VETS HAIL AGENT ORANGE PROPOSAL

A report from the National Academy of Sciences suggests a link between Vietnam veterans' exposure to Agent Orange and a higher risk of their children developing spina bifida.

The report also indicates that the veterans could develop prostate cancer and acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy, which led President Bill Clinton to announce Tuesday that Vietnam veterans with the disorders are entitled to disability payments based on their exposure to Agent Orange.

Clinton said the Department of Veterans Affairs also will be proposing legislation that would provide benefit payments Vietnam veterans' children who suffer from spina bifida. Legislation is necessary because the VA never before has paid for disability in dependents of veterans.

Vietnam veteran Roy Rhodes of Scott City said taking care of veterans' children is long overdue.

"If you get something in your system, and it carries through to your children, that's giving them a legacy they don't want," Rhodes said. "If you send someone into harm's way you need to help them with any problems that arise from that."

Rhodes, who is an active member of the Vietnam Veterans Support Group, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3838 and American Legion Post 63, all in Cape Girardeau, said he has never experienced symptoms of exposure to Agent Orange. But, he said, that doesn't mean he never will.

"I came back from Vietnam in 1967, and I don't think I have any problems," he said. "But if it's in your system, different things might trigger it."

The benefits will help those who have suffered from their exposure to the herbicide, but cutbacks in the VA's budget might hurt later.

"I've got mixed feelings about this whole thing," Rhodes said. "The benefits are good and it's going to help a lot of guys who are having problems. But they just cut the VA's budget by a whole bunch, and I've heard they're going to have to close some of the VA offices.

"So I don't understand why they're going to cut one thing and then turn around and approve this other."

It is assumed, because of the widespread use of the herbicide, that all of the 2.6 million military personnel who served in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange -- a compound that was used in Vietnam from January 1965 to April 1970 to defoliate trees and remove the enemy's cover. A number of ailments have been attributed to exposure to Agent Orange, including soft-tissue sarcoma, Hodgkin's disease, respiratory cancers and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as well as the peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer.

Peripheral neuropathy is a disorder in which the sufferer experiences weakness, numbness or tingling in the extremities. Ray Brand, spokesman for the VA in St. Louis, said the disorder manifests itself within days or weeks of exposure to Agent Orange, and veterans would have to have been receiving treatment for peripheral neuropathy within a year of their return from Vietnam to be eligible for disability payments under the plan.

Spina bifida is a congenital disorder of the nervous system that can cause paralysis, loss of sensory function and nerve damage.

Calling the benefits "the continuing cost of war," Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown expressed his concern about the lingering effect of exposure to Agent Orange.

"I am deeply concerned about the NAS findings -- particularly the suggestion that the children of Vietnam veterans may be at higher risk for spina bifida -- since the VA does not have the authority to provide benefits based on birth defects in veterans' children," Brown said. "We will seek legislation that would provide an appropriate remedy."

Brown said he is "directing that a regulation be developed as quickly as possible" so the VA can begin compensation.