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Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft (2015) / Chapter Skim
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5 Summary of Findings
Pages 72-78

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From page 72...
... Controversy about many issues persists with no definitive way to establish what the facts are. The committee is not in a position to make final judgments surrounding discrepancies between the recollections of military personnel and those of the AF Reservists.
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From page 73...
... The estimates of toxic potency underlying the guidelines referred to by the committee have been derived from controlled animal studies, rather than the epidemiologic results that underlie conclusions concerning association in the VAO series. FINDINGS IN RESPONSE TO THE FIRST TASK OF THE COMMITTEE'S CHARGE Only very limited sampling data were collected from the C-123s, and all but the 1979 herbicide samples from "Patches" were gathered decades after the AF Reservists' exposures on the aircraft had occurred.
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From page 74...
... • The limitations of the available information make them inadequate for de riving definitive quantitative estimates of exposure, but they are sufficient for a screening level of analysis. Despite these limitations, it is significant that the interiors of the C-123s that had sprayed herbicides in Vietnam and were later used by the AF Reservists had Agent Orange (AO)
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From page 75...
... Without adjustment for reductions in the contamination over time, estimates of TCDD exposures to the AF Reservists based on samples taking from the C-123s in the mid-1990s and in 2009 could, therefore, underestimate their actual exposures, quite possibly markedly. Therefore, the measurements resulting from interior surface sampling in 1994, 1995, and 2009 probably represent a lower bound on what average surface TCDD contamination might have been when the AF Reservists worked in the planes.
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From page 76...
... Bearing in mind all of the factors discussed above, the committee reached consensus that it is probable that the TCDD exposures of at least some AF Reservists exceeded levels equivalent to some guidelines established for office workers in enclosed settings. The committee's interpretation of the available data is that, although they do not permit definitive quantitative estimation of exposure due to a multitude of uncertainties, they do indicate that it is plausible that the C-123s did contribute to some adverse health consequences among the AF R ­ eservists who worked in ORH C-123s after the planes returned from Vietnam.
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From page 77...
... . Efforts to recover the work records of the AF Reservists have been unsuccessful, so it is highly unlikely that any additional information will become available to establish more definitively the magnitude of exposures experienced by the AF Reservists.
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Key Terms

  • agent orange
  • surface loading
  • tcdd exposures
  • interior surfaces
  • international guidelines

  • maintenance workers
  • residues represent
  • work practices
  • sprayed herbicides
  • estimating exposure

  • documented residues
  • exposure guidelines
  • sampling measurements
  • sampling results
  • definitive quantitative

  • office workers
  • tcdd establishes
  • sampling data
  • existing guidelines
  • exposure estimates

  • interior surface
  • reservists using
  • surface toxicity
  • patterson air
  • collected samples

  • committee reached
  • orange reports
  • sometimes referred
  • exposure assessor
  • reservists exceeded


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