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INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE RELEASES LATEST REPORT
ON VETERANS AND AGENT ORANGE -- Says AO
exposure
may boost hypertension and heart disease, but
committee
divided on some cancer risks. Read full report.
Institute of Medicine (IOM) report page here...
http://www.iom.edu/CMS/3793/4689/44596.aspx
Read full IOM report here...
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11906.html
For more on Agent Orange, use the VA Watchdog
search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.
php?q=agent+orange&op=ph
For more on the Institute of Medicine, use the
VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sessearch.php?
q=institute+of+medicine&op=ph
News story here...
http://www.forbes.com/
forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/
07/27/hscout606794.html
Story below:
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Agent Orange May Boost Vietnam Vets'
Hypertension Risk
(HealthDay News) -- Exposure to the defoliant herbicide Agent Orange
during the Vietnam War may be raising blood pressure levels for the
aging veterans of that conflict.
That's the biggest change in the latest of a series of reports from the
U.S. Institute of Medicine on the long-term health effects of Agent
Orange. The report was released Friday.
The IOM's Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of
Exposure to Herbicides last issued its updated findings in 2005; this
report is based on data collected up to 2006. The reports are compiled
at the request of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
"In two new studies, Vietnam veterans with the highest exposure to
herbicides exhibited distinct increases in the prevalence of
hypertension; the prevalence of heart disease was also increased," the
report found, although the IOM committee stopped short of suggesting
that wartime exposure to Agent Orange is currently raising veterans'
risk of ischemic heart disease.
The group said the latest data on hypertension risk is of a much higher
quality than prior research looking at links between Agent Orange and
heart disease or heart disease risk factors. However, the new findings
are "consistent" with those gleaned from prior research.
There were other changes to the IOM's latest update of Veterans and
Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam, which is
issued every two years (this is the seventh such report).
As new data have emerged, a few important cancer types -- malignancies
of the brain, stomach, colon, rectum and pancreas -- were moved from a
category labeled "limited or insufficient evidence of no association
[with Agent Orange]" to a more neutral category --"inadequate or
insufficient evidence to determine association."
The committee was deadlocked and indecisive on whether to move two more
tumor types -- breast cancer and melanoma -- as well as ischemic heart
disease, from the "inadequate or insufficient evidence to determine
association" category up to a category that implies there might be a
connection to Agent Orange exposure -- "limited or suggestive evidence
of association."
According to the report, "the committee could not reach consensus about
the strength of the evidence" on those issues.
Finally, data on an illness linked to multiple myeloma, called
amyloidosis, did satisfy the criteria needed to include it in the
"limited or suggestive evidence of association" category, associating it
for the first time with exposure to the herbicide.
All of these category changes are important, since the VA often consults
the committee's reports when making medical or disability coverage
decisions for Vietnam veterans. Certain conditions -- sarcomas,
non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Hodgkin's
disease -- have been found by the committee to be clearly associated
with Agent Orange exposure, for example. The status of other conditions
remains more ambiguous.
That ambiguity continues to rile veterans advocates such as Phil Kraft,
executive director of the Darien, Conn.-based National Veterans Services
Fund. He said that while he "admires the perseverance" of the IOM
committee, too many sick Vietnam vets are still fighting for proper
care.
"How hard is it to say, 'We're here for you, because you offered your
life, and now we're going to help you,' " said Kraft, himself a Vietnam
veteran.
He applauded the inclusion of hypertension within the "limited or
suggestive evidence" category, but said he wasn't surprised, since, in
his opinion, heart disease is rampant among veterans. "I talk to a lot
of [veterans'] wives, and they will say, 'Everything was fine until my
husband had his heart attack," Kraft said. "And it's not just because we
are now all in our 50s and 60s."
Kraft said the evidence-based "bump up" for a number of cancers is also
significant, since it may mean better access to medical and disability
care for affected veterans. "Anything that is going to add to the list
of compensations is a step in the right direction," he said. "I just
wish [the committee] would be bolder."
That's because too many veterans are still battling the Veterans
Administration for needed coverage, Kraft said. He used the example of a
fellow veteran diagnosed with myeloma. The man did end up getting 100
percent disability and care, "but he had to fight for almost three
years, while he was sick, because the VA was saying, 'Well, we don't
know.' "
With American troops fighting now on a new front, Kraft hopes tomorrow's
veterans will be wiser. One big problem for veterans from the Vietnam
War is that they have no blood or other samples to demonstrate their
baseline level of health before they went off to fight. That means it is
often tough to prove that wartime exposures are the cause of an
unhealthy change in their genetics or tissue toxicity levels, Kraft
said.
"But I know that this time round, soldiers going to Iraq are being told
to get a blood sample taken and preserved beforehand," Kraft said. "Guys
that are still [in Iraq] are advising the younger guys to do that."
Kraft said it's disheartening that any veteran has to fight another,
often lifelong battle to stay healthy and to get the coverage he or she
deserves. As for the Institute of Medicine report, Kraft believes its
recommendations remain far too cautious.
"I just wish they would loosen up a bit and come down with a
recommendation that says, 'Do the right thing for veterans,' " he said.
"That's all we have ever wanted."
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Larry Scott --
