Upcoming Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:

https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html

June 4, 2016

Buckhead, North Carolina

Contact: Rossie Nance

910-465-0683

June 10, 2016

Reading, Pennsylvania

Contact: Dale Derr

(610)370-7495  

(610)378-5601

June 11, 2016

Ponca City, Oklahoma

Contact: Marie Mayo

580-628-0085;

mariemayo59@yahoo.com

July 9, 2016

Amarillo, Texas

Luther "Buster" Newberry

Luther844@aol.com

  

July 21, 2016

Tucson, Arizona

VVA National Conference

Contact: Mokie Porter

mporter@vva.org

August 6, 2016

Appleton, Wisconsin

Contact: Michael Demske

michael.demske@yahoo.com

August 25, 2016

Long Beach, California

Contact: Max Stewart

President of VVA Chapter 756

aircop72@gmail.com

August 27, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri

Contact: Bill Kiefer

314-363-8707

kiefervva794@yahoo.com

September 18, 2016

Kenilworth, New Jersey

(201) 803-2943

mre1065@gmail.com

Official fights to help veterans

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SIDNEY – A legislative measure to fully identify military veterans exposed to the toxic defoliant, Agent Orange, has a strong local advocate.

Ed Ball, Executive Director of the Shelby County Veterans Service Commission, has gathered data for a long period of time seeking benefits for those he feels are being shut out of veteran’s benefits due their rightful share. He claims that currently more than 90,000 surviving servicemen should qualify for benefits that are being denied.

Attention to this effort continues to grow. His findings are now before federal and state officials, and will soon be distributed to state commission directors.

The social media world has endless listings regarding Agent Orange. As with any topic, the authenticity of the information found online can be questioned at times. The burden is clearly on the consumer to interpret such information.

To better explain Agent Orange and its impact, the SDN has provided the information below from the website for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs at www.publichealth.va.gov.

• Agent Orange is a blend of tactical herbicides the U.S. military sprayed from 1962 to 1971 in the Vietnam War to remove trees and dense tropical foliage that provided enemy cover.

• More than 19 million gallons of various “rainbow” herbicide combinations were sprayed, but Agent Orange was the combination the U.S. military used most often. The name “Agent Orange” came from the orange identifying stripe used on the 55-gallon drums in which it was stored.

• Heavy sprayed areas included forests near the demarcation zone, forests at the junction of the borders of Cambodia, Laos, and South Vietnam, and mangroves on the southernmost peninsula of Vietnam and along shipping channels southeast of Saigon.

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Monsanto and Bayer May Merge, Creating a Company That Would Control Nearly a Third of the World's Seeds

The new mega-chemical/seed company would control 29 percent of the world’s seed market and 24 percent of the pesticide market. 

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The two multinationals that teamed up during the Vietnam War to poison millions of people with Agent Orange herbicide are looking to become one. 

German's Bayer has announced a bid to buy St. Louis, Mo.-based Monsanto in a deal that would expand Bayer's GMO and pesticide holdings and add drugs to Monsanto’s global portfolio. Monsanto has rejected the latest bid, but the two are still in talks.

If Monsanto, the most hated GMO company in the world, joins hands with Bayer, one of the most hated Big Pharma corporations on Earth (whose evil deeds date back to World War I and the Nazi era), the newly formed seed-pesticide-drug behemoth would have combined annual sales of $67 billion. That’s a staggering figure. But here’s another, even more alarming: The new mega-chemical/seed company would control 29 percent of the world’s seed market and 24 percent of the pesticide market.

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Memorial Day 2016

STATEMENT FROM VA SECRETARY ROBERT A. MCDONALD

On Monday, I made some remarks on how we’re working to improve Veterans' satisfaction with the care they receive from VA. It was never my intention to suggest that I don't take our mission of serving Veterans very seriously. 

In fact, improving access to care is my number one priority and the priority I have set for the entire department.  For the last two years, the huge majority of VA employees have worked tirelessly to improve the timeliness of the care and benefits we provide to Veterans. 

As I've told Veterans Service Organizations, Members of Congress, and myriad other groups of Veterans stakeholders, our goal is to ensure VA becomes the Number 1 customer-service organization in government. 

To do that, we are following many of the best practices of private sector health care providers and exceptional customer-service organizations.

At VA we take our mission of caring for those who "shall have borne the battle" very seriously; we have the best and most noble mission in government. 

If my comments Monday led any Veterans to believe that I, or the dedicated workforce I am privileged to lead, don't take that noble mission seriously, I deeply regret that. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

As we approach the Memorial Day holiday and pay tribute to the sacrifices of courageous men and women who placed the interests of others above their own, we at the VA remain focused on our mission to care for those who bravely served our Nation.

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Reality Challenged VA Secretary - Welcome to Fantasyland

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Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Monday compared the length of time veterans wait to receive health care at the VA to the length of time people wait for rides at Disneyland, and said his agency shouldn't use wait times as a measure of success because Disney doesn't either.

"When you got to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important? What's important is, what's your satisfaction with the experience?" McDonald said Monday during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters. "And what I would like to move to, eventually, is that kind of measure."

McDonald's comments angered House Speaker Paul Ryan, who tweeted out Monday afternoon, "This is not make-believe, Mr. Secretary. Veterans have died waiting in those lines."

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Disney Responds

Earlier today, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald dismissed criticisms of the wait times at facilities for veterans by saying they don’t “measure the number of hours you wait in line” at Disney either.

Well, guess what. Disney responded, and they apparently take their lines very seriously.

Yes, Independent Journal reporter Benny Johnson reached out to Disney for comment about what McDonald said. Here’s what a spokesperson told him:

We take wait times very seriously. We continually push the boundaries to give our guests the best experience possible. A large team of highly trained industrial engineers are tasked with improving our guest’s experiences, from transportation, to guest flow, to ride comfort and certainly wait times.

And as the spokesperson pointed out, they make sure to put interesting things (like little interactive games and other things to capture your attention) around the lines so that you’re not grumbling the entire time.

And on top of that, Disney actually has an entire guide online on services for guests with disabilities who are unable to wait on line for very long.

So yes, they’re very serious about accommodating disabled people. It would be great if the VA remembered to do that all the time…

2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodivenzo‐p‐dioxin (TCDD) stimulates tumor progression in mice

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The environmental pollutant 2,3,7,8‐tetrachlorodibenzo‐ρ‐dioxin (TCDD) is the prototype of a large number of nongenotoxic environmental carcinogens, dietary phytochemicals and endogenous metabolites that act via binding the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). However, the mechanism(s) of carcinogenesis by these compounds is still unclear. We confirmed that TCDD‐liganded AHR massively upregulates CYP1A1, CYP1A2 and CYP1B1 in many mammalian organs.

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The Lingering Health Effects of Agent Orange

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Most of the media coverage of President Obama’s trip to Asia has focused on whether the president should apologize to Japan for the United States dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

According to Obama administration officials, there are no plans to apologize for this bombing, which took the lives of more than 100,000 Japanese civilians.

But might the same question be asked about Agent Orange in Vietnam?

The U.S. military sprayed the toxic herbicide, along with other deadly defoliants, over more than 20 percent of South Vietnam between the early 1960s and early 1970s in an attempt to flush out their enemies.

Agent Orange doesn’t get as much press as it used to, but its profound lingering effects remains a significant international public health issue in 2016.

Hundreds of thousands of American veterans of the Vietnam War have died, or are still suffering because of exposure to dioxin, the deadly toxin in Agent Orange.

Exposure to it can cause multiple cancers as well as other diseases and health problems.

The Vietnam Red Cross estimates that Agent Orange has affected 3 million Vietnamese people, including at least 150,000 children. Babies in Vietnam are still being born with birth defects due to Agent Orange.

The United States and Vietnam set up a decontamination effort several years ago in Da Nang, a city in Central Vietnam that was once the site of a U.S. airbase that stored Agent Orange. It was the most toxic of 28 reported dioxin “hot spots” in Vietnam.

But because of chilly relations between the United States and Vietnam over the past four decades, efforts to clean up Agent Orange have been slow and minimal.

Could that change when Obama visits Vietnam for the first time on Sunday?

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Solutions to climate change, dioxin issues invented: researchers

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They are the results of a science and technology programme that serves the national target programme on climate change response, and another on researching measures to address the consequences of AO/dioxin used by the US during the Vietnam War.

The two programmes, carried out from 2011 to 2015, were reviewed at a meeting in Hanoi on May 20.

Addressing the event, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said the climate-related programme (KHCN-BDKH/11-15) has helped forecast the impacts of the global phenomenon and worked out climate change mitigation, adaptation and response measures.

Meanwhile, the other programme (KHCN-33/11-15) has provided more information about the influence of AO/dioxin on human health, while successfully researching and applying some detoxification methods, he noted.

Dr Nguyen Thai Lai, who leads KHCN-BDKH/11-15, reported that researchers in the programme devised technologies, methods and software for studying climate fluctuations and climate change. They drafted climate change adaptation and mitigation solutions and integrated them in socio-economic development plans. A climate change database, relevant books and training manuals were also published.

He added that many response solutions have been put into practice and transferred to a number of localities.

Assoc. Prof. Le Ke Son said the KHCN-33/11-15 programme that he is in charge of, clarified the differences between dioxin from AO and from other sources. It made initial assessments of dioxin contamination in some foods and the concentration of dioxin in Vietnamese people living in different areas.

It evaluated environmental losses caused by AO/dioxin, reviewed policies designed for AO/dioxin victims and suggested ways to better those supports. It comprehensively and objectively assessed legal issues pertaining to the fight for compensation from the US Government and US AO/dioxin producers for the victims.

The programme also gave intensive training in dioxin and toxic chemicals to young scientists and expanded international cooperation in the field, Son said.

Veterans' Agent Orange lawsuits refused — but their war continues

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A contractor agency hired by the U.S. government to review thousands of veterans' refund claims for exposure to Agent Orange recently refused them. Whistleblower attorneys decided to appeal the denial, claiming that they defrauded the federal government.

During the Vietnam War, U.S. military sprayed an herbicide called "Agent Orange" in the Vietnamese and Korean jungles to remove the dense vegetation where enemy soldiers lay in ambush. The tactical weed killer contained the controversial glyphosate, as well as dangerous levels of toxic dioxins, which are classified as human carcinogens by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) determined that soldiers who were exposed to this chemical substance during the war could be eligible for compensation for any disability or disease linked to exposure. Recently, the U.S. government hired a contractor agency called QTC Medical Services to review all the cases, leading to numerous denials. One of their former claims and file analysts, Dr. David Vatan, explained that reviewers were put under enormous pressure to review more than 160,000 applications in a very short time span. Vatan told that many of them weren't properly trained for this job and after he complained about the lack of quality control he was threatened with disciplinary actions. Despite the fact that QTC was paid $350 to review each file more than two inches thick, analysts had less than two minutes to read each one of them. This is not the first time that the VA is under the eye of the storm, however. Dozens of cases of VA malpractice get filed every day, and many senior executives have been fired for incompetence or malfeasance in recent times. To avoid further scandals and lawsuits by whistleblowers attorneys, last week the U.S. Senate promised a massive veterans reform package that should "change the agency to a more veteran-friendly culture."

QTC Medical Services was founded by former VA Secretary Anthony Principi.

Agent Orange's legacy continues to haunt Vietnam and Veterans

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DA NANG, Vietnam (KGO) --

It's been more than 40 years since American troops left Vietnam.
President Obama will make his first visit to the country next week. While meeting with Vietnam's president, they'll discuss human rights, an arms embargo and cleaning up sites contaminated with Agent Orange, the chemical used by American troops to clear jungles.
Most tourists arriving at the new Danang International Airport don't know it's been one of Vietnam's most contaminated Agent Orange sites, with dioxin levels in some areas 350 times international safety standards.
"Nor did I, when I was based here in the 1970s as a marine aviator," said Larry Vetter, a Vietnam veteran.
"The Agent Orange defoliant used during the war and stored in Danang and other airbases, leaked into the surrounding areas and is believed to have contaminated local water sources, according to Canadian researchers," he said.
"In this area next to the airport, you have people with dioxin levels in their blood 100 times the safe levels and women whose breast milk is four times the safe levels," said Vetter.
Vetter, also a former Marine based in Danang during the war moved to Vietnam four years ago after recovering from prostate cancer, one of the presumed Agent Orange-related illnesses, which nearly 700,000 American vets are being compensated for.
Vetter has used his V.A. disability benefits for Agent Orange to help two Vietnamese boys severely crippled by presumed Agent Orange illnesses.

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Agent Orange Benefits for Deep-Water Vets Languish on Capitol Hill

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WASHINGTON -- A proposal to extend health coverage for Agent Orange exposure to Vietnam-era Navy veterans has the type of backing in Congress that normally would make supporters hopeful.

In the House, a bill granting the benefits has garnered a whopping 320 sponsors -- almost 75 percent of all members have signed on in support. Nearly half of all senators also support extending benefits to the so-called "blue water" sailors who served aboard ships in ports and surrounding ocean during the Vietnam War.

"If you served just offshore, you don't have presumed coverage," said Rep. Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., a retired Army colonel who sponsored the House bill. "Members of Congress have to fight case by case ... It should not have to be that way, they should get presumed coverage."

But the legislation has collected dust for a year, failing to move past House and Senate veteran affairs committees that serve as a crucial first step on the road to making the benefits law. The Republican chairmen of these committees are skeptical of the science behind the exposure claims and concerned about the cost of new benefits. This has held up the proposals, frustrating supporters.

The window for Congress to act might be closing -- despite the support -- as lawmakers face the long summer recess, a fall schedule dominated by the presidential election and the end of the legislative session in December.

Gibson, Senate lawmakers and veterans groups, including Vietnam Veterans of America and Veterans of Foreign Wars, were set to rally on Capitol Hill on Wednesday in hopes of finally moving the bills ahead. The expansion of coverage has been sought by veterans for a decade.

"We've never been in a stronger position to get it passed," Gibson said.

Some veteran sailors contend dioxin-tainted herbicide runoff was sucked up through their ships' water filtration systems and piped to crew, sometimes at concentrated levels.

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Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

Check the calendar

May 21, 2016

Livonia, Michigan

Contact: Bob Dew

bdew99@sbcglobal.net

June 4, 2016

Buckhead, North Carolina

Contact: Rossie Nance

910-465-0683

June 10, 2016

Reading, Pennsylvania

Contact: Dale Derr

(610)370-7495  

(610)378-5601 

June 11, 2016

Ponca City, Oklahoma

Contact: Marie Mayo

580-628-0085;

mariemayo59@yahoo.com

July 9, 2016

Amarillo, Texas

Luther "Buster" Newberry

Luther844@aol.com

July 21, 2016

Tucson, Arizona

VVA National Conference

Hilton El Conquistador

Contact: Mokie Porter

mporter@vva.org

August 6, 2016

Appleton, Wisconsin

Appleton, WI 54912-2277

Contact: Michael Demske

michael.demske@yahoo.com

August 25, 2016

Long Beach, California

Contact: Max Stewart

President of VVA Chapter 756

aircop72@gmail.com

August 27, 2016

St. Louis, Missouri

Contact: Bill Kiefer

314-363-8707

kiefervva794@yahoo.com 

September 18, 2016

Kenilworth, New Jersey

Michael Eckstein, Chair

(201) 803-2943

mre1065@gmail.com