NEWS OF THE WEEK
AGENT ORANGE: More data help define dioxin danger Dioxin continues to hold the nation's interest with two recent developments in widely followed cases. Although neither development is particularly enlightening or unexpected, each adds to the accumulating data that may help determine what danger, if any, is present. The most visible item is the release of thousands of pages of evidence in the suit against five chemical companies that produced agent orange for the Army in the 1960s. The other is the release of an Air Force mortality study on personnel who handled agent orange during Operation Agent Ranch Hand in Vietnam. Judge George C. Pratt of the federal district court in Uniondale, Long Island, ordered the release of the evidence used in the summary judgment hearings in the case involving the chemical companies being sued by 6000 Vietnam war veterans who believe they have been injured by exposure to agent orange. Pratt had said months ago that he would do this. Earlier this year, he granted some of the original 11 companies their request for a summary dismissal, leaving only Dow Chemical, Monsanto, Diamond Shamrock, Uniroyal, and Thompson-Hayward as defendants. The released papers contain evidence and supporting documents presented by the companies to show that the government knew of the hazards associated with dioxincontaminated herbicides in agent orange. The papers also contain evidence from the plaintiffs to show that there was a conspiracy to prevent the government from finding 4
July 11, 1983 C&EN
found no statistically significant differences in either the number of deaths or in the causes of them between the two groups. This basic finding of the study already had been released in preliminary form (C&EN, June 6, page 23). Release of the full study, however, reveals new details. For instance, "the Ranch Handers showed a relative paucity of overall cancer but an excess of digestive disorder deaths," the study notes, although these differences were not statistically significant, possibly because of the small size of the sample. orange defoliated areas like this one in Vietnam The study finds that enout what the potential dangers with listed men who worked with agent agent orange were. orange seem to have a somewhat One item noted for the first time greater death rate than officers who is the mention in some Dow papers were involved in agent orange of possible fatalities from dioxin spraying or than enlisted men or exposure. Although this sounds officers in the control group. Again, ominous, a Dow spokesman says it the finding is not statistically sigrefers to one West German worker nificant, but the Air Force says it exposed to dioxin in the manufac- will be watching very carefully to ture of pentachlorophenol who died see if this trend is borne out in four years later. The autopsy showed larger samples. If exposure to agent that the dioxin might have contrib- orange were unhealthy, it would uted to the kidney disease that be expected that its effects would caused the death. However, it is be seen more in enlisted men. known now that the 2,3,7,8-tetraAlthough the findings are of great chloro isomer of dioxin that is so interest to those concerned about dangerous is not a by-product of the question of veterans' exposure pentachlorophenol production, and to agent orange, most observers Dow believes an autopsy today agree that the size of the sample is would not have implicated dioxin. so small that findings so far don't The first part of the Air Force's really prove anything. Of more poRanch Hand study, which examines tential interest is the study under the causes of death of the 50 Air way comparing the health of the Force personnel involved in the surviving 1200 Ranch Hand personagent oraAge spraying in Vietnam nel with a control group. The Air who died by the end of 1982 and Force expects to release first results D 250 in a matched control group, of this study in October.
