J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  1998 Feb;22(1):40-45.

Human Health Effects among Veterans Exposed to Herbicides Used in Vietnam

• Kim CH
• Kim PT
• Lee YS
• Park H

Abstract

Many studies have failed to prove the health effects of herbicides on exposed Vietnam veterans. The main difficulties for the studies have been the methodologic weakness, the time delay from the onset of exposure to the assessments and inability of measuring exposure amount. The purpose of this study is to evaluate human health effects among Vietman veterans who were exposed to herbicides while staying in Vietnam. The subjects were patients who visited to Taegu veterans hospital between November, 1995 and July, 1996. Any veterans stationed in Vietnam for six or more months between 1966 and 1973 were included in this study. We performed a comprehensive study including a neurologic test, physical examination, medical history, serum and urine chemistry, electrodiagnostic study and a roentgenographic study. We have found that the patients with peripheral neuropathy were 24 cases, soft tissue sarcoma 1 case and Buerger's disease 1 case. And many other diseases were also diagnosed in these patients. However we were unable to find the strong evidences of association between the clinical illness and the exposure to herbicides.

Keyword

Herbicide; Veterans; Vietnam

MeSH Terms

Chemistry
Daegu
Herbicides*
Hospitals, Veterans
Humans*
Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
Physical Examination
Sarcoma
Thromboangiitis Obliterans
Veterans*
Vietnam*
Herbicides