According to a new federal report, lingering amounts of the herbicide Agent Orange found in repurposed airplanes after the Vietnam War might have made military veterans fall sick.

In the findings released Friday, an Institute of Medicine committee disproved a recurrent argument made by the US Air Force and Department of Veteran Affairs.

The Department of Veteran Affairs said that any carcinogenic dioxin or other components of Agent Orange contaminating its fleet of C-123 cargo planes would have been 'dried residues'.

Therefore, it is doubtful that it might have posed any exposure risk to the 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force Reserve personnel who served aboard the planes between 1972 and 1982.

The new report states that the dried residue would have posed dangers to the Air Force Reservists, who were exposed to it, said the Institute of Medicine authors.

Dr. Ralph L. Erickson, director of the Pre-9/11 Era Environmental Health Program with the VA, said, "Environmental health issues like this are really important to the VA. This report was very well received".

Thomas Bandzul, a lawyer representing some of the former reservists, said he expects that the report will spur the VA to reverse its stance and begin offering compensation to potential victims.