The chemicals in Agent Orange, an herbicide widely used during the Vietnam War, damages brain tissue in ways similar to Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research.
Military veterans exposed to Agent Orange are known to be at higher than average risk for developing cognitive problems as they age, but exactly how the chemicals affected the brain had not been clear until now, researchers reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
In studies with rats, they found that exposures to Agent Orange herbicidal chemicals damages frontal lobe brain tissue, with molecular and biochemical changes in brain cells that are similar to those found in early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.
In particular, the researchers investigated the effects of the two main components of Agent Orange: 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid.
The toxins in Agent Orange are also present in many lawn care products, study leader Suzanne De La Monte of Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School warned in a statement.
“These chemicals don’t just affect veterans; they affect our entire population,” De La Monte said.
“They are in the water, they are everywhere. We’ve all been exposed.”
The use of Agent Orange was prohibited by the U.S. government in 1971, but the chemicals remain in the environment for decades, the researchers said.
This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.
