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Agent Orange Has Been Linked to Cancer and Other Diseases

The following epidemiological studies have linked Agent Orange to cancer and other health effects:

• The Vietnam Experience Study (VES) by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)The Department of Veterans Affairs conducted studies in the 1980'sThe Air Force Health Study focused on Ranch Hand veterans. More information on the Air Force study is available at the Air Force Research Laboratory web site.
• The Agent Orange Act of 1991 directed the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ask The Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences to form The Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides.
• Characterizing Exposure of Veterans to Agent Orange and Other Herbicides Used in Vietnam: Final Report (2003)
• Characterizing Exposure of Veterans to Agent Orange and Other Herbicides Used in Vietnam: Interim Findings and Recommendations (2003)
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2002
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Herbicide/Dioxin Exposure and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in the Children of Vietnam Veterans (2002)
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Herbicide/Dioxin Exposure and Type 2 Diabetes (2000)
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2000
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1998
• Characterizing Exposure of Veterans to Agent Orange and Other Herbicides Used in Vietnam: Scientific Considerations Regarding a Request for Proposals for Research (1997)
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1996
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1996: Summary and Research Highlights
• Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam (1994)
• The National Toxicology Program has classified 2,3,7,8-TCDD, the dioxin in Agent Orange, to be a known human carcinogen.

• Soft-tissue sarcoma but not osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, or mesothelioma
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Hodgkin disease
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)

There is some limited evidence suggestive of an association between the following cancers and Agent Orange:

• Respiratory cancers such as lung cancer, tracheal cancer, laryngeal cancer, and bronchial cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Multiple myeloma

Other health problems have been linked with Agent Orange exposure, such as:

• High levels of dioxin exposure are associated with chloracne, a distinctive form of acne
• Birth defects or neural tube defects
• Neurotoxicity, including neuropsychiatric dysfunction, deficits in motor function, and peripheral neuropathy
• Diabetes
• Paternal Agent Orange exposure and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in children

Since past Agent Orange exposure is difficult to quantify, the VA classifies a veteran who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 who has been afflicted with an Agent Orange related condition as having a service-related disability.

More about Agent Orange on our Agent Orange Information Page