Some To Get Agent Orange Testing
By PAULINE JELINEK
(c)The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government is offering to examine Cold War
American troops who served in Korea three decades ago for possible
exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.
In a little-publicized initiative, the Veterans Affairs Department
expanded a program previously offered to Vietnam War veterans to
include people who served in Korea in 1968-69.
The rule change follows by a year the Pentagon's disclosure that
South Korean troops sprayed Agent Orange, which contained the toxic
herbicide dioxin, during that time along the demilitarized zone
between North and South Korea.
The decision to give vets free Agent Orange Registry exams, for
diseases and medical conditions associated with exposure to the
herbicide, is set out in a directive issued Sept. 5 and posted on
the department's http://www.va.gov World Wide Web site.
Agent Orange and other similar herbicides were used during the
Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover by defoliating broad sections
of jungle mainly to facilitate pursuit of infiltrators and supplies
moving into South Vietnam from the north. After it appeared probable
that the defoliant caused numerous serious illnesses and birth
defects, the VA set up the Agent Orange Registry in 1978, three
years after the war ended, for U.S. veterans with in-country Vietnam
War military service. More than 300,000 veterans have participated
so far.
``Now that we understand that it was sprayed there,'' said VA
spokesman Jim Benson, ``we can say, `If you were in Korea, you may
be exposed, and we would like you to come in.'''
The Defense Department has always known it was used along the Korean
DMZ, but it wasn't until last December that the information was
publicly known.
Following news reports quoting unclassified U.S. documents about the
usage, the Pentagon and South Korea's government admitted that the
chemical and two others were used in 1968-69 to kill dense foliage
that North Korean infiltrators used for cover heading south.
Around 50,000 South Korean soldiers did the spraying by hand.
``However, it is plausible that U.S. service members in the area
near spraying operations may have been exposed,'' the directive
said, adding that as many as 80,000 troops served in the country
during the two years. A smaller number would have been near the DMZ.
The new directive does not entitle veterans to compensation for
diseases, offering mainly physical examinations and counseling.
Specifically, it opens to Korean veterans registration on the
registry's computerized index of all examinations taken by Vietnam
vets who worried they had illnesses caused by exposure to the
chemical.
Like Vietnam vets in the registry, the Korea-based veterans will be
tracked in Agent Orange research and get newsletters and other
information that Vietnam vets get, Benson said.
A law passed a decade ago assumes exposure for any American who
served in Vietnam during a certain period. The VA has compensated
veterans who have some forms of cancer and a limited number of other
diseases presumed, although not proven, to have been caused by the
exposure.
After Korean vets register and are examined, the government would
have to take further action to add their names to the list of people
eligible for compensation, Benson said.
Under the law governing Agent Orange, Vietnam veterans need not
prove a direct causal relationship to receive service-based
compensation for certain diseases. The diseases currently on the
list include Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, respiratory
cancers, soft-tissue sarcoma and prostate cancer. Veterans' children
with spina bifida, a congenital birth defect of the spine, are also
eligible for benefits and health care.
POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
The U.S. government has a couple of presents for some of those who
served in uniform under its flag in years past, just in time for
Veterans Day. But these presents come wrapped with black ribbon.
For 30 years, the Pentagon knew that the same defoliant linked to
illness in thousands of Vietnam War veterans, and birth
abnormalities in their offspring, was used in Korea during 1968 and
'69. But they didn't tell the men and women who served there that
they might have been exposed to the infamous Agent Orange while
stationed near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
That nasty secret was kept until late last year. And it probably
would have been kept longer if it hadn't been for news leaks quoting
U.S. documents.
Now the government is extending to former Korean duty vets the same
eligibility it provided to Vietnam War vets, including free medical
exams under the Agent Orange Registry.
Agent Orange was used in Korea, as it was in Vietnam, to defoliate
large tracks of jungle to expose enemy troops and possible supply
routes.
On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that
Vietnam veterans with Type-II diabetes will now be eligible for
disability compensation based on their presumed exposure to Agent
Orange or other herbicides used during the war.
Although it will take several months to complete the rule-writing
for this directive, affected vets are encouraged to enroll in the
VA's health care system immediately so they can begin receiving
medical care.
This form of diabetes is added to the existing list of ailments
connected with Agent Orange exposure, including a number of skin,
nerve and respiratory conditions, as well as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma,
Hodgkin's disease, prostate cancer and the birth defect spina bifida.
The Pentagon fought tooth and nail for years to discredit
allegations that at times indiscriminate use of the defoliants had
left American soldiers with medical problems, including cancer and
birth defects in their offspring.