[ RadSafe ] DU and Agent Orange --- a comeuppance?

[Steven Dapra]

June 15

	Once again, the recent battle here over the alleged dangers of depleted 
uranium.

	Eventually James Salsman began making derogatory remarks saying that 
anyone who denies or questions the dangers of DU is in the same category as 
those who denied the alleged harm of Agent Orange.  Remember also that in 
his attempts to make DU out as dangerous, Salsman has invoked the work and 
claims of a Dr. Han Kang who was somehow connected with the Veterans 
Administration.

	This weekend I was doing some research on Agent Orange and happened upon a 
paper about dioxin in US Vietnam veterans co-authored by a Han K. 
Kang.  According to the Discussion, "In this study, military service in 
Vietnam was not associated with elevated dioxin levels in adipose [fat] 
tissues with or without adjustment for demographic variables.  In addition, 
no Vietnam service characteristics measured singularly or in combination 
was a good predictor of dioxin levels in adipose tissue.  There were no 
consistent trends in the dioxin levels according to the surrogate measures 
of Agent Orange exposure.  The mean levels of dioxin did rise slightly with 
combat [assignments] and having been with three days [or] two [kilometers] 
of sprayed areas.  But the other two surrogates, branch of service and 
service location in Vietnam, were not associated with the dioxin levels."

	Also:  "We concluded that the results of our study did not support the 
hypothesis that most US troops were heavily exposed to dioxin in Vietnam."

	According to a biographical footnote, Kang is a DrPH, which I would assume 
means Doctor of Public Health.  When he co-authored this paper he was in 
the Office of Environmental Epidemiology at the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Steven Dapra


REFERENCE

Kang, HK et al.  Dioxins and Dibenzofurans in Adipose Tissue of US Vietnam 
Veterans and Controls.  American Journal of Public Health.  81(3):344-349; 
March 1991.