The Nation - News from Sept. 2, 1988

A new study of Vietnam veterans suggests that most escaped heavy exposure to the poison dioxin, even if they served as ground troops in areas extensively sprayed with the dioxin-containing herbicide Agent Orange. But a Vietnam veterans’ spokesman criticized the study as a twisted rehash of old data. The study’s findings, based on a comparison of blood tests between 646 Vietnam veterans and 97 non-Vietnam veterans, found that dioxin levels were nearly identical, researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control reported in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. But Barry Kasinitz, a spokesman for Vietnam Veterans of America, said the CDC offered the same information a year ago, saying it had failed to judge Agent Orange exposure using military records of troop locations.