Veterans who were exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange, in Vietnam or elsewhere, are twice as likely as other veterans to get prostate cancer, University of California at Davis researchers found in a study just published online by the journal Cancer.

Prostate cancer in those men also comes on earlier and is more aggressive, said Dr. Karim Chaime, chief resident in urology at UC Davis and the study’s lead author.

Chaime described the study of more than 13,000 Northern California veterans over eight years as “the biggest study ever done” on Agent Orange’s effects. It will be published in the Sept. 15 edition of Cancer, and Chaime hopes it will prompt the Department of Veterans Affairs to set more rigorous treatment standards.

For Vietnam vet James McKasson, who participated in the study, the findings are a reminder that no one exposed to Agent Orange should delay prostate cancer testing. McKasson, 62, a retired auto mechanic, said he’s doing well after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year, 40 years after he helped load Agent Orange onto planes in the 1960s.

He worked with both liquid and powdered forms of the chemical, and “this stuff would slop around; it would drip on you,” he recalled. “You’d walk through it and get it on your shoes, on your clothes, on your hands. They didn’t give us any protective clothing at all.”

The chemical was used widely during the Vietnam War to defoliate jungle areas. It also was used around U.S. military facilities at home and abroad as early as the 1950s, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. About 375,000 men nationwide are on the military’s Agent Orange registry of those exposed, and roughly one-third can be expected to develop prostate cancer, Chaime said.

“This has huge implications for men, especially in the VA (system), but also for those treated by private insurance, whose primary care doctors and urologists may not have seen the latest data,” he added. Of the 13,000 men followed by the study, just under half had been exposed to Agent Orange. Among the 6,214 exposed, 239 were diagnosed with prostate cancer over eight years, compared with 124 of 6,930 unexposed veterans.

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DAV is ready to help

Disabled American Veterans national service officers help veterans file claims for service-related injuries and answer their questions about benefits. An NSO will be available Thursday at the Warwick Vet Center, at 2038 Warwick Ave., from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.; Sept. 19 at the Hyannis (Mass.) Outpatient Clinic, 145 Falmouth Rd., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Sept. 30 at the New Bedford Vet Center, 468 North St., from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Services are free and appointments are not necessary.

Reunion

The annual local reunion of the 102d Aircraft Control & Warning Squadron Association will be held Sunday, Sept. 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the group’s former headquarters, off Pound Hill Rd. in North Smithfield. Lunch is set for noon and costs $7, and supper will be served at 5 p.m. for $13. Reservations must be made by Sept. 14 by calling Hank Connors at (401) 437-1482, or e-mailing him at hank.connors@juno.com.

• House advisory council

The Rhode Island House of Representatives Veterans Affairs Permanent Advisory Council meets today at 10 a.m. in State House hearing room 135.

• Eighth Air Force Historical Society

The Rhode Island chapter will meet at 11 a.m. today at Bickford’s Restaurant, 1802 Post Rd., Warwick. For more information call John Soito at (401) 573-2200.

• Fleet Reserve Association

Blackstone Valley Branch 132 meets this evening at 7 in VFW Post 306, 171 Fountain St., Pawtucket. Quonset/Davisville Branch and Unit 42 will meet tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Davisville Seabee Museum at 21 Iafrate Way, North Kingstown, and the annual picnic will be held on Sept. 14, from 1 to 4 p.m.

• Disabled American Veterans

Lawson-Raiola Chapter 15 will meet tomorrow at 2 p.m., in the north building employees room at the Rhode Island Veterans Home, Metacom Avenue, Bristol. Romeo Chapter 10 meets tomorrow at 7 p.m., at 7 Legion Way, Cranston. Mount Pleasant Chapter 21 will meet Thursday at 7 p.m., in VFW Post 10011, 354 Fruit Hill Ave., North Providence.

• American Legion

Post 18 will meet tomorrow at 7 p.m. in VFW Post 4487, 52 Underwood Lane, Middletown. North Kingstown Post 12 will commemorate Patriot Day with a public ceremony at noon Thursday at the World War II Memorial in Rhode Island Veterans Cemetery, in Exeter. Post 39 will meet Thursday at 7 p.m., at 1958 Kingstown Rd. in Peace Dale.

• Veterans of Foreign Wars

Washington County Post 916, at 155 High St. in Wakefield, will meet tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. District 3 commander Raymond Greene will hold a district meeting Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at Washington County Post 155 in Wakefield. Gatchell Post 306 and Auxiliary units will conduct a poppy drive at the Stop & Shop on Beverage Hill Avenue in Pawtucket on Friday and Saturday. The Ladies Auxiliary fall conference will be held at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Gilbert Post, 52 Underwood Lane, Middletown; for more information, call Donna at (401) 728-9199. Kelley-Gazzerro Post 2812, at 1418 Plainfield St. in Cranston, will meet Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

• Korean War Veterans Association

Northern R.I. Chapter 3 will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Chepachet senior center, at 1210 Putnam Pike in Glocester; members and guests are invited to hear Lynn Ruggieri speak about retracing her father’s footsteps in Korea.

• Coast Guard Auxiliary

Flotilla 78 and guests will meet Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., at the Aspray Boathouse, Pawtuxet Village, Warwick. For more information call (401) 884-5638.

• Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.

Post 23 will meet Thursday at 11 a.m., with the annual realty meeting to follow and then lunch, at the Shriners complex at 1 Rhodes Place, Cranston. Reservations must be made by tomorrow; call Steve at (401) 463-5159.

• The Reserve Officers Association

The Rhode Island Department’s executive committee will meet Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Harwood Army Reserve Center, 385 Niagara St., Providence.

• The Military Officers’ Association of America

Narragansett Bay Chapter will hold a dinner meeting on Friday at the Wilcox Tavern, in Charlestown; reservations must be made by today; call Bob at (401) 294-4824.

• Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge

Members will meet at noon Saturday in Barrington’s American Legion Post 8.

George W. Reilly can be reached at VeteransColumn@verizon.net or by writing to The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.