Report: Agent Orange planes hold risk years after Vietnam

[unhappycamper]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/medical/article/Report-Agent-Orange-planes-hold-risk-years-after-6005182.php

Report: Agent Orange planes hold risk years after Vietnam
January 9, 2015 : Updated: January 9, 2015 5:08pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The health of some U.S. Air Force reservists could have been put at risk from the residue left in planes that sprayed Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, the Institute of Medicine reported Friday.

There's not much data about the level of contamination, but limited testing years later make it plausible that some reservists exceeded guidelines for exposure to the toxins in the defoliant, the report concluded.

At issue are 24 C-123 planes that, after the military stopped spraying Agent Orange, went on to be used by Air Force reserve units for such things as medical and cargo transport. About 1,500 to 2,100 personnel trained and worked on them between 1972 and 1982. Later, some reservists blamed cancer and other illnesses on residues left in the planes, but they were denied disability claims if they did not serve in Vietnam.

Friday's report, requested by the Department of Veterans Affairs, did not address disability policy but could influence future claims.