Veteran Petitions To Oust VA Agent Orange Denier

READ THE STORY

One veteran started a Change.org petition to oust VA Agent Orange denier Thomas Murphy after he was promoted as acting Under Secretary for Benefits at VA.

Murphy, formerly the Director of Compensation, was just promoted to acting Under Secretary for VBA. Unfortunately for Vietnam veterans,

Murphy is a documented Agent Orange denier, and based on his past decisions in contradiction of claims from scientists, burn pit veterans should also be concerned.

In response to the move that has been called “anti-veteran”, Thomas Osmond created a petition to support ousting the denier, Thomas Murphy.

SIGN THE PETITION

Please be sure to sign the petition and get read up on the issue. I cannot figure out how our federal government has devolved to such an extent where public workers are able to actively defraud veterans of their benefits.

But that is where we are at today.

SIGN IT: Petition To Fire Thomas Murphy

"Because his six years at Compensation and Pension are fairly judged to be a relative failure in serving America's Veterans. First, his determination and success in "holding the line" on Agent Orange claims. The two most visible groups he's fought on this are the Blue Water Navy Veterans and the C-123 Veterans Association.

"TCDD, the toxin in Agent Orange, is recognized by science to be the most toxic of the toxins, and definitely causes "adverse health effects." VA itself (but not Mr. Murphy) understands that it is a highly toxic substance.

"Mr. Murphy firmly claimed that Veterans Benefits Administration had already determined none of the C-123 Veterans were ever exposed, and no amount of proof from scientists or government agencies would raise the claim to VA's "as likely as not" threshold. All claims would be denied, he said.

READ MORE

Popular weed killer faces lawsuit over cancer claims

READ THE STORY

Yolanda Mendoza lives every day like it's her last. The mother of three is very happy and healthy now - a stark change from three years ago, when she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

"What was going through your head?" CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal asked.

"That I ­­was going to die," Mendoza recalled. "I had only like a few days."

During her five-month battle with the disease, her children were only allowed to visit once a week. There were moments when she didn't think she'd make it, but Mendoza said her kids helped her through them, and the most difficult part was "not being there for them."

After intense chemotherapy, her cancer is now in remission, but Mendoza is fighting a battle against the product she says made her sick - the popular weed killer "Roundup." She used the backpack sprayer once a week on her one-acre property.

"I would strap it on and I would walk around spraying," Mendoza said.

Attorney Robin L. Greenwald's firm Weitz & Luxenberg represents Mendoza and more than 30 other suing or planning to sue Monsanto, the agriculture company that discovered Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate. She said her clients used Roundup frequently at work and at home.

"Some people are landscapers, some people are migrant farm workers, some people are farmers," said Greenwald, who is head of environmental protection. "What everyone has in common is that they all used Roundup and they all have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."

The lawyers base their cancer claims on a 2015 report from the International Agency for Research on cancer - or IARC - a division of the World Health Organization. It found glyphosate to be "probably carcinogenic." The report says glyphosate caused cancer in lab tests on animals and found that the chemical damaged DNA in human cells.

But Dr. Donna Farmer, who has studied the chemical at Monsanto for more than 20 years, strongly disagrees with IARC's findings.

"I can tell you glyphosate is safe. The data that they look at, they cherry pick it and then they interpret the studies completely different than research who actually did it," Farmer said.

MORE

The Toxic Substances Control Act Overhaul: What You Need to Know

READ THE STORY

On June 22, 2016, President Obama signed the “Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act” into law, making comprehensive changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). This step comes after years of congressional attempts to update the Act.

The changes to TSCA will have sweeping effects on various industries and manufacturers, as the law regulates a wide variety of household, commercial, and industrial chemicals. In the past, TSCA had been criticized in part due to its piecemeal regulation of only certain industries and chemicals, and the regulation of certain chemicals only through more stringent state-enacted rules. The new law provides more certainty for regulated parties and grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) broader authority to regulate chemicals currently in the stream of commerce.

Preemption

Under the new law, the EPA rules implementing the Act preempt many new state rules related to chemicals. However, state chemical limitations passed prior to April 22, 2016, as well as any new actions taken under a state law that existed prior to August 31, 2003, are “grandfathered” and enforceable by the state, including, notably, California’s Proposition 65. Additionally, under the new TSCA, states may not enact new more stringent rules than existing EPA rules, and thus, the law sets a national framework for chemical regulation rather than a state-by-state scheme. The preemption elements of the law were hotly contested throughout the legislative process, and the outcome is generally seen as a benefit to industry that will result in more universally consistent regulation.

MORE

ProPublica, Virginian-Pilot forum asks: Has Agent Orange hurt the children of Vietnam vets?

READ THE STORY

The Virginian-Pilot and ProPublica will host a panel discussion Thursday morning in Washington as part of their investigation of Agent Orange and its possible multigenerational effects.
The forum brings together veterans activists, scientists, policy experts and officials to discuss health experiences of children of Vietnam veterans, the limited research on the matter and what, if any, responsibility the Department of Veterans Affairs has in caring for those harmed .
“While government officials debate this issue, and legislation stalls that would require the VA to conduct more research, the voices of everyday people can get overlooked,” said ProPublica senior reporter Charles Ornstein, who will moderate the panel. “We look forward to hearing from policy experts and medical officials at this important forum.”
Earlier this month, The Pilot and ProPublica published the story of Pilot staff photographer Stephen Katz, who wonders whether his health problems are the result of his father’s exposure to Agent Orange.
Numerous experts, including Dr. Kenneth Ramos, chair of a recent Institute of Medicine committee that studied Agent Orange impacts, say more research is needed. Ramos plans to join the panel discussion Thursday.
Others planning to participate: Heather Bowser, co-founder of the Children of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance; Linda Spoonster Schwartz, assistant secretary for policy and planning for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; and Rory Riley-Topping, former lawyer for the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
Pilot staffers Mike Hixenbaugh and Katz will also participate. After the discussion, Pilot and ProPublica reporters will record interviews with veterans and their children as part of their joint investigation on the subject.
The forum, scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Barbara Jordan Conference Center, is free and open to the public.

Introduction of GMO foods in Nigeria: is it safe?

READ THE STORY

What do you need to know about GMO foods in Nigeria? Is it safe? What are pros and cons of GMO foods? Find out useful facts in this article and save your health!

What do Nigerians know about GMO foods?  A small study was conducted only seven years ago among Nigerian scientists. According to its results, there was low awareness about GMOs amongst participants. However, everything has changed.  Awareness of GMOs has grown with the internet connectivity and the explosion of social media in Nigeria. Interesting to know that, resentment and resistance also have grown.

GMO cons

Opponents of GMOs in Nigeria think that GMOs have plenty disadvantages. There are many reasons why Nigeria should not support genetic engineering of food.

First of all, it is damage that GMO plants and agricultural practices have caused to biodiversity.

Secondly, it is the dependency on foreign companies that is created.

Thirdly, they say about potential negative health consequences of consuming GM food.

Fourthly, they call GMOs “the Monsanto Poison.” Monsanto’s role in the creation of Agent Orange is another reason for the mistrust of the GMO initiative in Nigeria. GMO critics say Monsanto’s Agent Orange was used in targeting food crops as part of a starvation campaign, destroying an estimated 10 million hectares of agricultural land.

In addition, conspiracy theorists are sure that GMO initiative is part of a grand scheme to depopulate the developing world. In a National Security Memorandum obtained from the U.S. National Archives, Dr. Henry Kissinger wrote: “Depopulation should be the highest priority of U.S. foreign policy towards the Third World”.

MORE

Maxus Energy Files for Bankruptcy Protection - Maxus Dumped Dioxin into Passaic River

READ THE STORY

Maxus Energy Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection Friday after reaching a deal with its corporate parent, YPF SA, on the terms of a settlement tied to liabilities for the cleanup of New Jersey’s contaminated Passaic River.

The deal calls for YPF to provide Maxus, which filed for chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., along with four other affiliates including its Tierra Solutions unit, with $130 million. In return, Maxus will drop any “alter ego” claims it may have against its parent for cleaning up the river.

YPF, which is Argentina’s state-run oil company, bought Maxus Energy Corp. in 1995. A New Jersey state court ruled five years ago that Maxus and Tierra were responsible for dumping of dioxin, a highly toxic chemical and suspected carcinogen, into the river in the 1950s and 1960s.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

The bankruptcy filing comes days before Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s chemical subsidiary, known as OxyChem, was slated to head to court over litigation seeking to put YPF on the hook for Maxus’s environmental obligations. OxyChem purchased part of Maxus’s business in 1986.

MORE

Florida County official leads effort to ease benefit claims for veterans' families

READ THE STORY

BARTOW — Mike Mason knew the Vietnam veteran’s widow deserved better.

Mason, Polk County’s manager of Veteran Services, met the woman when she came into his office hoping to receive federal Veterans Affairs benefits. Her husband had died of a heart attack 10 years earlier, and she thought his death might have been linked to his service-related disability.

The veteran had been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, and his exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam made it a service-connected condition. The out-of-state death certificate, however, did not mention that underlying illness.

As a result, the woman didn’t apply for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.

“This lady lived for 10 years on a shoestring, just barely getting by,” Mason said.

Mason and his staff helped the woman file a new claim with support from a local doctor, and eventually she received a bank deposit of about $29,000 from the VA to cover her decade of missed benefits.

But Mason didn’t stop there.

He began a two-year campaign that led to a revision in Florida’s death certificate process. An electronic form used by funeral directors was modified in February to add information about health conditions related to military service, making it easier for family members of veterans to file claims for benefits.

Florida is the first state to gather information about veterans’ service-related health conditions and share it with doctors before death certificates are issued, say Mason and others involved with the policy.

MORE

Cleaning the environment: It’s the pits - Syrian researchers use date stones to suck up toxic materials

READ THE STORY

TO DISCOVER how to use a waste material to clean up hazardous chemicals is a notable achievement. To do so while working in a war zone is doubly impressive. But that, with a little help from some foreign friends, is just what Abdulsamie Hanano of Syria’s Atomic Energy Commission, in Damascus, has done. Over the past four years Dr Hanano, who works in the commission’s molecular-biology department, and his colleagues have developed a way to use the stones (or pits) of dates, a waste product of the fruit-packing industry, to clean up dioxins, a particularly nasty and persistent type of organic pollutant that can lead to reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, and even cause cancer. Dioxins are produced mainly as a by-product of industrial processes.

Dr Hanano lit on date stones for this task for three reasons. One was that they are rich in oils of a sort that have an affinity for dioxins. The second was that, though they are not unique in this oil-richness, unlike other oil-rich seeds (olives, rape, sesame and so on) they have no commercial value. The third was that, despite lacking commercial value, they are abundant.

It was not the oil per se that Dr Hanano wanted, though. Rather, he intended to extract in one piece the droplets into which this oil is packaged within a stone. Besides oil, these droplets contain special proteins that help to hold them together. And each droplet is surrounded by a membrane composed of a substance called a phospholipid which, unlike oil, is attractive to water. This means that when the droplets are shaken up with water, they form a stable emulsion.

To gather the droplets, Dr Hanano and his colleagues first softened up their date stones by soaking them in water for two weeks. That done, they ground them up and centrifuged the result. This process separated the droplets from the rest of the gunk as a creamy emulsion. It was then a question of testing the emulsion’s ability to extract dioxins from water. As the group report in Frontiers in Plant Science, it did this well. The droplets’ phospholipid membranes proved no barrier to the passage of dioxins, which accumulated satisfactorily in the oil. One of Dr Hanano’s collaborators, Denis Murphy of the University of South Wales, in Britain, describes the droplets as acting like little magnets for dioxins. “Within a minute,” he says, “virtually all the dioxins are sucked out of a solution. It is very fast.”

In particular, the droplets absorbed 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, an extremely toxic herbicide that was one of the constituents of Agent Orange, used to destroy vegetation by American forces during the Vietnam war. And, once the dioxins are inside the droplets, their affinity for the oil is such that they never leave. Disposing of them is just a matter of scooping up the droplets (which will eventually rise to the top of any water containing them) and destroying them safely in, say, a furnace.

MORE

TELEPHONE CALL IN – SENATE BILL S.2921 - WEDNESDAY JUNE 22, 2016

TELEPHONE CALL IN – SENATE BILL S.2921

Hello, my name is (identify yourself) and I am a constituent in your state.

I am calling today to urge you to contact Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada asking that S.2921, the Veterans First Act, be moved to the floor of the Senate for vote and passage before the scheduled summer recess.

This important legislation would establish within the Department of Veterans Affairs a national center for the research on diagnosis and treatment of the health conditions of the descendants of veterans exposed to toxic substances during service in the Armed Forces (S.901) and provides Caregivers benefits to Vietnam Veterans in your state.

Thank you for your attention to my request.

(Leave your name, home address and phone number so the office can follow up with you later)

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee has done its job and NOW it is time for Senate leadership to hold a floor vote on S. 2921, the Veterans First Act.

It is all about the one-minute phone call. Let your politicians know that you are watching and that you care.

Passage and enactment of S.2921 will begin to address the legacy of toxic exposures on the innocent victims and enhance benefits and services to those who answered our nation’s call in defense of our Constitution-- our Nation’s Veterans.

This is one of our last battles—Losing is not an option.

Make the call on June 22, 2016

John Rowan
National President/CEO

        Vietnam Veterans of America

NEW ACTING VA BENEFITS UNDERSECRETARY SAYS AGENT ORANGE IS HARMLESS!

READ THE STORY

Problems continue to unfold at the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA has had a series of recent personnel changes, one of them the departure of the man filling the office of Undersecretary for Veterans Benefits.
So, as a problem topped with another problem, in comes

Mr. Thomas Murphy (himself a veteran,, moving up from his Director, Compensation and Pension in less than a year to become Acting Undersecretary for Veterans Benefits.
Mr. Murphy is a hard worker, and came to his earlier position at Compensation and Pension in 2010 where he oversaw VA's entire program for reviewing veterans' disability claims for approval or disapproval. His business background was at Home Depot.
Why is Mr. Murphy a problem? Because his six years at Compensation and Pension are fairly judged to be a relative failure in serving America's veterans. We'll focus here on two of these failures.
First, his determination and success in "holding the line" on Agent Orange claims. The two most visible groups he's fought on this are the Blue Water Navy Veterans and the C-123 Veterans Association.
In 2012 Mr. Murphy wrote his denial of a C-123 veteran's Agent Orange exposure claims, "In conclusion, there is no conclusive evidence that TCDD exposure causes any adverse health effects." He wrote that to dismiss expert input from the CDC confirming the veteran's exposure.

TCDD, the toxin in Agent Orange, is recognized by science to be the most toxic of the toxins, and definitely causes "adverse health effects." VA itself (but not Mr. Murphy) understands that it is a highly toxic substance.

MORE

New policy protects Marines, sailors facing separation for mental health issues

READ THE STORY

Marines and sailors facing involuntary separation due to a diagnosed mental health condition will now be better guarded against leaving the military with other-than-honorable discharges.

The unprecedented change was made last week by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. It requires service members with conditions like post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injury to have a disability evaluation before a final decision on their involuntary separation is made.

Veteran groups lauded the change and are calling on other military branches to follow suit.

In the past, misconduct was the predominate factor in every involuntary separation. This long-held approach adversely impacted veterans’ ability to receive benefits, and did not take into full consideration how the service member's condition may have contributed to the misconduct.

Diagnosed mental health conditions will take precedence over misconduct under the new Disability Evaluation System, which is effective immediately. Additionally, Marines and sailors with a diagnosed mental health condition who are facing other-than-honorable discharge will be referred to the first general or flag officer in their chain of command for a final determination.

Keeping faith 

The new policy was largely driven by comments heard as Mabus visited sailors and Marines, family members, and veteran groups, said Navy Capt. Patrick McNally, the SecNav's spokesman. The change required a months-long policy review and some legal steps to allow the secretary to make the change.

MORE

On Agent Orange, VA Weighs Politics and Cost Along With Science

READ THE STORY

Last year, a group of federal scientists was debating whether as many as 2,100 Air Force veterans should qualify for cash benefits for ailments they claimed stemmed from flying aircraft contaminated by Agent Orange.

An outside panel of experts had already determined that the scientific evidence showed the vets were likely exposed to the toxic herbicide.

The scientists within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed the airmen had a strong case. But they had a more calculated concern: If the VA doled out cash to these veterans, others might want it too, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot.

The group put their worries in writing. In a draft memo, they warned the secretary of Veterans Affairs that giving benefits to the airmen might prompt “additional pressure” from other veteran groups.

Such political and financial concerns aren’t supposed to play into decisions about Agent Orange benefits, veterans advocates and some legal experts say. Federal law requires that, in most cases, these decisions be guided strictly by science.

But an examination of two recent cases illustrates how dueling considerations of liability, responsibility and evolving scientific evidence weigh into VA deliberations.

“This shows what we’ve already suspected: At the VA, they’re more interested in politics, and protecting their turf and their bonuses than fulfilling their mission to assist veterans,” said John Wells, a Louisiana lawyer who has spent more than a decade advocating for 90,000 Navy vets fighting for Agent Orange benefits.

VA officials say they are committed to making sure qualified vets get benefits, and they believe the law allows them to consider the ramifications of their decisions when weighing the eligibility of new groups.

“Considering second order effects of a decision does not in any way violate the Agent Orange Act,” the VA’s general counsel’s office wrote in response to questions.

For the past year, ProPublica and The Pilot have been examining the effects Agent Orange has had on a growing group of veterans and their families. Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, many are suffering an array of health consequences and are struggling to prove they were exposed. In interviews, they blame the VA for obstructing their claims through denials or ever-escalating requests for information, a process some call “delay, deny, wait till I die.”

MORE

When VA is deciding on Agent Orange benefits, science sometimes takes backseat to politics and cost

READ THE STORY

Last year, a group of federal scientists was debating whether as many as 2,100 Air Force veterans should qualify for cash benefits for ailments they claimed stemmed from flying aircraft contaminated by Agent Orange.

An outside panel of experts had already determined that the scientific evidence showed the vets were likely exposed to the toxic herbicide.

The scientists within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed the airmen had a strong case. But they had a more calculated concern: If the VA doled out cash to these veterans, others might want it too, according to an internal document obtained by The Virginian-Pilot and ProPublica.

The group put their worries in writing. In a draft memo, they warned the secretary of Veterans Affairs that giving benefits to the airmen might prompt “additional pressure” from other veteran groups.

Such political and financial concerns aren’t supposed to play into decisions about Agent Orange benefits, veterans advocates and some legal experts say. Federal law requires that, in most cases, these decisions be guided strictly by science.

But an examination of two recent cases illustrates how dueling considerations of liability, responsibility and evolving scientific evidence weigh into VA deliberations.

“This shows what we’ve already suspected: At the VA, they’re more interested in politics, and protecting their turf and their bonuses, than fulfilling their mission to assist veterans,” said John Wells, a Louisiana lawyer who has spent more than a decade advocating for 90,000 Navy vets fighting for Agent Orange benefits.

VA officials say they are committed to making sure qualified vets get benefits, and they believe the law allows them to consider the ramifications of their decisions when weighing the eligibility of new groups.

“Considering second order effects of a decision does not in any way violate the Agent Orange Act,” the VA’s general counsel’s office wrote in response to questions.

MORE

How environmental pollutant dioxin alters brain development in mice

READ THE STORY

Dioxins are environmental pollutants that stay in the body for long periods of time because they can accumulate in fat tissue. They are mainly by-products of combustion and industrial processes. Long-term exposure to dioxins has been suspected to have a host of toxicities, causing health issues such as cancer and impairment of the immune system and the developing nervous system.

In the body, dioxin readily forms a complex with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a transcription factor protein whose real function has yet to be clarified. The manifestations of dioxin toxicities require AhR. It was previously shown that adult rodents born to mice exposed to dioxins during pregnancy display cognitive and behavioral abnormalities. However, the underlying mechanisms of such manifestations have remained unclear.

In search of an answer, researchers centered at University of Tsukuba studied the possible effects of excessive activation of AhR signaling--a phenomenon thought to mimic the exposure of AhR to dioxins--on neurodevelopmental processes in mice, such as cellular migration and neurite growth. Their work was recently published in Scientific Reports.

MORE

Opinion: Agent Orange study needed

READ THE STORY

Fallout from the Vietnam War keeps coming.
Four decades later, that fallout is spilling over from the war’s veterans to succeeding generations: Serious, sometimes life-threatening diseases are cropping up in families of veterans who were exposed to the notorious exfoliant Agent Orange.

The herbicide was sprayed over the jungles of South Vietnam from 1962 until 1971, when a study linked a key compound in Agent Orange to

birth defects in lab animals.

Health problems cropped up eventually for many exposed veterans. Richard Noddings, an Army veteran from rural Wilber, Nebraska, survived 18 months in Vietnam. Now, at 64, he uses a walker and suffers from fibromyalgia and heart disease. “Eventually, realistically, Vietnam will kill me,” Noddings told World-Herald military writer Steve Liewer. “It’s just taking its damn sweet time doing it.”

The federal government took years to acknowledge and confirm links between Agent Orange and certain health problems in Vietnam veterans.

Now, as detailed in Liewer’s recent reporting, the Vietnam Veterans of America and other advocacy groups believe that a variety of birth defects, diseases and medical conditions being seen in male Vietnam veterans’ children and grandchildren are also tied to Agent Orange.

Family after family told Liewer heartbreaking stories about diabetes. Cleft palate. Multiple myeloma and other cancers. Nerve damage. Defective connective tissues. Fused, misshapen fingers and toes.

Army veteran Terry White remembers the birth of his daughter. “When (Christina) was born, the doctor examined her fingers, her toes, her mouth, everything,” he said. “She pointed it out to me, all the things that were wrong. I just sat down and cried.”

The problem: Research is scant to determine whether Agent Orange and other toxic substances used in the war are truly responsible for the health problems suffered by the children and grandchildren of male veterans.

MORE

Complaints that company wrongly denied VA medical benefits put contract on hold

READ THE STORY

A company founded by a former Veterans Affairs secretary has won a major share of more than $6 billion in agency contracts, even as the firm is being investigated on charges that it wrongly denied medical benefits to some veterans.

Winning the major share of a contract for medical exams was QTC Medical, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin that was founded by former VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi. Since selling his company in 2011, Principi's lobbying firm has taken on Lockheed as a client, specifically to deal with the VA and its need for medical exams.

The contract awarded to QTC of Diamond Bar, Calif., in late March is under challenge from multiple protests filed with the Government Accountability Office.

VA spokesman Henry Huntley said the new contract would be put on a 100-day hold while authorities examine the complaints. That hold, however, means that QTC will continue providing medical exams under its old contract.

Congressional lobbying records show Principi's firm, The Principi Group, registered as the lobbyist for Lockheed Martin in 2014.

In an email response to questions about his lobbying and the recent bids, Principi wrote, “I have not lobbied for QTC on its rebid nor do I have any knowledge or information on any of your other questions.”

Even as the bid was being awarded and protests filed, a House committee has launched its own probe into allegations that QTC routinely denied benefits to veterans suffering from the after-effects of exposure to Agent Orange.

A spokesman for Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican, said an investigation is under way into allegations that QTC failed to properly evaluate veterans claiming disabilities from exposure to Agent Orange under an existing VA contract.

MORE

House of Lies: Agent Orange and the Government’s Policy of Cover-up

READ THE STORY

The Department of Veterans Affairs has an image problem. Recently the VA has been vilified because its backlog of cases has grown to mindboggling levels. By July 2013, more than 600,000 veterans had been waiting more than 125 days, some of them for more than two years, to get the help they needed.

And while it’s no news flash that bureaucratic gears grind slowly (a problem, in this case, exacerbated by long-outdated computer processing systems), Peter Sills says there’s a lesser-known reason for the backlog: decades’ worth of government refusal to do the right thing.

What’s worse, he adds, this line of long-suffering veterans is a shameful testament to the government’s unofficial policy on veteran woes: lie, deny, and cover up.

“The long waiting list is actually a good news/bad news kind of thing,” says Sills, author of Toxic War: The Story of Agent Orange (Vanderbilt University Press, 2014, ISBN: 978-0-8265-1962-7, $39.95). “The good news is that after decades of stalling, the VA is finally granting benefits to Vietnam veterans suffering from ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, and certain types of leukemia, on the grounds that their conditions may have been caused by exposure to military herbicides, such as Agent Orange. This means that hundreds of thousands of Vietnam vets have been added to the rolls and are finally getting the help they deserve.

Advertisement

“The bad news is what came before—and what that says about our government and military,” he adds. “For decades, the VA refused to acknowledge that anyone could have been harmed by military herbicides used during the Vietnam War. It willfully ignored any and all evidence of that harm and then conducted its own research to prove these chemicals were safe—research that was intentionally flawed and that is largely disregarded today.”

In Toxic War, Sills describes the production and use of Agent Orange and other American poisons used in Vietnam and how the VA and the military, with the help of other federal agencies (including the White House), denied that these chemicals were capable of causing harm.

MORE

Vietnamese dioxin victim to speak at UN during documentary screening

READ THE STORY

An Oscar-nominated documentary about a Vietnamese victim of Agent Orange will be screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week.

Director Courtney Marsh said in a Facebook post that “Chau, Beyond the Lines” would be shown on June 15, when she and the film’s protagonist, Le Minh Chau, 25, would also speak with the audience.

The 33-minute documentary shows the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed by the US over Vietnam’s jungles during the war to deprive Vietnamese soldiers of cover, on Chau.

He suffers from a rare disability in his arms and legs caused by his mother drinking water from a dioxin-contaminated river before he was born.

He grew up in a peace camp until 17 and is now an artist in Ho Chi Minh City, living on his own.

The documentary, produced by Jerry Franck and Marsh and filmed over eight years, won the Best Documentary Short Film at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in the US last November and was among the nominees for the latest Academy Awards.

The documentary had its first public screening in Vietnam on April 19 at the US Embassy in Hanoi and the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

Agent Orange research center has backing among many in Congress

READ THE STORY

In Washington, some lawmakers are calling for research into whether Agent Orange and other toxic substances are responsible for the health problems of veterans’ children and grandchildren.

The Toxic Exposure Research Act is the latest incarnation of a bill that would establish a research center within the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost of establishing the center at $74 million over the next four years.

Supporters come from both parties and include about half of the members of Congress. In the House, all Nebraska and Iowa representatives are co-sponsors except for Adrian Smith, R-Neb. In the Senate, Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is the only one from Nebraska or Iowa who has signed on.

The Vietnam Veterans of America is one veterans group that is pushing hard to pass the bill to spur Agent Orange research.

“Without the scientific proof,” said Mokie Pratt Porter, the group’s communications director, “we can’t get off ground zero.”

VA officials say they support more research but don’t agree that their agency is the right one to study next-generation health impacts, because the VA lacks experience with children’s health issues.

“We don’t have a lot of pediatricians on our staff,” said Dr. Ralph Erickson, the VA’s post-deployment health consultant. “The National Institutes of Health probably should have the lead in this type of research.”

That’s the reason U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., hasn’t signed on.

“She remains committed to ensuring our veterans receive the care they need,” said Tom Doheny, Fischer’s communications director, but he said she would like lawmakers to explore the details further.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., supports the bill’s goals and is reviewing it, a spokesman said.

MORE

Lack of baseline data has hindered research

READ THE STORY 

Is Agent Orange responsible for disease and birth defects in the children of Vietnam War veterans?
For Stefanie Wilderdyke of Adel, Iowa, the answer seems obvious. She and her sister have suffered a staggering array of health problems — lupus, fibromyalgia, Raynaud’s disease (which causes numbness and coldness in the extremities), Sjogren’s syndrome (an immune system disorder), hypothyroidism and endometriosis.

“My sister and I always wondered, with our dad having served in Vietnam, why is this happening?” she said.

But for scientists, the answer is: We don’t know.

In part that’s because there hasn’t been much research into what are called “paternally mediated” birth defects. But scientists also say it’s hard to determine the effects of Agent Orange exposure.

MORE

Thanks to the men and women who saved the world 1939 -1945

D-Day, June 6, 1944

 

Legislative Update: H.R. 1769 and S.901 the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015

Vietnam Veterans of AmericaLegislative Update: H.R. 1769 and S.901 the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015

H.R. 1769, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015, introduced by Congressmen Benishek (MI-1) and Honda (CA-17) with 201 cosponsors was reported out of the House Veterans Affairs Committee on May 24 and placed on the House Union Calendar No. 460 for a floor vote. H.R. 1769 bill legislative language has also been added to Title III Matters Relating to Toxic Exposure in H.R. 5286 the VA Construction and Lease Authorization, Health, and Benefits Enhancement Act introduced by Chairman Miller House Veterans Affairs Chairman on May 19, 2016.
 S.901, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015 introduced in the Senate by Senators Jerry Moran (KS) and Richard Blumenthal (CT), with 48 cosponsors, bill legislative language has been included in Title II Subtitle I Research and Toxic Exposure in S.2921, the Veterans First Act introduced by Senators Johnny Isakson (GA), Chairman and Richard Blumenthal (CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.  On May 12, 2016, the Veterans First Act was vote out of the committee and placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders Calendar No. 467 for floor vote. S.2921 Veterans First Act (Reported in Senate - RS) [S.2921.RS][PDF] S.2921 has 42 Senate cosponsors.
The House and Senate now stand in recess until June 3, 2016

‘Doomsday Chemical’ Update: Whatever Happened to Dioxin?

READ THE STORY

Dioxin, once proclaimed by the environmental community as the “doomsday chemical” of the 20^th century and the “deadliest substance ever created by chemists,” has faded from the media spotlight. Why?

Why did the EPA official who recommended the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri, admit that he made a mistake and that the evacuation of this community following the spraying of dioxin-contaminated oil on roads, and a subsequent flood, was an unnecessary overreaction brought about by the beliefs of Dr. Vernon N. Houk, Director of The Center for Environmental Health at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention?

What are the latest facts regarding adverse human health effects from exposure to dioxin?

Although dioxin’s teratogenic (birth) defects in some animals were not discovered until 1970 by Dow Chemical Company scientists, the industrial community was aware of a mysterious skin disease “chloracne” since it was first reported by Herxheimer in Germany in 1899. Choracne was originally incorrectly attributed to chlorine gas exposure and only in 1957 was it recognized by the German scientists Kimmig and Schultz that dioxin impurities in certain chlorinated phenols were responsible.

Unfortunately, this research paper was not widely read by the scientific community and it was not until 1969 that the existence of dioxins and their acnegenic properties were widely publicized. We now know that dioxin (really a family of related chlorinated chemicals, the most toxic of which is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibeno-p-dioxin or TCDD) is produced when chlorinated phenols, used to manufacture herbicides (such as 2,4-D), insecticides, and antiseptics (hexachlorophene) are heated to a high temperature. In particular, during the manufacture of the herbicide 2,4,5-T, which, in combination with 2,4-D, comprised Agent Orange, it was necessary to heat the chemical ingredients in a large “pressure-cooker” chemical reactor.

As was later discovered, if the temperature of this process is not very carefully controlled, then variable amounts of the byproduct dioxin can form.  Some chemical companies were better able to control this temperature than others. In fact, of the seven companies involved in the production of 2,4,5-T for use in Agent Orange, one company consistently produced batches relatively high (>500 parts per billion) in dioxin. Although the Dow Chemical Company, the largest producer of 2,4,5-T, was eventually able to produce very “clean” — essentially dioxin-free — 2,4,5-T, public pressure forced the discontinuance of the manufacture of this chemical, despite the fact that pure 2,4,5-T has always been a perfectly safe herbicide, like the still-used 2,4-D.

MORE

Senate investigation finds 'systemic' failures at VA watchdog

READ THE STORY

WASHINGTON — A Senate investigation of poor health care at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, Wis., found systemic failures in a VA inspector general’s review of the facility that raise questions about the internal watchdog’s ability to ensure adequate health care for veterans nationwide.

The probe by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found the inspector general’s office, which is charged with independently investigating VA complaints, discounted key evidence and witness testimony, needlessly narrowed its inquiry and has no standard for determining wrongdoing.

One of the biggest failures identified by Senate investigators was the inspector general’s decision not to release its investigation report, which concluded two providers at the facility had been prescribing alarming levels of narcotics. The facility's chief of staff at the time was David Houlihan, a physician veterans had nick-named “candy man” because he doled out so many pills.

Releasing the report would have forced VA officials to publicly address the issue and ensured follow up by the inspector general to make sure the VA took action. Instead, the inspector general’s office briefed local VA officials and closed the case.

A 35-year-old Marine Corps veteran, Jason Simcakoski, died five months later from “mixed drug toxicity” at Tomah days after Houlihan signed off on adding another opiate to the 14 drugs he was already prescribed.

The 350-page Senate committee report obtained by USA TODAY also chronicles instances where other agencies could have done more to fix problems at the Tomah VA Medical Center, including the local police, the FBI, DEA, and the VA itself, but it singles out the inspector general.

“Perhaps the greatest failure to identify and prevent the tragedies at the Tomah VAMC was the VA Office of Inspector General’s two-year health care inspection of the facility,” the report concludes, adding that despite the dangerous drug prescriptions, the IG did not identify any wrongdoing.

After news reports chronicled Simcakoski’s death last year, VA officials conducted another investigation with very different results and ousted Houlihan, a nurse practitioner, and the medical center’s director.

“In just three months, the VA investigated and substantiated a majority of the allegations that the VA OIG could not substantiate after several years,” the committee report notes.

MORE