Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2000; Page A14

The Air Force has found a "significant and potentially meaningful" relationship between diabetes and bloodstream levels of the chemical dioxin in its ongoing study of people who worked with the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, according to a new report.

Servicemen with high dioxin levels were more likely to develop diabetes than were those with low levels, and people with the highest levels developed the disease most rapidly, according to the report.

The findings raise the possibility that diabetes may join eight other diseases officially said to be linked to Agent Orange, a dioxin-containing herbicide used widely during the war. That, in turn, would permit tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans to apply for compensation from the federal government.

The new findings are contained in a report sent to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee on national security, veterans affairs and international relations of the House Committee on Government Reform. It was obtained by The Post from a government source.

For the sake of compensation, all Vietnam veterans are assumed to have had Agent Orange exposure, and do not need to prove they were in contact with the chemical to qualify for benefits. Although most diseases "presumptively" linked to Agent Orange are rare ones, the list includes lung and prostate cancer, the two most common cancers in men. Even so, fewer than 11,000 veterans receive benefits under the program.

After the Department of Veterans Affairs makes recommendations, the president decides which diseases to add to the list. The department gets advice from the National Academy of Sciences.

The data in the Air Force report come from a study that since 1982 has followed about 1,000 former servicemen who serviced or flew aircraft carrying Agent Orange. Their health is compared to a similar number of airmen who served in Vietnam, but had no defoliant exposure.

The data do not prove dioxin causes diabetes, only that there appears to be a correlation between its level in the blood and the disease. There could be non-causal reasons for the association.

For example, obesity increases a person’s risk of developing adult-onset diabetes. Dioxin is stored in fat tissue. It’s possible that people with diabetes are more likely to have higher levels of dioxin in their blood simply because their bodies get rid of the chemical more slowly.

Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), however, said last night be believes the evidence is strong enough to add diabetes to the list.

"What we should appreciate is that this is not some abstract academic exercise," he said. "This is real life, where people who put their lives on the line to defend this country are suffering and dying. It is absolutely immoral to continue to turn our backs on those people."