Agent Orange distracts from diabetes story.
A recent article heads a little off track when it states that Agent Orange and DDT both are linked to diabetes.
In a study of people who ate sport fish from the Great Lakes, those who had higher levels of DDE in their blood were more likely to develop diabetes. Reporter Vanessa McMains features the study in her August 23 article in the Chicago Tribune.
McMains talked to the lead author of the study, Mary Turyk, about the findings. Yet a part of their interview proved distracting: that another pesticide – an herbicide, not an insecticide – is also linked to diabetes. What's not clearly stated is that a contaminant in the herbicide – not the active chemicals – is the culprit.
DDE is a breakdown product of the insecticide DDT. People are commonly exposed to DDE through eating fish from contaminated waters such as the Great Lakes.
Researchers do not known how DDE may lead to diabetes, according to the Tribune article. Turyk adds that “another pesticide, Agent Orange, can cause diabetes, but it’s believed to do so in a different way than DDE….”
Agent Orange is an herbicide mixture that is well known because it was used by the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s during the Vietnam War. Herbicides are pesticides that kill plants.
What might confuse the average reader is that it is the dioxin – not the herbicide chemicals – in Agent Orange that is linked to diabetes. Agent Orange was contaminated with dioxin (or TCDD) when it was manufactured. Yet, the Tribune article implies that the herbicides are linked to diabetes.
Clarifying this fine point about Agent Orange might have helped an otherwise good article about a complicated topic read a little more accurately.
