The Veterans Affairs Department has long resisted disability claims from service members who said chemical residue left in Vietnam War-era planes that were used to spray defoliants over Southeast Asia caused them severe illnesses, including cancer.
This summer, a panel of independent scientists will try to determine whether those veterans could have been exposed to the toxins in defoliants, including Agent Orange, at a level that would be dangerous to their health.
If
the panel, which hosted the first of a series of closed meetings and
public hearings Thursday, finds a link, the service members could be
eligible for tax-free disability compensation up to several thousand
dollars a month.
That’s something Wes Carter, a retired Air Force major, believes is long overdue.
“We’ve
got some sick folks that are not allowed to go into the VA,” said
Carter, a former Oregon resident leading the crusade and who believes
his prostate cancer and other disorders are due to his exposure to
dioxin, a contaminant found in Agent Orange.
Carter
served on C-123s in the Air Force Reserves as a medic from 1974 to
1980. The planes were used to spray millions of gallons of defoliants to
destroy crops and eliminate jungle cover used by the North Vietnamese
Army and the Vietcong.
Harmful to humans
The
military stopped the spraying by early 1971 over concerns that some
defoliants contained compounds harmful to humans. The fleet returned
stateside, but Air Force Reserve units continued to fly them on cargo
and medevac missions until the early 1980s.
Over
the years veterans who flew in those planes have been getting sick, and
like many Vietnam veterans, they’re blaming the defoliants.
Carter
said he found out they still had dried herbicide residue in them after
he was diagnosed in 2011 with prostate cancer, one of nearly 20
illnesses VA deems service-connected among Vietnam veterans, due to
possible herbicide exposure.
READ MORE: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/panel-to-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure/article_aa600a32-dc88-11e3-9838-001a4bcf887a.html
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