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Vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/ideafactory.do?mode=top&pageOffset=4

We have until the end of the day on Saturday, April 30th

from Paul Sutton
Vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/ideafactory.do?mode=top&pageOffset=4

The children of Vietnam veterans are the largest living laboratory for studying the possible adverse reproductive outcomes of their parent(s)' exposures to dioxins. Data collection on thousands of cases of children reported by their parents to the National Birth Defect Registry suggests a pattern of adverse outcomes that includes increases in learning, attention, immune and endocrine disorders. Creating a NIEHS center(s) to study these reproductive outcomes could contribute to a valuable database of knowledge on the reproductive effects of dioxins that would be applicable to exposures in the civilian environment.

With best regards,

Betty

Faces of Agent Orange

http://vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Griffin.pdf



DAN GRIFFIN


By Jim Belshaw

In any conversation about the effects of Agent Orange on the children of Vietnam veterans, Dan Griffin's daughters provide a clear demarcation line for him.

He has two daughters – Kim, born while he was in Vietnam, and Shannon, born after his return. Kim is healthy. Shannon is not. She has been diagnosed well into adulthood with numerous blood-borne diseases and dysfunctions of her autoimmune system. One of these diseases has so disfigured her face, she cannot bring herself to leave her home. Her nose has virtually disappeared.

"She's a prisoner of war," Dan said. "She's a POW of the Vietnam War." She adamantly refused to have her picture included in this story until persuaded to do so by her father.

"She was a beautiful young woman," he said. "To me, she's still beautiful, and I love her. But I hope she never sees this story or these pictures." He said Agent Orange came to mind immediately when Shannon began having health problems.

"I made the Agent Orange connection pretty much as soon as she started having problems," he said. "One born while I was in Vietnam, and she's fine; the second, born after Vietnam, and she's not fine. It wasn't too hard for me to come up with a connection there."
READ MORE: http://vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Griffin.pdf

It's Time To Act

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Come on, folks, this takes less than five minutes. Let's support this overwhelmingly! We have until the end of the day on Saturday, April 30th

from Paul Sutton
Vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/ideafactory.do?mode=top&pageOffset=4

The children of Vietnam veterans are the largest living laboratory for studying the possible adverse reproductive outcomes of their parent(s)' exposures to dioxins. Data collection on thousands of cases of children reported by their parents to the National Birth Defect Registry suggests a pattern of adverse outcomes that includes increases in learning, attention, immune and endocrine disorders. Creating a NIEHS center(s) to study these reproductive outcomes could contribute to a valuable database of knowledge on the reproductive effects of dioxins that would be applicable to exposures in the civilian environment.

With best regards,

Betty

Betty Mekdeci
Executive Director
Birth Defect Research for Children
http://www.birthdefects.org/
976 Lake Baldwin Lane, Suite 104
Orlando FL 32814
407-895-0802

http://audubonmagazine.org/onepicture/onepicture1105.html
Beauty and the Beast
Do you see agates in these beautiful swirls? Or tantalizing, cinnamon-sprinkled cappuccino? In truth, they’re wounds inflicted on Louisiana by a paper mill whose aerators churn effluent in frothing wastewater ponds. The plant in Baton Rouge manufactures printer paper and a popular paper towel brand, using as much as 16 million gallons of freshwater daily, according to photographer J Henry Fair, and releasing such chemicals as dioxin, formaldehyde, and lead and mercury compounds in the process.

Fair is fascinated by societal impacts, like this industrial scab. “Whether it’s Mayan ruins or a ruined factory, they both are icons of the civilization that produced them, and they tell a story,” he says. In his new book, The Day After Tomorrow: Images of Our Earth in Crisis (powerHouse books), Fair focuses on American industry, and his subjects range from an oil-streaked Gulf of Mexico to blasted mountains in West Virginia.

Armed with a telephoto and a wide-angle lens, he typically shot from 700 to 800 feet above ground in a plane often operated by SouthWings, a nonprofit that supports conservation education. In the project’s early stages, Fair sought all sorts of scarred landscapes, then researched how they ended up that way. “Each image was its own process of discovery,” he says. As his work matured, the process reversed: Fair chose the story he wanted to relate before finding a locale to make his point.

The photos in The Day After Tomorrow appear virtually the way Fair framed them. (He later added minor lightening and darkening.) Though outright eye-catching, most of the compositions are mysterious—until closer inspection. “The process of abstraction makes the picture immediately more interesting,” says Fair. “By definition, not knowing its nature makes us stop and say, ‘What is it?’ ” At first glance the scene above looks like amorphous splotches. After recognizing green trees, orange power lines, a road, and a shed, the ugly reality sets in.

Fair hopes the messages he sends will inspire his audiences to go greener, as he has tried to do. “I was already fairly low imprint, but the more I’ve learned about the real consequences of this stuff, the more I have changed my behavior,” he says. Still, Fair resists naming names in his book. Vilifying industry gets us nowhere, he believes, because, in the end, the onus to reform is on us. “As a citizen we have to know what the content is of the products we buy,” he says. We can’t afford the unexamined life any longer.—Julie Leibach

Deadly New Scourge for Vietnam Vets

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/deadly-new-scourge-vietnam-vets-4139569
Published: 6:10PM Sunday April 24, 2011 Source: ONE News
War veteran Ray Middleton - Source: ONE News
New Zealand's Vietnam War veterans are confronting a deadly new danger, 36 years after the end of the war.
The veterans are known to have suffered severe health problems from the infamous Agent Orange herbicide, as well as public vilification for their part in the war.
But a new, and sometimes deadly scourge, is confronting many veterans who left New Zealand looking for a fresh start.
At one Gold Coast Sports Club, which also doubles as a place of homage to fallen allied soldiers, there's a memorial for New Zealand's Vietnam War veterans, many of whom moved to Australia after the war.
But their numbers are declining fast and while many of their medical problems have been linked to Agent Orange, there's another cause of death the expats have not previously spoken about.
Veteran Bruce Weir said he knows of at least three suicides.
Life remains a misery for many expatriate veterans, and they say part of their despair is through government bureaucracy.
Weir said it's too much for the people to handle, "with the pain and everything they go through."
Ray Middleton has osteoporosis and can't work, relying on a war disability pension from the New Zealand government. But the $500 he receives each fortnight is less than half the allowance the Australian government pays its Vietnam vets with similar disability ratings. "It's barely enough to live on and no more," Middleton said.
He wants access to a $30 million NZ government fund to assist Vietnam veterans and their families affected by Agent Orange.
But the criteria is so strict, Middleton and many others don't qualify for financial assistance.
Weir said veterans are fed up with trying to cut through the red tape inside Veterans Affairs New Zealand. "It's very distressing but it makes me more determined to see justice prevail and the government held to account and help resolve the problem." 2

Veterans Affairs says currently 1650 Vietnam Veterans, both in NZ and residing overseas, receive a War Disability Pension (WDP).
General Manager Rick Ottaway said the tax free pension is paid for accepted disabilities connected to war service and is in addition to any pension or superannuation payment that the veteran is entitled to.
Ottaway said medical treatment is also provided for accepted disabilities, as well as a range of other benefits and assistance.
He said the Vietnam Veterans Trust is administered by Vietnam Veterans representatives and the government, and Veterans Affairs NZ plays no part in determining who should receive grants from it.

More on Agent Orange on Guam

Here is the link to the “Point Paper = Agent Orange on Guam”

a href="http://www.guamagentorange.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Point_paperFont.113233932.pdf">http://www.guamagentorange.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Point_paperFont.113233932.pdf
Here is the link to the article “Agent Orange – The Story of Two Soldiers”

http://www.guamagentorange.info/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Story_of_Two_Vetts.104110239.pdf

Camp Lejeune Disease database

Forwarded, courtesy of brother Marine Chuck Palazzo...
Please consider going to: http://www.camplejeunecontaminatedwaterdiseasedatabase.yolasite.com/link-to-database-and-resources.php

and filling out the questions so that illness cluster statistics can be gathered.

Paul Sutton.

Guam & Agent Orange

http://guamagentorange.info/

This site is for anybody who wants to tell their story about anything they know about Agent Orange or any other chemicals and dangerous contaminations on Guam. We welcome anyone that is interested including Veterans, Civilians, or Contractors.
This site is also for anyone trying to gain more knowledge on this subject.

Federal Circuit Tosses 30-Year-Old Agent Orange Litigation on Jurisdictional Grounds

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/federal_circuit_tosses_30-year-old_agent_orange_litigation_on_jurisdictiona/

Posted Apr 19, 2011 8:38 AM CDT by Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has dismissed a petition in Agent Orange litigation originally filed more than 30 years ago.
The Federal Circuit ruled it had no jurisdiction in the case, the National Law Journal (sub. req.) reports.
The original suit had challenged a Veterans Administration publication cited in the denial of many claims for Agent Orange exposure. But the suit was filed in 1979, before creation of the Federal Circuit and before any court had statutory authority to review VA regulations for compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act, the Federal Circuit said in an April 14 opinion.
The plaintiffs had filed a petition for review with the Federal Circuit after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled it had no jurisdiction.
The veterans’ suit had claimed the Agent Orange Program Guide, issued in 1978, was a substantive rule that was issued in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The guide had said the Agent Orange herbicide used in the Vietnam War was linked to just one condition: chloracne. Some VA denials for other ailments cited the chloracne conclusion. Veterans had claimed the herbicide caused problems that included cancer, liver dysfunction, neurological dysfunction, psychiatric problems, joint pain, muscle spasms, chronic fatigue and genetic damage.

Evaluation of Herbicides Used at Fort Ritchie is Planned

http://www.therecordherald.com/news/x802141363/Evaluation-of-herbicides-used-at-Fort-Ritchie-is-planned
Corporate Office Properties Trust sees a non-cash loss of $28 million
By Stephanie Harbaugh
The Record Herald Posted Apr 19, 2011, Cascade, Md. —

The United States Army has hired an expert consultant to evaluate the impact of tactical defoliants and herbicides, including Agent Orange, used at the former Fort Ritchie Army base back in the 1950s. In mid-February the Department of Defense released disclosures about the use of chemical testing at various military sites across the U.S. including Fort Ritchie in a report titled, “Defoliation Investigation during 1954 and 1955.” The information is the latest setback in efforts to redevelop the former Army base and prompted Corporate Offices Properties Trust to declared it a $28 million loss. COPT remains committed to redevelopment of the 500-acre mountaintop site, according to a spokesman who would not provide any additional information. The Impact After receiving the disclosures about the use of tactical herbicides in February, COPT started to re-evaluate its development plans and prospects for Fort Ritchie. The re-evaluation led COPT’s management, in conjunction with the audit committee from its board of trustees, to recognize the $28 million non-cash impairment loss, according to a statement released by COPT on April 5. A non-cash impairment loss is when a property’s value is currently below what has been invested in it. According to an e-mail released by Army environmental attorney David Howlett, the Army will release a status report by May 30. That information will be added to the Record of Environmental Consideration, which also has been a sticking point for the property. What’s Happened COPT’s master plan for the redevelopment for the former Army base, which was closed in 1998 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, has been plagued with setback after setback for years. The recent disclosure about the use of tactical defoliants and herbicides has added delays to the litigation filed against the Army, PenMar Development Corp. and COPT by former Cascade residents Jim Lemon of Vienna, Va., and Robin Biser, of Waynesboro in 2005. Development has been at a standstill since Royce C. Lamberth, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ordered all development be halted in November 2009, as the Army completed a new Record of Environmental Consideration. It was approved in December 2010. Ongoing Litigation On Nov. 10, 2009, the United States District Court told the Army to redo its REC, after the court ruled that the Army failed to properly evaluate the environmental impact of Fort Ritchie’s redevelopment plan by current owner COPT. Lemon and Biser’s lawsuit says that COPT’s redevelopment plan is very different than the one originally approved by PenMar and the community in 1997. “I hope the lawsuit can be settled this year,” Bill Hofmann, senior property and environmental services manager of COPT, told the Record Herald in January 2011, just before the herbicide information was released. “After the latest supplement is added to the 2010 REC and has been released and reviewed by both parties involved in the lawsuit, they intend to meet and confer to identify any unresolved issues pertaining to the litigation,” said David Howlett. In the 2006 report prepared by the DOD, it revealed that 577 chemicals were screened at the mountaintop site between April 1956 and September 1957 so the Army could find the best forms of vegetation killers. Between 1963 and 1964, tactical agents and herbicides were also tested at Fort Ritchie, where the government sprayed various species of trees. According to the DOD report, tactical agents and herbicides were created to be used in combat operations, dating back to World War II. Agent Orange, used during the Vietnam conflict is the most well-known of the tactical herbicides. Future Development COPT’s master plan for Fort Ritchie is to have 1.7 million square feet of office and retail space and a total of 673 single- and multi-family homes. Estimates of job creation for the property stand at 3,343 in the current COPT master plan.
Copyright 2011 Waynesboro Record Herald. Some rights reserved

http://www.therecordherald.com/news/x802141363/Evaluation-of-herbicides-used-at-Fort-Ritchie-is-planned

The Invention of Ecocide

http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780820338279?p_ti&PID=34147
by David Zierler

As the public increasingly questioned the war in Vietnam, a group of American scientists deeply concerned about the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides started a movement to ban what they called “ecocide.”

David Zierler traces this movement, starting in the 1940s, when weed killer was developed in agricultural circles and theories of counterinsurgency were studied by the military. These two trajectories converged in 1961 with Operation Ranch Hand, the joint U.S.-South Vietnamese mission to use herbicidal warfare as a means to defoliate large areas of enemy territory.

Driven by the idea that humans were altering the world’s ecology for the worse, a group of scientists relentlessly challenged Pentagon assurances of safety, citing possible long-term environmental and health effects. It wasn’t until 1970 that the scientists gained access to sprayed zones confirming that a major ecological disaster had occurred. Their findings convinced the U.S. government to renounce first use of herbicides in future wars and, Zierler argues, fundamentally reoriented thinking about warfare and environmental security in the next forty years.

Incorporating in-depth interviews, unique archival collections, and recently declassified national security documents, Zierler examines the movement to ban ecocide as it played out amid the rise of a global environmental consciousness and growing disillusionment with the containment policies of the cold war era.
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About the Author
David Zierler is a historian for the U.S. Department of State. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter.

Vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Agent Orange: A Chapter from History That Just Won’t End

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2862/
The Boneyard
by Ben Quick

THE FIRST THINGS I SEE are the tails of the planes. They jut like hundreds of dorsal fins rising from prehistoric fish that have been lined up by a butcher on a massive table of thin brown grass. It is a surreal sight, and I allow my eyes to settle into the rhythm of motion—not quite focused, not quite gone—watching the rows of sharp metal ridges whir past at fifty miles per hour.

As I crest a small rise, the bodies of the craft come into full view: rows and rows of warplanes, all shapes and sizes, stretching on forever, it seems. I force myself back to the task at hand, navigating the approach to the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center (AMARC) on the southeast side of Tucson, Arizona. I turn right at the traffic light on Kolb Road into a small parking lot and find a space.

Ten minutes later, I’m riding shotgun in a black van with government plates. My driver, head of public relations at AMARC, is Terry. Middle-aged, handsome, and soft in her talk and manners, Terry asks me what I want to see. I hesitate—not because I don’t know, but because I’m not sure how to tell her that I’ve come to bear witness to American folly, to rest my eyes on the flying machines that flattened the forests of Southeast Asia, poisoned its people, and changed my life.

“The C-123s,” I say.

She looks at me quizzically, pushes her index finger to her lower lip. I’m nervous to begin with, having never been on an air base, having very little in the way of credentials, and having tried, however awkwardly, to obscure the true reason for my visit. I’d told her I was doing a piece on Vietnam-era warplanes for graduate school when we talked on the phone.

I mutter these words—My father is a veteran—and I’m suddenly taken by the irrational fear that I may have given the impression of an apologist looking to take some photos for a nostalgic slide show.

READ MORE: http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/2862/

Agent Everywhere

http://www.youtube.com/user/KellyPFranklin

from our friend Paul Sutton
Forwarded, courtesy of Chick Palazzo in Vietnam. This five minute YouTube video touches only the surface of the matter - herbicide use in Canada. Kelly raises interesting questions, which almost no-one (there are a select few known to us who have researched, spoken and written on herbicide use for decades) in the scientific world seems to have the courage to answer. I would encourage Kelly to make more of these short videos so that they can get the widest possible distribution. If I had one-half Kelly's technical know-how, I'd be churning out YouTube videos by the dozen.
Paul Sutton

Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/ideafactory.do?mode=top&pageOffset=4

The children of Vietnam veterans are the largest living laboratory for studying the possible adverse reproductive outcomes of their parent(s)' exposures to dioxins. Data collection on thousands of cases of children reported by their parents to the National Birth Defect Registry suggests a pattern of adverse outcomes that includes increases in learning, attention, immune and endocrine disorders. Creating a NIEHS center(s) to study these reproductive outcomes could contribute to a valuable database of knowledge on the reproductive effects of dioxins that would be applicable to exposures in the civilian environment.

With best regards,

Betty


Betty Mekdeci
Executive Director
Birth Defect Research for Children
http://www.birthdefects.org/
976 Lake Baldwin Lane, Suite 104
Orlando FL 32814
407-895-0802

Vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Please go to the NIH website above and vote for the Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins

You only need to register with your email. Do this by clicking "Register" at top right of the page. A box will come up for you to enter your email address and then enter the security letters in the security box. Once you do you are able to vote. Click I agree to vote for this. Lets make this number one. Each email in the family can vote by doing the same thing.

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617