JULIE A. DUTTON Science

AGENT ORANGE no longer dominates the media limelight as it did two years ago, but it is now receiving legislative and judicial attention.

Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used in Vietnam by the U.S. military to destroy crops and defoliate jungle growth to reduce enemy ground cover. But now many Vietnam veterans are claiming that their exposure to this substance is responsible for an array of health problems, including cancer, nervous disorders and birth defects. They want the Veterans Administration (VA) and the chemical companies which manufactured Agent Orange to provide compensation for the maladies, and have sued to force them to do so. The VA and the chemical companies say that there is insufficient or no evidence that Agent Orange is the cause of the veterans' health problems.

Chicago attorney Stephen Schlegel is representing 400 to 500 Chicago-area veterans. How many plaintiffs does he expect to see nationwide? "I'm afraid it'll go over 20 thousand very easily," says Schlegel. One to two thousand of these could be from Illinois, he speculates.

Agent Orange (so named because of the color-coded bands on drums of the herbicide; there are also Agents White, Blue and Purple) is a 50:50 mix of two substances: 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T). During the manufacture of the latter, a contaminant substance is formed, called 2,3,7,8-Tetracholordibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). TCDD is often considered one of the most toxic substances in the world; fewer than seven drops is the probable lethal dose for a 150-pound person. Although TCDD belongs to a group of compounds collectively called dioxins, the term "dioxin" is often used in reference to TCDD only. The veterans feel that dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange is at the root of their health problems.

"There's no safe level of exposure to dioxin — none," says Frank McCarthy, president of Agent Orange Victims International (AOVI), which is involved in litigation to collect compensation from the VA and the chemical companies. He says AOVI has studies to substantiate its claims and, he adds, "We sent no sick men to Vietnam."

"Exposure to Agent Orange is not the cause of the medical problems attributed to it by Vietnam-era veterans," says a spokesman for Dow Chemical, one of the leading manufacturers of Agent Orange. He adds that that viewpoint is based on 30 years of scientific evidence developed on 2,4,5-T. The question to be asked, according to the Dow spokesman, is whether Vietnam vets are experiencing health problems at a rate greater than normal. The spokesman says the evidence indicates they are not.

The VA feels the major issue is one of "lay perception versus medical evidence." According to VA press officer Stratton Appleman, the VA has no position apart from that of the medical experts who, he says, have not established a link between Agent Orange and the maladies attributed to it by the Vietnam veterans.

According to Appleman, any Agent Orange compensation claims submitted to the VA are handled like any other claim, except that a numerical count of Agent Orange claims is being kept.

The one health effect that is generally recognized as a possible consequence of Agent Orange exposure is chloracne, a severe form of acne that causes skin lesions. As of this February, the VA has received 6,693 Agent Orange-related claims. Twenty-four of these cases received compensation (although not necessarily for Agent Orange-related ailments), including three awards for chloracne. Overall, the VA receives about one million compensation claims annually.

Despite the multitude of studies that have been conducted on Agent Orange, many questions remain unanswered, according to written testimony by the VA to a congressional committee. It is not known if there are delayed effects from Agent Orange exposure or how much exposure would be required to produce any effects. And because of incomplete data, the individual exposures of servicemen are unknown. A more basic problem arises when considering the studies on the effects of Agent Orange: all the studies were conducted on animals, and to what degree is extrapolation valid for humans?

The VA has been directed by Public Law 96-151 to conduct an epidemiological study of Vietnam veterans exposed to phenoxy herbicides, which include Agent Orange. Some veterans groups, however, believing the VA will be biased, tried to prevent the project.

Appleman explained that to ensure impartiality, the VA has contracted with an epidemiologist from outside the federal government to develop the protocol for the study (most of which will be conducted at VA facilities) and to oversee and interpret the study.

Meanwhile, the courts may decide some of the issues. All the Agent Orange lawsuits filed by several groups of veterans against the VA and chemical companies are awaiting the decisions from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, where Judge George Pratt is overseeing the Agent Orange legal proceedings. He ruled in December that the common issues of Agent Orange cases will be decided in serial trials. Once the key issues are decided, such as whether the Agent Orange was defective or if it was capable of causing the alleged health problems, individual cases will be returned to local jurisdictions for further court proceedings.

One of the first decisions expected to be handed down by Judge Pratt is whether the chemical companies have a "government contract defense," that is, whether they are free of any liability because they manufactured Agent Orange according to specifications in a government contract.

Attorney Schlegel, who is lead attorney for cases in the Chicago area and liaison to the court in New York, has named as defendants in a product liability case each of the 10 chemical companies who made Agent Orange or one of its components. Schlegel also represents plaintiffs in a class action malpractice case against the VA, including some individual administrators. Says Schlegel: "This is, without a doubt, history-making litigation."

The 82nd General Assembly is now considering legislation sponsored by Sens. Karl Berning (R., Deerfield) and Sam Vadalabene (D., Edwardsville), that would create the Agent Orange Victims Commission (S.B. 16) and appropriate $100,000 to it (S.B. 15).

Sen. Berning explained that the commision would "compile data, authenticate it and provide support to the veterans of Illinois." A report will then be submitted to the federal government because there is "no question it is a federal government responsibility," according to Berning.

The Agent Orange bills are now in Senate committees. Similar legislation was enacted last fall in New York and is pending in about five other states.

Support for this column, which reports policy developments concerning science and technology, is provided in part by a National Science Foundation grant to the Illinois Legislative Council Science Unit, where Julie A. Dutton is a research associate.

38/May 1981 /Illinois Issues