ABSTRACT
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta had taken over the Veterans Administration's (VA's) Agent Orange epidemiology study in October of 1982. Congress had reassigned the study because, after three years of work, the VA still had not completed a satisfactory protocol for it. Researchers could rely upon self-reports— they could simply ask veterans if they had been exposed to Agent Orange— or upon "deep fat" tissue tests or blood tests to detect the presence of dioxin in veterans' bodies. The purpose of the research was to assess the effects of combat and of exposure to Agent Orange on the physical and mental health of Vietnam veterans. The sample, drawn randomly on October 15, 1983, from the membership rolls of American Legion posts in Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Ohio, and Pennsylvannia, contained 2,858 Vietnam veterans and a control group of 3,952 veterans who had served elsewhere during the Vietnam War.
