Agent Orange, a phenoxyherbicide consisting of 50%
2,4-D and 50%
2,4,5-T, the latter contaminated in the parts per million range with the highly toxic
dioxin, 2,3,7,8-TCDD, was sprayed in the south of Vietnam from 1962 to 1971. The chemicals are of concern because of their potential to be causally involved in
cancer, adverse reproductive outcomes, immune deficiency and other illness. Because exposed women would be especially involved in the adverse reproductive outcomes, specifically
spontaneous abortions and congenital malformations, as well as developmental deficiencies in children, we elected to conduct a pilot study in Vietnam to determine whether elevated 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-p-dioxin-(TCDD), the
dioxin characteristic of
Agent Orange could still be found in some women between one and two decades after exposure, and whether the types of illness characteristic of
dioxins was present in women with elevated
dioxin levels. We were easily able to find some women with increased
TCDD from
Agent Orange, A surprisingly high level of
dioxins from industrial sources was also found in these women in the south. Much lower levels of all
dioxins were found in patients in the north of Vietnam. No obvious relation between elevated
dioxins and disease was noted in this pilot study, which is meant to precede epidemiology studies which will test the hypotheses that elevated
dioxins in humans may lead to an increase in adverse reproductive outcomes and in rates of certain
cancers.