Agent Orange Proves Toxic Long After VA Presumptive End Date
- Suzanne Caruso
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Active spraying of Agent Orange by the US military in Vietnam, Korea, and Thailand ended in mid-1971. However, military personnel were still present in the Korean DMZ for years thereafter, long past this date. The VA established presumption of Agent Orange exposure in the Korean DMZ only from September 1967 to August 1971. It appears the VA adopted this arbitrary end date for Agent Orange exposure based on the incorrect premise that exposure only occurs during active spraying. Unfortunately, this premise is entirely contradicted by the chemical, environmental, and biological properties of Dioxin, the human toxicant within Agent Orange. This article reviews real-world evidence which proves that exposure to Dioxin continued for years after spraying had ended in the Korean DMZ, making the VA Presumptive End Date tragically flawed.
Dioxin Persists in the Environment for Decades
Dioxin does not lend itself to a simplistic and arbitrary end date for human exposure from the environment. Dioxin is highly resistant to physical, chemical, and biological degradation, both in the environment and in living organisms. To begin with, Dioxin does not dissolve in water, nor does it evaporate and diffuse away. Dioxin adheres to organic matter in soil, as well as to aerosolized fine particulate matter.
In addition, and critically, Dioxin bio-accumulates in all humans and animals body fat - which is connective tissue that extends throughout the body (also known as “adipose” tissue). Adipose tissue is found under the skin (subcutaneous fat), between internal organs (visceral fat) and even in the inner cavities of bones (bone marrow). This contamination which occurs in both humans and in animals, links Dioxin exposure directly to the food chain.
Lastly, Dioxin biodegrades very slowly, primarily through sunlight which only applies only to soil’s surface. The half-life of Dioxin on the top-soil surface is 9 to 15 years, and in the subsurface of soil the half-life is 25 to 100 years.
How are Humans Exposed?
There are three ways that humans are exposed to Dioxin:
INGESTION - Dioxin bio-accumulates in the food chain with a long biological half-life measured in decades. Ingestion also occurs from any contaminated surfaces where airborne Dioxin deposits.
INHALATION - Dioxin persists for years as an easily airborne fine powder, from topsoil and all surfaces, displaced by winds from place to place. Dioxin is not water soluble, and so its crystals remain intact.
DERMAL CONTACT - from touching contaminated surfaces, or from airborne Dioxin landing on skin.
Persistence of Dioxin in Humans
Dioxin is not efficiently metabolized and eliminated and so it accumulates in all creature’s adipose tissue (body fat). The biologic half-life of Dioxin in humans has been well-studied, including directly from Veterans’ blood analysis over time. This data demonstrates a median half-life of 8.7 years and therefore, 26 years later, 12.5% of absorbed Dioxin remains in human tissues.
Proof that Environmental Exposure Persists Years after Agent Orange Spraying has Ended
How does one prove that humans are exposed to Dioxin from the environment previously sprayed with Agent Orange years ago? One need not speculate, as multiple real-world studies have done just that. This article will review just a few of many such studies.
The obvious starting premise: Exposure to Dioxin among individuals born after 1971 can only be derived from leftover environmental contamination caused by Agent Orange spraying.
The Bien Hoa Study
In a pivotal 2001 study of residents in Bien Hoa, the site of a former airbase in southern Vietnam, it found high Dioxin levels in 95% of blood samples collected in 1999 from new residents after 1971 and those born after 1971 - some 30 years after Agent Orange spraying had ended. Bien Hoa is located near an air base used for Agent Orange spraying missions until 1970. A spill of Agent Orange occurred at this air base in the late 1960s, more than 30 years before the blood samples were collected in 1999. The serum Dioxin level of the Bien Hao new residents and those born after 1971 reached up to 135-fold higher levels as compared to residents of Hanoi, where Agent Orange was not used.
Exposure to Dioxin in Vietnamese Born in 1972-76
A 2023 study corroborates the Bien Hoa findings. In this study the authors compared the serum Dioxin levels from blood samples collected in 2014-15 among those born between 1972-76 (well after the end of Agent Orange spraying in 1971). Their analysis showed an average 2-fold higher blood level of Dioxin in the sprayed regions of Bien Hoa, Da Nang, and Phu Cat, as compared to a control population living in rural areas which had no herbicide spraying.
Dioxin in Breast Milk of Mothers Born Well After 1971
Dioxin becomes concentrated in breast milk and is naturally of great concern for the newborn. In a 2011 study, the authors collected breast milk samples in 2008-9 from women after giving birth. These mothers lived in either so-called ‘hot spots’ near Phu Cat and Da Nang airbases where Dioxin contamination resulted from storage spills, or in Cam Lo district, which was heavily sprayed during the war, and compared to mothers in ‘unsprayed’ provinces some 175 miles above the 17th parallel where no spraying occurred. Breast milk in the ‘hot spots’ had on average a 4-fold higher level of Dioxin as compared to those in the ‘unsprayed’ regions.
Summary and Implications
In summary, real-world evidence confirms that significant human Dioxin exposure from environmental contamination persists well after active spraying of Agent Orange ended. This applies to Veterans who were in the Korean DMZ after 1971. The implications are clear and wide-ranging, since exposure to Dioxin confers many health issues, including all the presumptive diagnoses linked with Agent Orange, and numerous other diagnoses not on the presumptive list. Veteran Advocates should consider service connections for Veterans who served in the DMZ past the arbitrary presumptive date adopted by the VA, of 1971.
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