United States Air Force Personnel and Exposure to Herbicide Orange
Abstract
The United States Air Force is conducting an epidemiological study, called the Air Force Health Study (AFHS), to determine whether or not military personnel associated with herbicide spraying during the Vietnam War have experienced any adverse health effects. This report reviews salient findings of the AFHS first morbidity report published in 1984, and presents new work by examining relationships between AFHS findings and the results of laboratory toxicological studies and other epidemiological studies addressing dioxin. Eleven clinical areas have been emphasized based on a toxicological profile developed from the literature and availability of data in the AFHS: weight loss, neoplasia, birth defects, neurological changes, psychological changes, hepatotoxicity, chloracne, cardio-vascular changes, immunological deficits, endocrine changes, and mortality. In six of these eleven clinical areas, statistically significant group differences occurred, and in five of these six instances the group differences were in the direction of expected dioxin effects. Dioxin cannot be confidently identified as the causative agent of these findings at this time because of several reasons, including the absence of correlations with an exposure index and the incomplete clinical picture. However, dioxin is not exonerated as a causative agent because of the directionality of the observed group differences and the preliminary nature of the exposure index used in the AFHS first morbidity report.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA191985
Entities
People
- Richard A. Albanese
Organizations
- United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine