New Zealand troops exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War suffered significant genetic damage to their DNA, according to results of a new study released yesterday.
The finding, from an analysis of 25 veterans who were compared to a control group of former troops who had not served in Vietnam, sparked new demands for compensation from the government which did not admit New Zealand forces had been exposed to the herbicide until three years ago.
The US military widely sprayed Agent Orange from the air and on the ground throughout Vietnam in the 1960s to defoliate trees and other vegetation and deny the communist guerrilla Viet Cong cover.
It was later found to contain highly poisonous dioxin and New Zealand veterans -- like those in the US and other allied nations -- blamed it for cancers and other serious illnesses they have suffered and passed on to their children.
The new study was headed by Al Rowland, of Massey Univer-sity's Institute of Molecular Biosciences, who said, "The sample is statistically small, but is significant in that it shows the group, who were exposed to a harmful environmental agent, have incurred genetic damage."
The New Zealand government is currently considering a report it commissioned to study the issue and which is said to recommend it apologize to affected veterans and pay them compensation.
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