BENEFITS EXTENDED FOR AILING VETERANS.

Byline: Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

President Clinton, broadening protections for victims of Agent Orange, ordered Tuesday that disability benefits be given to Vietnam veterans who suffer from prostate cancer or a rare nerve disease.

Clinton also announced that he will ask Congress to grant disability benefits to Vietnam veterans' children who suffer from spina bifida, a congenital birth defect. If approved, that would be the first time veterans' children are entitled to benefits for combat-related health problems.

Agent Orange was a deadly herbicide made with dioxin that U.S. forces sprayed between January 1965 and April 1970 to strip away dense jungle foliage, the better to see the enemy. Many U.S. veterans later blamed exposure to it for many diseases, but scientific studies were unable to prove definitely that it caused their ailments.

After years of growing political clamor, in 1991 Congress passed a law ordering the Veterans Affairs Department to give Vietnam veterans the benefit of the doubt when science was inconclusive as to whether Agent Orange caused their maladies.

``For years, the government did not listen,'' President Clinton said Tuesday. ``Today, we are showing that America can listen and act.''

The National Academy of Sciences released a study in March showing that prostate cancer and the nerve disease - peripheral neuropathy - may be linked to Agent Orange, triggering a VA review that led to Tuesday's announcement.

VA Secretary Jesse Brown conceded that evidence proving Agent Orange caused the two diseases ``is evenly divided. But we in the VA have resolved all reasonable doubt in favor of the veterans and their families.''

Veterans need not prove they were exposed directly to Agent Orange; service anywhere in Vietnam is presumed as sufficient exposure and will qualify veterans for benefits, Brown said.

Prostate cancer and the nerve disease will be added to seven other diseases previously declared eligible for disability benefits owing to Agent Orange exposure. The seven are: chloracne, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (of the lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), and soft-tissue sarcoma.

The VA estimates the five-year cost to taxpayers of adding the two new diseases to the eligibility list at around $350 million. Brown acknowledged that cost estimate is soft because ``we built in some assumptions that we have no idea whether or not they're true.''

VA officials estimate that perhaps 3,000 children with spina bifida may qualify. They guess that only about 1,500 veterans with prostate cancer will make claims in the next several years because 72 is the average age for diagnosis, and few Vietnam vets are that old yet. They expect very few to cite the nerve disease, because it shows up within one year of exposure.

Any time Clinton mentions Vietnam, it carries political overtones because he avoided service there. Politically, it serves Clinton's interests to side with veterans on benefits issues because that takes the focus away from his lack of military service.

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Photo

PHOTO President Clinton applauds as retired Adm. Elmo Zumwa lt, who lost a son to Agent Orange-related illness, speaks at the White House.

Associated Press