US Army Chemical Corps Vietnam veterans health study: preliminary results

The long-term health consequences of exposure to phenoxyherbicides used in Vietnam has been a great concern to the veterans. In addition to the Air Fo rce Ranch Hand personnel: Army Chemical Corps personnel who served in Vietn am are thought to have had some of the highest herbicide exposures. The Dep artment of Veterans Affairs commenced a study of veterans who served in Vie tnam as members of the Army Chemical Corps and a comparison cohort of Army Chemical Corps personnel who served elsewhere. A total of 2872 Vietnam vete rans and 2737 non-Vietnam veterans who served in the Army Chemical Corps we re identified for inclusion in a telephone health interview survey with a r andom 20% sample of veterans receiving serum dioxin and other congeners ass essments. In a feasibility study which included 284 Vietnam veterans and 28 1 non-Vietnam veterans, 100 serum assessments were conducted of which 95 we re included in the analysis. Vietnam veterans with a history of spraying he rbicides were found to have a statistically significant elevation in their current serum 2,3,7,8-TCDD concentrations compared to non-Vietnam veterans without a spray history (P = 0.05). Other 2,3,7,8-substituted dioxins level s were comparable to the levels found in the non-Vietnam veterans. This fea sibility study demonstrated that serum dioxin concentrations from a sample of the study participants can be used to identify exposure variables in the health survey that can serve as a surrogate measure of phenoxyherbicide ex posure. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.