The sailors could have been exposed through drifting clouds of the spray or by swimming in contaminated marine waters. But the report found the most likely source of their exposure was the shipboard distilling plants, which converted salt water to fresh water for bathing, cooking and drinking.
The ships could not carry enough potable water for their crews, so they scooped up ocean water and distilled out the salt in large plants belowdecks. The process did not clean the water of contaminants, however. In the case of dioxin, the scientists found the distilling plants concentrated the poison, increasing its potency.
But while the Australians have recognized a link between Agent Orange and sailors’ sicknesses for years, and compensated them, the blue water veterans in the U.S. are excluded from compensation.
The Australian study shows how unfair that exclusion is, Wells said, and two follow-up studies by the U.S. Institute of Medicine have supported the Australians’ conclusions.
The Institute of Medicine conducts scientific studies on public health concerns. Its 2008 report recommended that Navy Vietnam veterans be granted the presumption of poisoning from Agent Orange when they develop certain diseases, as Army veterans are.
Instead of changing its policy, however, the VA asked for another Institute of Medicine Study, which was released May 20. In that study, scientists found too little evidence exists to prove that veterans of Vietnam from any branch of the service have developed diseases because of exposure to Agent Orange.
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