Report Finds Data Lacking on Exposure to Defoliant
But advocates for expanding benefits for Navy veterans said they would continue pushing for legislation that would make it as easy for deep-water sailors to receive health care and disability payments for Agent Orange exposure as it is for infantrymen.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York who has sponsored legislation for the blue-water veterans, said the new report did not disprove the possibility that deep-sea sailors were sickened by Agent Orange during Vietnam. She said that as many as 800,000 service members might have been exposed to Agent Orange, even though they did not set foot in Vietnam.
“This report does not invalidate the claims of thousands of blue-water Navy veterans who are still suffering from the same illnesses as those who served ashore in Vietnam,” the senator said in a statement.
The report clearly said that there is and never have been any data the that would indicate that troop of hte ground and troop at sea were at any greater risk of exposure. Plausible routes of exposure have been demostrated for all Veterans in the Theater of War.