While this research has yielded valuable new information about the amount and distribution of Agent Orange spraying and potential dioxin exposure, it does not address the question of possible links between such exposure and the subsequent development of birth defects and other health problems. Answers to that question require detailed epidemiological studies, which have thus far been impossible to conduct due to a lack of resources. (For details on these and related issues, see the conference report on public health.) http://www.nnn.se/vietnam/p-health.htm

The revised figures are the result of research into U.S. military records on spraying programmes in Vietnam that have been available since the war, but never before reviewed or correlated. Dr. Stellman has expressed a belief that this was not the result of a cover-up, but others are not so sure.

Brian McKenzie, national president of the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia, told the Sydney Morning Herald that, "The whole thing [Agent Orange] has been a series of cover-ups during the war and ever since."

For the Stockholm DECLARATION On the long-term consequences of war in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam:
http://www.nnn.se/vietnam/declare.htm

Article republished courtesy of Nordic News Network:
http://www.nnn.se