Scientist: U.S. avoids Agent Orange study

CHICAGO, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- An epidemiologist who studied the effects of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War says the U.S. government doesn't want to confront the issue.

Jeanne Spellman, who worked for the American Legion and the National Academy of Sciences, told the Chicago Tribune in a report published Friday that the government avoids studying Agent Orange "because of international liability and issues surrounding chemical warfare.

With assistance from the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Tribune

reported it spent a month in Vietnam recently interviewing civilians and soldiers who say they were exposed to the defoliants.

Untold numbers of Vietnamese, including many who weren't alive during the war, suffer from maladies associated with the defoliant, the newspaper reported.

Tens of thousands more are at risk today, the Tribune said, because dioxin remains in the environment at dozens of former U.S. military bases.