The Agent Orange controversy after the Evatt Royal Commission

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Abstract
The Evatt Royal Commission Report on the Use and Effects of Chemical Agents on Australian Personnel in Vietnam has authoritatively rejected the substantive claims that were made by the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia about the adverse effects of exposure to phenoxy herbicides in Vietnam on the health of Vietnam veterans and their families. The Commission concluded that Vietnam veterans were not exposed to toxic levels of chemicals in Vietnam; that they are not at any increased risk of fathering children with birth defects, or contracting cancer; and that, although they have slightly higher rates of psychiatric disorder, heart disease, alcoholism and alcohol-related disease, these effects are unconnected with exposure to chemicals in Vietnam. The reasons for these findings deserve to be given the widest possible publicity. Only by doing so is there any prospect of dissolving the misapprehension that Vietnam veterans have been poisoned by herbicides.

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