Korean J Med.  2000 Feb;58(2):221-226.

The disease pattern and relation factor of second generation of the Korean paraquat intoxication patients in vietnam war

• Kim HJ
• Cheon JS
• Kim OK
• Lee GH
• An YJ
• Ha JH
• Byeon SJ
• Lee SR
• Kim SK
• Oh KS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: This is the studies about "If the soldiers expose in the paraquat, how much have it influenced on themselves who participated in the Vietnam War and their second generation?" and this is also researched about the factors that "How differents do the symptoms according to their health conditions and a class of diseases?". First of all, We divided them into 3 groups as exposure duration and exposure degree of the paraquat and We gave marks against each steps, too. (< point 10: low group, point 11-19: middle group, > point 20: high group). We've focused in "Does the high score really involves with their descendants who suffers from paraquat?" as direct damages men during from June 1965 to February 1971 (72 persons) and their descendants (266 persons) who are in the Pusan veterans hospital and outpatients.
METHODS
It is completed by direct interview, telephone interview, army records, army history, and medical records with them. We've tried to minify sample bias as analyzing their information. We could contact only a few people among living in Pusan or Kyongnam province. Generally, someone including persons who couldn't get a damaging proofs from paraquat hardly joined us and the others strongly rejected the interview for this research.
RESULTS
Among the 72 participating soldiers in the Vietnam war, average age of patient is 53 years old (the youngest: 46 years old, the oldest: 64 years old), average of exposure score is 16 point (minimum: 1.9 point, maximum: 31.9 point), average of pregnant frequency is 5.2 persons, and average degree of smoking is 14.382 single cigarette (minimum: 4 single cigarette, maximum: 60 single cigarette). The second generation is suffering from abortion, skin disorder, still birth, congenital anomalies, weakness, visual disturbance, peripheral neuropathy in frequency.
CONCLUSION
There's no relation between exposure score of paraquat and diseases of the descendants.

Keyword

Paraquat; Agent orange; Vietnam war

MeSH Terms

Bias (Epidemiology)
Busan
Gyeongsangnam-do
Hospitals, Veterans
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Male
Medical Records
Middle Aged
Military Personnel
Outpatients
Paraquat*
Parturition
Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
Skin
Smoke
Smoking
Tobacco Products
Vietnam*
Paraquat
Smoke