Long-Term Effects of Agent Orange Exposure

Local woman forming group for children of Vietnam vets

Jessica Murray is concerned about long-term effects of Agent Orange exposure.

06/30/2011 - After Jessica Murray's father died at the age of 60 in April 2010, she started questioning the role that his exposure to Agent Orange in South Vietnam might have played in his health problems.

Before long, she began asking those questions about herself.

Looking into the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' information, Murray, 28, of York, discovered a close correlation between some of the health conditions she's been plagued with and female veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange.

While she acknowledges the links don't apply currently to her, Murray still can't help wondering whether her health conditions might have something to do with her father's exposure, especially in light of the years it took for researchers to link some health conditions to the herbicide.

Now, she's trying to form a national organization for children of Vietnam veterans like herself, with the intention of banding together and looking for answers to some of those questions.

"It's been part of my healing process," she said.

Murray said her father, Marine Lance Cpl. Gerald Murray, never talked much about his time in Vietnam. He served from 1969 to 1971, then left with an honorable discharge. He spend the subsequent years as a bricklayer and steelworker, raising his family outside Harrisburg.

Then he came down with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer. In order to get the benefits to which he was entitled, he did some research and learned Veterans Affairs associates non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with exposure to Agent Orange

After he died, Jessica Murray investigated the effects of Agent Orange contamination further, and began wondering if some of the health problems might have been passed down to her. {read more}