http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es404853h
Recent studies have found elevated dioxin levels inside some U.S.
military former air bases in Vietnam, known as hotspots. Many studies of
Agent Orange have been done in U.S. veterans; however, there is little
known about Vietnamese men. In 2010, we collected blood samples from 97
men in a hotspot and 85 men in an unsprayed area in Northern Vietnam.
Serum concentrations of not only TCDD but also other dioxins (PCDDs),
furans (PCDFs), and nonortho polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were
significantly higher in the hotspot than in the unsprayed area. In the
hotspot, three subareas were demarcated, based on their proximity to the
air base. The total toxic equivalents (TEQ) of PCDDs/PCDFs+PCBs was
41.7 pg/g lipid in the area closest to the air base, while it was around
29 pg/g lipid in the other two subareas. In the unsprayed area, the
dioxin levels were no different between men who went to the South during
the Vietnam War and those who remained in the North, with TEQs
PCDDs/PCDFs+PCBs of around 13.6 pg/g lipid. Our findings suggested that
people living close to the former U.S. air bases might have been exposed
to both Agent Orange and other sources of dioxin-like compounds.
READ MORE: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es404853h
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