Another Case Confirms AO On Guam

Another Case Confirms AO On Guam

Tuesday, 26 May 2009 00:14 by Mar-Vic Cagurangan |Variety News Staff

ANOTHER veteran who was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base from 1962 to 1965 won his claim for disability benefits ba

Agent Orange

sed on medical findings which showed that his illness was the result of his exposure to Agent Orange.

The decision issued by the Department of Veterans on April 16 was the fourth case won by veterans who were deployed to Guam in the 1960s. All four cases confirmed dioxin contamination at AAFB.

The Air Force veteran, who requested anonymity, has been suffering from diabetes mellitus type 2, which the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed to be service-related.

“Service connection for diabetes mellitus type 2 is granted because the evidence shows a medical opinion that this current condition is related to in-service events or circumstances with residuals evident as shown in treatment records,” states the DVA decision.

“The statement of case issued on this matter found that the veteran was exposed to dioxin while stationed t Anderson Air Force base,” it added

The decision was based on the medical opinion submitted by a doctor who stated that “the exposure to Agent Orange is etiologically related to the veteran’s current diabetes.”

During the Vietnam war era, Guam was used as storage facility for agent orange, a kind of chemical herbicide used to thin jungles in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. A CBS News report on June 12, 2005, said Agent Orange was sprayed on Guam from 1955 to 1960s, and in the Panama Canal Zone from 1960s to 1970s.

The first confirmation of Agent Orange presence on Guam was found in U.S Court of Appeals for Veterans’ ruling in 2005, which concluded that a veteran contracted a disease as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange while stationed on Guam in the late 1960s.

ENDS

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