Institute of Medicine Begins C-123 Study; Results Anticipated Late September

Acting on an important work project contracted from the Veterans Affairs, the National Academy of Sciences, through its Institute of Medicine, is beginning the initial organizational efforts for an intensive focus on the C-123 Agent Orange contamination and the exposures of aircrews and maintenance personnel.

According to information received yesterday from committee director Dr. Mary Paxton, the format will be a workshop and the goal to complete their response to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs by lat September. The work will be done in Washington, D.C. rather than the IOM conference center at UC Irvine.

Details:
1. Title of Assignment: Committee to Evaluate the Potential Exposure to Agent Orange/TCDD Residue and Level of Risk of Adverse Health Effects for Aircrew of Post-Vietnam C-123 Aircraft
2. Format: workshop. Invitations to presenters, but there will be an open session for public comment
3. Good Manners: best to submit all materials and conversations to the committee through the staff director
4. Charge to the Committee by the VA:

– The IOM committee will also determine whether there is an excess risk of adverse health among crew members who, after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, flew and/or maintained C-123 aircraft that had been used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam. The committee will:

Report Available September

·         Evaluate the reliability (including representativeness, consistency, methods used) of the available information for establishing exposure; and,·         Address (qualitatively as a degree of certainty, rather than in a quantitative fashion) whether any documented residues represent potentially harmful exposure (i.e., consider biological availability of dioxin), by characterizing the amounts available and the degree to which absorption might be expected, and, place in context.The possible health effects would be assumed to be those characterized in prior Veterans & Agent Orange reports, and would not be re-assessed for this report. VAO activities to date have found the information concerning the exposure of Vietnam Veterans inadequate to establish dose-response relationships for individual health outcomes or to quantify the risk of a particular Veteran experiencing any adverse effect.