An Epidemiologic Investigation of Health Effects in Air Force Personnel Following Exposure to Herbicides. Summary Mortality Update, 1989

The purpose of the Air Force Health Study is to determine whether those individuals involved in the spraying of herbicides in Vietnam during the Ranch Hand operation have experienced any adverse health effects as a result of their participation in that program. The study is designed to evaluate both the mortality (death) and morbidity (disease) in these individuals over a 20-year beginning in 1982. The Baseline Mortality Report was released in June 1983, the Baseline Morbidity Report in February 1984. Follow-up mortality reports were released in 1984, 1985, and 1986. This study has not demonstrated health effects which can be conclusively attributed to herbicide or dioxin exposure. This report contains analyses of cumulative deaths occurring up to 31 December 1987. The overall cumulative mortality of the Ranch Hands remains statistically indistinguishable from that of both their matched Comparisons and the entire Comparison, population, although there is a statistically significant increasing trend in post-1983 death rates among Ranch Hand flying officers and a statistically significant increase in Ranch Hand digestive system deaths relative to the Comparison population; these findings are not suggestive of a herbicide effect. Ranch Hands are equivalent to all Comparisons in cumulative accidental, malignant neoplasm and circulatory system mortality. Keywords: Exposure biology; Agent orange; Ranch hand.