Air Force Times 05-19-97 Issue
By Bryant Jordan
Times staff writer
SAN ANTONIO -- Air Force scientists say that airmen involved in the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam have a 50 percent higher chance of contracting diabetes than people not exposed to the herbicide.
That finding, being published in the professional publication, Epidemiology, was first discovered four or five years ago, said Joel Michalek, a co-designer and a principal investigator of the study. But scientists at the Air Force's Armstrong Laboratory at Brooks Air Force Base near San Antonio, which is responsible for the study, held off announcing the finding until they were certain the increased rate of diabetes was not connected to other factors, he said.
"We were working to make sure we were not seeing something spurious," he said. "We've concluded it's not spurious, we can't make it go away, and it's time to announce the results."
Diabetes was slated for study because it was listed among conditions and symptoms of veterans exposed to Agent Orange that had been compiled by the Veterans Administration in the 1970s. But while it was planned as part of the study, it was not what the researchers looked for first. "Like everybody else, we expected to look for cancer and birth defects [incidents]. Those are the big complaints [among exposed veterans]."
Agent Orange was an herbicide used during the war to defoliate areas. The chemical contained dioxin, a powerful toxin. The veterans in the Brooks study were enlisted members and officers who participated in the defoliation efforts, called Operation Ranch Hand.
Study ends in 2006
Michalek said he helped design the study in 1978. Physicals were taken on the first group of Ranch Hand veterans in 1982. Since then the veterans have been re-examined every five years. A new round of physicals is slated to begin next month.
The last physicals will be done in 2002 and the study ends in 2006, unless Congress votes to continue funding it, he said.
The Armstrong study has followed 989 Ranch Hand veterans since the study began. At the time, about 1,200 of the veterans were eligible to participate. Michalek said 1,261 airmen and officers took part in Ranch Hand operations during the war. Of those, 22 were killed in action and about 50 had died before the first physicals were conducted. Some veterans were not included in the study because they already had diabetes before going to Vietnam or because their dioxin level could not be measured.
The study also follows a control group -- 1,276 airmen who were not exposed to Agent Orange -- to compare them with the Ranch Hand veterans.
The test is supervised by Brooks scientists. The physical exams are conducted at the Scripps Clinic in La Jola, Calif., while the study is managed by Science Application International Corp. of Reston, Va.
As a result of the Agent Orange/diabetes connection, doctors next month will begin taking fat samples from the Ranch Hand veterans. The samples will be studied to determine if dioxin interferes with fat cells that metabolize blood sugar, or glucose.
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