NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS

RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS

    U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FOR RELEASE: March 29, 2000

Washington, DC -- Congressman Lane Evans (D-IL) today called findings in the Ranch Hand report, released this morning by the Air Force, on links between exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam and diabetes very significant. "Veterans have suspected a connection between Agent Orange and diabetes since 1975," Evans said. "I have just been briefed on particularly strong evidence found in the Ranch Hand study to support this association. This could mean a great deal to a lot of veterans."

Evans, the Ranking Democratic Member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has been one of the most persistent Members of Congress in gaining health care and compensation for Vietnam veterans with problems related to the toxic defoliant. Ranch Hand, a long-term study conducted by the Air Force to examine possible consequences of human exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides containing the contaminant dioxin, was begun in 1982.

"I was briefed this morning by Dr. Joel Michalek, head of the Ranch Hand study," Evans said. "It has taken a long time, but we have received some very significant findings." It is important for diabetic Vietnam veterans to know that there is already a process in place, created by Congress, which allows the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide for a presumption of service-connection when there is a positive association between illness and exposure to herbicides in Vietnam. Evans said, "this additional evidence from the Ranch Hand Study appears at least as strong as the evidence which has associated other medical conditions with herbicide exposure."

Last year, VA recommended that the independent and highly-respected National Academy of Sciences (NAS) conduct an expedited review of scientific literature on diabetes. This review is now expected to be completed in May.

Today’s Ranch Hand report should be considered in the upcoming NAS determination. A conclusion from NAS that evidence of an association between Agent Orange and diabetes is either "sufficient" or "limited/suggested" in nature would require VA to decide whether to compensate diabetic Vietnam veterans on a presumptive basis. Congressionally-mandated studies conducted by the National Academy of Sciences have confirmed associations between exposure to herbicides and several diseases. Evans, an original sponsor of the legislation creating the NAS studies, notes that the dangers related to Agent Orange led the Air Force to stop spraying in 1971, after studies linked the defoliant to birth defects in lab animals.

Evans, who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam era, has led the struggle for health care and compensation of Vietnam veterans affected by Agent Orange. "As the author of legislation that resulted in Congress enacting the Agent Orange Act of 1991," he said, "which provides authority to the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide service-connected disability compensation to veterans based on the results of research, I believe it is imperative that scientific findings such as this Ranch Hand report are used to make these determinations."

Last year, Evans turned up the heat on the Ranch Hand study. He instructed the General Accounting Office (GAO) to look into the usefulness of the Ranch Hand study. Ranch Hand is the source of early and ongoing research into the connection between veterans' health and exposure to dioxin and other herbicides found in the Agent Orange defoliant. Some 18 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed in Vietnam beginning in 1962 to destroy jungle hiding places and enemy crops.

Evans today noted other important results of his GAO report:

• GAO said the Air Force had not produced reports and publications on Ranch Hand study findings in a timely manner. Most results were not shared with veterans until seven years after the study began. After a great deal of prodding by Congressman Evans and veterans, the Air Force has begun to routinely publish reports and information as required by its scientific protocol. Today’s briefing noted that the SAIC consulting organization has been contracted to release all of Ranch Hand’s reports and data on CD-ROM beginning in April 2000.

• Some of the inherent limitations of epidemiological studies, like Ranch Hand, have not been communicated by Air Force scientists. GAO noted that the Ranch Hand study cannot be used to "rule out" connections between Agent Orange exposure and veterans’ health problems. Dr. Michalek took care to address that problem in this report, and commented that despite its small group, "the study has good statistical power for diabetes," because the dose response between dioxin and diabetes is so clear.

• "The Ranch Hand study has provided useful information, such as providing a basis for compensating veterans’ children with spina bifida born after the war," Evans said. "It is now providing a foundation for compensating veterans with diabetes. The usefulness of the Ranch Hand study for establishing a basis for compensating veterans for health problems – one of its original stated goals – was in doubt before today’s briefing."

The Ranch Hand scientists and Evans are agreed on the need for further dioxin research to be conducted in Vietnam. "I have contended for years," Evans said, "that we made Vietnam a laboratory for studying the effects of Agent Orange. The United States sprayed areas in the south heavily, but had no reason to spray the north. We need to pursue work that has already begun in Vietnam."

Ranch Hand has required a massive commitment of resources, Evans noted. "First and foremost are the invaluable contributions made by scores of Vietnam veterans who have participated in Ranch Hand. Not least of this was giving the study participants five thorough physical examinations. They have donated countless hours to participate in clinical evaluations and medical follow up. In addition, America’s taxpayers have literally invested $140 million dollars in the Ranch Hand study. Today, we have learned something important that will help America’s veterans, as well as other people whose lives have been affected by dioxin."