The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association just posted an update on the petition you signed, U.S. House of Representatives: Give the Vietnam Blue Water Navy Veterans their presumptive rights..
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Oregon veteran to take Agent Orange health issues to Washington, D.C.
Tom Owen doesn’t have side effects
from being exposed to the defoliant commonly called Agent Orange during
his time in Vietnam, but he is fighting for the thousands of families
affected by the toxic chemical.
Owen
will travel to Washington, D.C., next Wednesday and has a full schedule
of meetings planned with members of the Senate and House, talking about
the health effects caused by exposure to toxins and lobbying for the
passing of House Resolution 1769 and Senate Bill 901.
“These
bills would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to allocate a
portion of the money spent annually on research issues for the study of
health effects caused by Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals,” Owen
said. “It’s not just the veterans, it’s the health effects of their
children and grandchildren. This stuff affects DNA.”
Owen said about $250 million is budgeted each year for research projects.
Owen
will travel with John Birch, Region 8 director of the Vietnam Veterans
of America, and they will meet Mokie Porter, communications director for
the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Owen said 183 members of Congress and 28 Senators have signed on to support the bills.
“This
is really about future generations, not so much us old guys,” Owen
said. “We don’t want our current military men and women, or their
children, affected by this stuff.”
Dear Editor: Support HB 1769 and SB 901
The purpose of this letter
is to urge the general public and veterans to call their state
representatives and senators in support of House Bill 1769 and Senate
Bill 901, the Toxic Research Act of 2015.
Between
1945 and 1962, about 450,000 servicemen were exposed to ionizing
radiation from atmosphere testing of nuclear weapons. Many scientist
state that ionizing radiation can cause any cancer, but the VA only
recognizes certain cancers.
During
the Cold War, many servicemen, mostly Army, were exposed to chemical
and biological agents to test their effectiveness, and then given
antidotes. Many of their health problems today could be results of those
test.
The wide use of Agent Orange in Vietnam and elsewhere has proven to be devastating to servicemen and the people of Vietnam.
Monday, March 28, 2016
Agent Orange and the battle of GMOs
WHILE in Hawke's Bay on Tuesday and Wednesday for a funeral, I saw an
odd connection between the family member who's passed on and a local
campaign that appears to be developing strong grassroots support.
The
funeral was for my brother-in-law, Arthur Frederickson, who died after a
very long illness, the roots of which go back 55 years.
Arthur
was a lovely bloke and although he trained as a professional factory
inspector for what was then the Labour Department, his heart lay in the
New Zealand Army and many years of his life were spent as a soldier.
This commitment was almost certainly the cause of his many years of
ill-health. Sometime in the 1960s, Arthur volunteered to be part of the
New Zealand Army contingent that went to fight in Vietnam.
This was not a cushy number; he was a sergeant in an artillery group that was very close to the frontline.
With
the enemy, known as the Viet Cong, making use of the dense jungle for
hit and run raids against the American forces and their allies, the
Americans decided that a quick way of cramping the Viet Cong's jungle
tactics would be to destroy the jungle.
To implement this strategy, more than 72 million litres of
defoliant was sprayed over 1.8 million ha of Vietnam in the 10 years of
the war. The most widely used was named "Agent Orange", after the
identifying stripe on the barrels. Arthur and his comrades, being
deployed close to the battle front as artillerymen were doused with this
malign concoction on a regular basis.
The good, worrisom aspects of the manipulation of genes
Genetics is a difficult topic to
understand. The very word itself will turn some readers off and make
them put down this column before going further.
Long
ago people understood that animals could be bred to make certain
characteristics stronger and for those characteristics to be maintained.
That was simple. Put two animals or plants together and an exchange of
sexual material would do the trick, so to speak.
Moving
on down the line a bit, we humans, as the supposedly most intelligent
beings on the planet, thought that the genetic stuff was concentrated in
the center of cells called the nucleus. Nothing about genes could
change that. That idea has changed. Other parts of cells have genes as
well. Techniques have been developed that enable us to change genes.
Some people think that messing with Mother Nature is a bad thing. (Where
is Father Nature in all of this? I don't know. Perhaps he left, leaving
genetics as a field of single parenting.)
Now there is a rapidly growing field of genetic manipulation. Scientists can change genes. There is growing fear that changing genes to make things better is dangerous. Some of the fear is based on religion, with people simple saying that humans cannot play the role of the creator. That notion is contrary to the teaching that the creator made humankind in his or her image. If that much is true then humankind can use genetic modification to the benefit of itself. The fact is that it already has done that.
Now there is a rapidly growing field of genetic manipulation. Scientists can change genes. There is growing fear that changing genes to make things better is dangerous. Some of the fear is based on religion, with people simple saying that humans cannot play the role of the creator. That notion is contrary to the teaching that the creator made humankind in his or her image. If that much is true then humankind can use genetic modification to the benefit of itself. The fact is that it already has done that.
“Weed Whackers, Monsanto, glyphosate, and the war on invasive species”
Harper’s Magazine describes itself: “the oldest
general-interest monthly in America, explores the issues that drive our
national conversation, through long-form narrative journalism and
essays…” Harper’s has just published an article by Andrew
Cockburn, an experienced investigative journalist with an impressive
track-record of informing the public of some of the darkest secrets in
our country. The article is available here: Cockburn – Weed Whackers
Hypothyroidism, bladder cancer, and multiple myeloma linked to Agent Orange herbicide exposure
Hypothyroidism,
bladder cancer, and multiple myeloma have been linked to Agent Orange
herbicide exposure. On the other hand, the new findings do not support
that spina bifida, a birth defect, may occur in offspring of veterans
who served during the Vietnam War and were exposed to Agent Orange.
The report is 1,115 pages long and outlines health complications
associated with exposure to Agent Orange, along with other herbicides
during the Vietnam War. The findings of the link between bladder cancer,
hypothyroidism, and Agent Orange came from a large study of Korean War
veterans who also served during the Vietnam War. On the other hand,
spina bifida factor was downgraded, as there was not enough supporting
evidence that Agent Orange increased the risk of spina bifida.
The authors wrote, “[The inclusion of] spina bifida in the limited or
suggestive category of association was based on preliminary findings
from [an ongoing Air Force study]. However, to date, a complete analysis
of the data from that study for neural tube defects has not been
published … [and] no subsequent studies have found increases in spina
bifida with exposure to components of the herbicides sprayed in
Vietnam.”
Bladder cancer and hypothyroidism were upgraded, as more evidence had
come to light to reveal a stronger link, and Parkinson-like symptoms
were also added.
Nearly 2.6 million Americans served in Vietnam who could have all
been exposed to Agent Orange during their years in service. The
herbicide was sprayed across 20 percent of the country’s jungles where
enemy troops could hide. Many veterans are still trying to get
recognized as having been exposed to Agent Orange even on the ship or
plane. Retired Navy Commander John Wells said, “There was no magic,
invisible Agent Orange filter at the mouth of the rivers. We have
documented proof of its presence in Nha Trang Harbor, 20 years after the
war. That evidence has been presented to the VA. The distillation
system which produced drinking water and water for the boilers did not
remove the dioxin — it enriched it.”
Ongoing studies of veterans’ health have been recommended to not only
determine the effects of the herbicide on the veterans, but on their
offspring as well.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Give the Vietnam Blue Water Navy Veterans their presumptive rights
In
1977, the first claims of Agent Orange exposure came flooding into the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But it took 14 years for Congress
to actually listen, take action and give our Vietnam veterans the
benefits they deserved.
The Agent Orange Act of 1991 was implemented to provide much-needed
care to veterans who were exposed to the harmful chemical cocktail Agent
Orange. Many of us thought the fight to get the medical attention we deserved was over, but that wasn’t the case.
In 2002, the VA amended its initial plan and excluded thousands of
“Blue Water” Navy vets -- vets who served right off the coast -- from
receiving our rightful benefits. Because we hadn’t served on land, the
VA tried to say we were unlikely to suffer the effects of Agent Orange
poisoning.
Even though we didn’t serve on Vietnamese soil, we were still exposed to Agent Orange.
In fact, a 2011 study by the National Institute of Medicine found that
Blue Water veterans could have been exposed in multiple ways, including
via the ships’ water distillation system and through the air. The
National Institute of Medicine also stated, “Given the available
evidence, the committee recommends that members of the Blue Water Navy
should not be excluded from the set of Vietnam-era veterans with
presumed herbicide exposure.”
The Vietnam War Is Still Killing People
One of my first beats as
a reporter for an alternative newspaper in Boston was to cover the
various issues of concern to the Vietnam veterans community in the late
1970s and early 1980s. This was when the federal government—and the
traditional vets groups, damn them—were stonewalling the Vietnam guys
and calling them losers and claiming that PTSD was a coward's dodge to
get on the federal dole. (I heard all of these arguments. It is largely
lost to history that the people who took the Vietnam veterans and their
issues seriously were elements of what had been the antiwar movement—the
people who ran the GI coffeehouses, the alternative press.)
One
of the most frustrating problems was the staggering panoply of physical
ailments that arose from proximity to Agent Orange, a Dioxin-laden
defoliant that some geniuses decided to ladle onto the landscape of
southeast Asia to deprive the enemy of cover. People who got this poison
sprayed on them got sick. People who handled it got sick. The
government dealt with this crisis the way it dealt with all these crises
at the time. It pretended it didn't exist. (Around this time, President
Ronald Reagan closed all the VA's psychiatric outreach clinics. Noble
cause!) One of my best friends in sportswriting served there in the Air
Force, and his job was to load the Agent Orange onto airplanes. He died
of liver cancer in 1991.
Consequently,
any reference to Agent Orange sets the blog's Spidey-sense tingling.
This week there were two of them. The first is a story about how our
military efforts in Vietnam are still devastating the Vietnamese. The
other is a story about how our government is still stumbling around in
the dark.
Dioxin,
the primary poison in Agent Orange, lingers in the food chain and in the
water supply practically forever. Its effects continue long after
initial exposure to it, as the people of Vietnam continue to learn to their horror.
Agent Orange sparks health scare, free cancer checks for State Government weed sprayers
FORMER Victorian Government workers will be offered free health
screenings amid fears that the use of poisonous pesticides may have
caused illnesses and deaths.
Weed sprayers in regional
Victoria have complained of serious health conditions, including cancer
and skin problems, after exposure to a range of toxic chemicals
including Agent Orange.
Sprayers who worked for former Victorian
Government agencies and departments before 1995 will be offered
screenings for cancer — soft-skin sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma — and
for chloracne, a skin condition.
Sprayers who are tested will be provided with an individual support plan, including access to health services if necessary.
The
screenings form part of the State Government’s response to an inquiry
into health concerns raised by weed sprayers who worked in the Ballarat
region between 1965 and 1995.
Podcast | Reporters discuss what they've learned talking to veterans affected by Agent Orange
It’s been four decades since the end of the Vietnam War, but the conflict has gotten renewed attention in recent weeks.
Earlier
this month, the Institute of Medicine released its final research study
into the long-term effects of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange on
Vietnam veterans, concluding that we still have no clear understanding
of what the health consequences have been.
The U.S. Department of
Veterans Affairs also recently turned down an effort by Navy veterans –
who contend their ships sucked in water contaminated by Agent Orange and
used it for cooking and drinking – to get compensation for possible
exposure to the chemical.
The VA continues to limit benefits to
sailors who can prove that they visited Vietnamese land or that their
ships operated in inland rivers, even for just a day.
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Give the Vietnam Blue Water Navy Veterans their presumptive rights
In
1977, the first claims of Agent Orange exposure came flooding into the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). But it took 14 years for Congress
to actually listen, take action and give our Vietnam veterans the
benefits they deserved.
The Agent Orange Act of 1991 was implemented to provide much-needed
care to veterans who were exposed to the harmful chemical cocktail Agent
Orange. Many of us thought the fight to get the medical attention we deserved was over, but that wasn’t the case.
In 2002, the VA amended its initial plan and excluded thousands of
“Blue Water” Navy vets -- vets who served right off the coast -- from
receiving our rightful benefits. Because we hadn’t served on land, the
VA tried to say we were unlikely to suffer the effects of Agent Orange
poisoning.
Even though we didn’t serve on Vietnamese soil, we were still exposed to Agent Orange.
In fact, a 2011 study by the National Institute of Medicine found that
Blue Water veterans could have been exposed in multiple ways, including
via the ships’ water distillation system and through the air. The
National Institute of Medicine also stated, “Given the available
evidence, the committee recommends that members of the Blue Water Navy
should not be excluded from the set of Vietnam-era veterans with
presumed herbicide exposure.”
We are asking for your help in urging Congress to pass
legislation (House Bill H 969 and Senate Bill S 681) that will
reinstate our right as Vietnam Navy veterans to receive the benefits we
deserve for being exposed to this terrible chemical.
Nearly 90,000 Blue Water vets are depending on you. We are dealing
with serious health issues that range from cancer to diabetes, and from
Parkinson’s to heart disease. Many of these diseases have made it nearly
impossible for some of us to get steady work.
Last year, the VA finally extended benefits to Air Force crew members
who flew in C-123s after they had been used in Vietnam to spray the
toxic cocktail. The VA came to the realization that even the slightest
exposure to this chemical had serious effects on a soldier's health. So
why are the Navy vets’ pleas being ignored? We breathed the Agent
Orange-polluted air that drifted from the coast and drank water
sprinkled with the herbicide, and now our bodies are paying the cost.
We ask you to stand with us, and with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
and Rep. Chris Gibson, and demand that the VA assume responsibility for
the effects of Agent Orange on Blue Water vets. Please sign our
petition asking Congress to pass House Bill H 969 and Senate Bill S 681
and give us our benefits. SIGN THE PETITION
Doing her part to clean up the environment
Associate
Professor Dr Đặng Thị Cẩm Hà, a former chief of the Environmental
Biotechnology Department of the Institute of Biotechnology, was honoured
with the 2015 Kovalevskaya for her research on environmental
protection, particularly technologies to clean oil contamination in
different ecological environments, and technologies to treat soil
contaminated by dioxin-containing herbicides. She talks with Việt Nam News.
Inner Sanctum: You
have researched and joined many scientific projects and received
numerous national and international prizes and awards. Which is the
project that interested you the most?
Among
nearly 150 scientific and technological projects done by me, I was very
interested in the project where technologies can treat the soil
contaminated by dioxin-containing herbicides and bioremediation.
Although
the war ended more than 40 years ago, a lot of areas in Việt Nam still
show the after-effects of dioxin. Among them are Phù Cát, Biên Hoà and
Đà Nẵng airports. These places have reported the highest polluted of
dioxin in the world.
What 'support' do we offer our troops?
The mantra “support the troops” is
ubiquitous. You see it daily — on TV, in newspapers and magazines,
parades, flyovers, ceremonies honoring veterans and every possible
sporting event, including both college and professional.
The Department of Defense has spent $53 million from 2012 to 2015 in advertising and marketing with $6.8 million at professional and college sports events and NASCAR. “Support the troops” — what does it mean?
Vietnam veterans returned home from another war started with lies, having been exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
The human toll on our troops from Agent Orange has been well documented. How did we respond? Denial and neglect seem kind.
Gulf War illnesses were prominent after George H.W. Bush’s Iraq war. Our troops suffered from a number of different illnesses after they returned home. Those who risked their lives for the U.S. were met with the same denial and neglect from us and were unable to get treatment for the various maladies stemming from that war.
And now from author Joseph Hickman we have learned of “The Burn Pits,” which were used from 2001-09 in more than 200 military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. They were used to dispose of “every type of waste imaginable,” including trash, plastics, medical waste, toxic materials such as tires, batteries, asbestos, pesticides, insulation and even human corpses.
Some of these burn pits were built on ground that had been contaminated by mustard gas and other poisonous stockpiles.
Our veterans exposed to these burn pits are now coming down with cancers, brain tumors, all kinds of respiratory problems and a plethora of other health difficulties. Our response to these veterans continues to be consistent with our past, and denial and neglect defines it.
Our veterans have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with head injuries/brain damage, depression, PTSD, alcohol and drug problems, and a host of other difficulties.
The suicide rate of these veterans is unbelievable, and for the first time ever, there have been more suicides by the veterans than the number of those actually killed in these wars. Homeless veterans are a visible testament to our denial and neglect.
We send our (mostly) young people to war and to fight and to kill and be killed with hardly a thought other than “support the troops” and a misguided (delusional?) notion that we do it for “freedom” or “God” or whatever other reason we use to justify it. We have sent them to kill between 20 million and 30 million people since World War II and have poisoned and destroyed the people and countries where we have sent them.
And we have poisoned our own troops. Approximately 85,000 of our troops have paid the ultimate sacrifice in that same period. Many of those who return have visible and invisible injuries and trauma and disease, and we respond with our typical denial and neglect.
Surely “support the troops” has to mean more than ostentatious displays of our military prowess at sports events and flyovers. Surely it has to mean more than speeches and parades and occasional “thank-yous” to our veterans for risking their lives. Surely it has to mean more than flags and lapel pins.
Surely “support the troops” has to mean that we take our role of sending our troops to wars much, much more seriously and question whenever the drums of war are starting. Surely “support the troops” has to mean that if we send people off to war, then we have to take responsibility for their care when they return.
Surely “support the troops” means that we need to demand that our sons and daughters get all the mental and physical care they so richly deserve.
— Glen Stovall, Salina, is a father and grandfather.
The Department of Defense has spent $53 million from 2012 to 2015 in advertising and marketing with $6.8 million at professional and college sports events and NASCAR. “Support the troops” — what does it mean?
Vietnam veterans returned home from another war started with lies, having been exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.
The human toll on our troops from Agent Orange has been well documented. How did we respond? Denial and neglect seem kind.
Gulf War illnesses were prominent after George H.W. Bush’s Iraq war. Our troops suffered from a number of different illnesses after they returned home. Those who risked their lives for the U.S. were met with the same denial and neglect from us and were unable to get treatment for the various maladies stemming from that war.
And now from author Joseph Hickman we have learned of “The Burn Pits,” which were used from 2001-09 in more than 200 military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. They were used to dispose of “every type of waste imaginable,” including trash, plastics, medical waste, toxic materials such as tires, batteries, asbestos, pesticides, insulation and even human corpses.
Some of these burn pits were built on ground that had been contaminated by mustard gas and other poisonous stockpiles.
Our veterans exposed to these burn pits are now coming down with cancers, brain tumors, all kinds of respiratory problems and a plethora of other health difficulties. Our response to these veterans continues to be consistent with our past, and denial and neglect defines it.
Our veterans have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq with head injuries/brain damage, depression, PTSD, alcohol and drug problems, and a host of other difficulties.
The suicide rate of these veterans is unbelievable, and for the first time ever, there have been more suicides by the veterans than the number of those actually killed in these wars. Homeless veterans are a visible testament to our denial and neglect.
We send our (mostly) young people to war and to fight and to kill and be killed with hardly a thought other than “support the troops” and a misguided (delusional?) notion that we do it for “freedom” or “God” or whatever other reason we use to justify it. We have sent them to kill between 20 million and 30 million people since World War II and have poisoned and destroyed the people and countries where we have sent them.
And we have poisoned our own troops. Approximately 85,000 of our troops have paid the ultimate sacrifice in that same period. Many of those who return have visible and invisible injuries and trauma and disease, and we respond with our typical denial and neglect.
Surely “support the troops” has to mean more than ostentatious displays of our military prowess at sports events and flyovers. Surely it has to mean more than speeches and parades and occasional “thank-yous” to our veterans for risking their lives. Surely it has to mean more than flags and lapel pins.
Surely “support the troops” has to mean that we take our role of sending our troops to wars much, much more seriously and question whenever the drums of war are starting. Surely “support the troops” has to mean that if we send people off to war, then we have to take responsibility for their care when they return.
Surely “support the troops” means that we need to demand that our sons and daughters get all the mental and physical care they so richly deserve.
— Glen Stovall, Salina, is a father and grandfather.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
Is Agent Orange Still Causing Birth Defects?
Vietnam insists that children are suffering today from the
lingering effects of the infamous defoliant sprayed by U.S. forces decades ago.
Scientists are undecided
Vietnamese doctors claim that the defoliant Agent Orange, sprayed during the Vietnam War, causes genetic defects in children and grandchildren of people who were exposed.
Vietnamese doctors claim that the defoliant Agent Orange, sprayed during the Vietnam War, causes genetic defects in children and grandchildren of people who were exposed.
American scientists say Vietnamese research linking Agent Orange exposure to birth defects is flawed. Authorities there have not allowed American experts to conduct studies in Vietnam.
Without admitting guilt, Congress approved $21 million to help disabled people in Vietnam, but that country says the aid should be far higher.
After he was born with a cleft lip and palate and congenital heart disease, Danh (not his real name) spent his first month in an incubator struggling to breathe. He is now eight years old and thin as a rail. Danh has an endearing smile, but he can’t speak, and his mother, Lien (also a pseudonym), says he is mentally disabled. Recently he sat playing with toy cars at home in Da Nang, Vietnam, while Lien talked wearily about her son’s many needs.
I had been brought to Lien by a private American aid group called Children of Vietnam that works with poor families in Da Nang. We sat drinking tea in a simple room open to the street, chatting over the din of traffic. Family pictures hung next to a portrait of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s communist revolutionary leader. Lien’s otherwise soft features hardened when I asked what she thought had caused her son’s disabilities. “Agent Orange did this!” she exclaimed through an interpreter, her eyes flashing with anger.
MORE
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Upcoming Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings
We update our meetings regularly on the VVA
Calendar
March 29, 2016
King, Wisconsin
Contact Mike Demske,
March 31, 2016
Burlington, Washington
Contact: Pete Sill
April 2, 2016
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Contact Mike Demske
michael.demske@yahoo.com
April 3, 2016
Greenbelt, Maryland
Contact: Bob Hartman loriandbobh@verizon.net
April 16, 2016
Kansas City, Missouri
Contact: Randy Barnett 816-561-8387
April 23, 2016
Rockford, Illinois
Contact: Chris Carlson ccarlson324@comcast.net
Dan Loyson
April 23, 2016
Des Moines, Iowa
Contact: Dan Gannon 515-991-5257
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
May 4, 2016
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Contact Mike Demske
May 14, 2016
Swartz Creek, Michigan
To preregister by email: agentorange65-75@comcast.net
Contact: Debbie Erwin
Contact: Al Decker
May 14, 2016
Dahlonega, Georgia
Contact: Bill Martin 706-809-2573
Fred Weil 770-313-4328
May 14, 2016
Lancaster , New Hampshire
Contact Russell Wyatt 603-991-9212
May 15, 2016
Port Monmouth, New Jersey
Contact: Mike Eckstein mre1065@gmail.com
May 21, 2016
Livonia, Michigan
Contact: Bob Dew
July 19, 2016
Texas Amarillo
Contact: Charlie Morris
July 21, 2016
Tucson, Arizona
Contact: Mokie Porter
August 25, 2016
Long Beach, California
Contact: Max Stewart
President of VVA Chapter 756