Summary: GAO has reviewed the draft protocol for epidemiological studies of Agent Orange submitted to the Veterans Administration (VA) by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), researchers and believes that: (1) the proposed feasibility study to determine troop exposures would be costly with no guarantee that it would identify a population of ground troops with measurable exposure and would delay the start of the epidemiology study; (2) the databases that the UCLA researchers propose using for the mortality and morbidity studies may contain inadequate or inaccurate information which could limit the usefulness of these studies; and (3) there are serious questions about the possible adverse affects of exposure to Agent Blue and other chemicals used in Vietnam. Expansion of the epidemiology study to determine whether service in Vietnam, rather than solely exposure to Agent Orange, may have adversely affected the health of Vietnam veterans would eliminate the need for the costly and time-consuming feasibility study and, at the same time, eliminate the need for future studies on the health effects of Agent Blue and other chemicals used in Vietnam. This approach would alleviate the two most serious problems which the UCLA researchers have identified in their proposed study: (1) developing individual exposure estimates; and (2) assessing the impact of confounding factors, such as exposure to other chemicals. GAO continues to believe that scientific study of personnel who served in Vietnam would be most valuable to VA and others in determining if veterans who served in Vietnam are experiencing health problems resulting from their service.
