in the region, we failed to find the cancer effect in the control
group," said Michalek.
-
- That, in turn obscured the increase in risk to veterans
exposed to dioxin when compared to other veterans who served in southeast
Asia because both groups were at higher than normal risk.
-
- The latest air force study found that Ranch Hand veterans
as well as veterans who served in southeast Asia but did not spray herbicides
had a higher incidence of prostate cancer than the US population as a whole.
-
- The veterans exposed to dioxin also had a higher incidence
of melanoma than the US population as a whole.
-
- All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse.
-
- http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040122225207.3zepkcqy.html
|
