The children of soldiers exposed to Agent Orange may be more likely to
develop leukaemia. During the Vietnam War, the US army used the herbicide to
strip dense forests of foliage in Vietnam and Cambodia. A review of research by
the Institute of Medicine, part of the US National Academy of Science, shows
that there is “limited or suggestive” evidence of a link between the herbicide
and acute myelogenous leukaemia. AML accounts for 8 per cent of childhood
cancers. “New research does suggest that some kind of connection exists between
AML in children and their fathers’ military service in Vietnam or Cambodia,”
says Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
who chaired the review committee.
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