
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990                   TAG: 9005170545
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PAYMENTS FOR AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS URGED

Vietnam veterans who suffered cancer and other diseases after exposure to Agent Orange should receive disability payments, says a government adviser who had ordered spraying of the herbicide.

Retired Adm. Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. told a Department of Veterans Affairs advisory panel that he believed 27 cases of illness, mostly cancers, could be sufficiently linked to Agent Orange exposure to justify compensation.

Zumwalt spoke to the Environmental Hazards Advisory Committee as its newest member and as a personal adviser to Veterans Secretary Edward J. Derwinski Jr.

The committee on Wednesday began reviewing scientific evidence on the health effects of Agent Orange.

Zumwalt speaks from a unique perspective: As commander of naval forces in Vietnam, he ordered the spraying of the dioxin-contaminated herbicide, which was used to deny jungle cover to the enemy.

In addition, Zumwalt's son, who served in Vietnam, died of a cancer linked to Agent Orange exposure, and a grandson has birth defects linked to exposure.

- Associated Press

by CNB