Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Consider Agent Orange benefits for C-123 crews, 20 members of House ask Shinseki
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/10/consider_agent_orange_benefits.html
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici,
D-Ore., joined with 19 other members of the House of Representatives to
implore Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to
reverse the agency's stance against awarding presumptive benefits for
Agent Orange exposure to crews who flew aboard C-123 aircraft after the
Vietnam war.
In a letter dated this week, the congresspersons cited the agency's recent decision to award such benefits to Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, who suffered from cancer that he believes stemmed from his service aboard a C-123 after the War.
The Air Force used C-123 to drop the defoliant Agent Orange over Vietnam during the war. Even after the war ended, the planes were deeply contaminated with Agent Orange, which has been determined to contribute to cancers. But the Air Force destroyed many of the aircraft and the VA has not acknowledged that crews who flew in the planes after the war may also have suffered the effects of exposure.
A national advocacy effort for C-123 veterans is led by retired Air Force veteran Wesley Carter of McMinnville, who has enlisted the help of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and others in a crusade to have the DoD acknowledge that many of them suffer from symptoms related to Agent Orange exposure.
McMinnville's Wesley Carter runs a website devoted to the
issue of Agent Orange exposure aboard C-123s, such as the one he flew in
after the Vietnam War. The site is at http://c123kcancer.blogspot.com/
In a letter dated this week, the congresspersons cited the agency's recent decision to award such benefits to Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, who suffered from cancer that he believes stemmed from his service aboard a C-123 after the War.
The Air Force used C-123 to drop the defoliant Agent Orange over Vietnam during the war. Even after the war ended, the planes were deeply contaminated with Agent Orange, which has been determined to contribute to cancers. But the Air Force destroyed many of the aircraft and the VA has not acknowledged that crews who flew in the planes after the war may also have suffered the effects of exposure.
A national advocacy effort for C-123 veterans is led by retired Air Force veteran Wesley Carter of McMinnville, who has enlisted the help of Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and others in a crusade to have the DoD acknowledge that many of them suffer from symptoms related to Agent Orange exposure.
Orange Crush - Part 7
Part VII of our veterans’ exposure to herbicides during
the Vietnam War
STUDY CALLED A FRAUD
But again, there was more information
available that was never presented. The Institute of Medicine in the weeks
before the CDC released its results of blood tests wrote a stinging rebuke of
the CDC's tests methods. It said that none of the CDC's conclusions was
supported by scientific data. The CDC refused to turn this report over to the
White House. "Either it was a
politically rigged operation or it was a monumentally bungled operation,"
said Rep. Ted Weiss (D-NY), chairman of the Government Operations Human
Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee. Other information began turning up that there
were concerted efforts by various agencies of the government to conceal records
and information about the effects of Agent Orange. Daschle learned that there were major
discrepancies between a January 1984 draft of the Air Force's Operation Ranch
Hand study and the February 1984 report. According to Daschle, the draft showed
there were twice as many birth defects among the children of Ranch Hand
participants. "The draft also reported that the Ranch Handers were less
well, than the controls by a ratio of 5 to 1," said Daschle.
But these results were
deleted from the final Ranch Hand report, which said there had been no adverse
effects from exposure to Agent Orange.
"The Air Force deleted these findings from the final report at the
suggestion of a Ranch Hand Advisory Committee set up by the White House Agent
Orange Working Group," said Daschle.
Air Force scientists
involved in the study said they were pressured by non-scientists within the Air
Force and the White House to change the results and delete critical information
for the final report. Daschle says he has even obtained two versions of the
minutes of the meeting in which that pressure was applied. One confirms what
the scientists told him. Another set deletes that information. "What happened there was a fraud
perpetrated by people whose names we still do not know," said Daschle.
In a
study released March 29, 1990, the CDC admitted that Vietnam veterans face a
higher risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but denied that it was a result of
exposure to Agent Orange. It said the studies showed that Vietnam veterans do
not have higher rates of soft tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease, nasal cancer,
nasopharyngeal cancer and liver cancer.
BIZARRE FINDING
One of the more bizarre aspects of this report from the
CDC was the claim that those veterans who suffered most from non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma had served on Navy ships off the coast of Vietnam. It said that those
who had served in III Corps, which had some of the heaviest Agent Orange
spraying of the war, seemed to be at lower risk.
Paul Sutton
Veteran Advocate
Monsanto Co. calls for better controls on agrochemicals including Roundup after AP report
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Monsanto Co. is calling for more controls on agrochemicals, including its Roundup line of glyphosate-based weed-killers, in response to an Associated Press report about concerns that illegal pesticide applications are harming human health in Argentina.
“If pesticides are being misused in Argentina, then it is in everyone’s best interests - the public, the government, farmers, industry, and Monsanto - that the misuse be stopped,” the St. Louis, Missouri-based company said after the AP report was published Monday.
READ MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/monsanto-co-calls-for-better-controls-on-agrochemicals-including-roundup-after-ap-report/2013/10/22/3a071d44-3b7e-11e3-b0e7-716179a2c2c7_story.html
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Town Hall - Johnson Creek, Wisconsin, October 26
417 Union Stre-et
Johnson Creek, WI 53038
SATURDAY OCTOBER 26
for your convenience TWO SESSIONS:
Session 1: 9 a.m. - 12 noon
Session 2: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
for additional information contact
PAT FURNO - 920-474-4017
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Bing, bang, boom!
Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting
October 26 at Ramada Inn in State College
Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
For more information
contact Tim at Susengill@verizon.net
For Agent Orange veterans benefit information,
GO TO: http://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp
October 26 at Ramada Inn in State College
Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
For more information
contact Tim at Susengill@verizon.net
For Agent Orange veterans benefit information,
GO TO: http://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp
October is Agent Orange Awareness
Month, and the New Jersey State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America
(VVA) will hold a town hall meeting on Sunday , Oct. 27, 2013 at the Manville,
NJ VFW Hall to educate veterans and the public on the many faces of the toxic
defoliant and its lasting legacy of illness and health problems.
The Town Hall meeting will be held
at VFW Post 2290, 600 Washington Avenue, Manville, NJ, from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m.,
October 27, 2013.
Contact: Mike Eckstein: Phone 201-803-2943
me1065@verizon.net
More information on Agent Orange and
its toxic consequences can also be found at the special Agent Orange section of
the VVA’s website, http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/
Town Hall in Madison, Tennessee, October 29
Oct. 29 at Cornerstone Church,
726 W. Old Hickory Blvd.
Madison, Tennessee
Oct. 29 at Cornerstone Church,
726 W. Old Hickory Blvd.
Madison, Tennessee
Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting
Oct. 29 at Cornerstone Church,
726 W. Old Hickory Blvd.
Madison, Tennessee
Town Hall 6pm to 9 pm
The meeting will inform, provide a platform for asking questions and an opportunity for veterans, their children, grandchildren or surviving spouse to speak with veteran service officers about filing claims for VA benefits.Veterans from all conflicts are urged to attend.
Oct. 29 at Cornerstone Church,
726 W. Old Hickory Blvd.
Madison, Tennessee
Town Hall 6pm to 9 pm
The meeting will inform, provide a platform for asking questions and an opportunity for veterans, their children, grandchildren or surviving spouse to speak with veteran service officers about filing claims for VA benefits.Veterans from all conflicts are urged to attend.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Town Hall in Madison, Tennessee
Oct. 29 at Cornerstone Church,
726 W. Old Hickory Blvd.
Madison, Tennessee
Town Hall 6pm to 9 pm
The meeting will inform, provide a platform for asking questions and an opportunity for veterans, their children, grandchildren or surviving spouse to speak with veteran service officers about filing claims for VA benefits.Veterans from all conflicts are urged to attend.
Agent Orange Town Hall - State College, PA October 26
October 26 at Ramada Inn in State College
Meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
For more information
contact Tim at Susengill@verizon.net
For Agent Orange veterans benefit information,
GO TO: http://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp
Before the Pennsylvania General Assembly
When The People Lead, The Leaders Will Follow
| Regular Session 2013-2014 House Bill 1770 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
Tell EPA: Finalize Dioxin Cancer Study, After Decades of Delay
http://org.salsalabs.com/o/852/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=14268
As Vietnam Veterans, family members of Vietnam Veterans, and supporters of the efforts of Vietnam Veterans, many of us are unfortunately painfully familiar with the health hazards of dioxin. Decades after soldiers were exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin in Vietnam, EPA has still not yet finalized their report on dioxin and cancer.
As Vietnam Veterans, family members of Vietnam Veterans, and supporters of the efforts of Vietnam Veterans, many of us are unfortunately painfully familiar with the health hazards of dioxin. Decades after soldiers were exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin in Vietnam, EPA has still not yet finalized their report on dioxin and cancer.
The EPA’s landmark report—the "Dioxin Reassessment"—still
remains a draft, which has stymied the agency's development of federal
dioxin regulations for over 25 years. EPA Administrator
Lisa Jackson pledged to finalize this assessment by December
2010. Nearly four years later after EPA’s self-imposed deadline, we are
still waiting for this assessment to be complete.
Dioxin has been classified as a known carcinogen by
government authorities around the world including the World Health
Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and
the US Department of Health and Human Services National Toxicology
Program (NTP). Yet, EPA’s cancer assessment is still not complete. Americans have the right to know about dioxin’s cancer hazards.
As Vietnam Vets, we have the
power and moral authority to tell the federal government to finalize
their dioxin cancer study. You can help make a difference by signing
this petition to EPA!