Monday, January 30, 2017

Judge rejects Monsanto’s bid to block state from listing chemical as cancer causing


Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/business/agriculture/article129228309.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Thursday, January 26, 2017

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE






February 2017 (Postponed due to weather-will reschedule)
Lebanon, Oregon
Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8140

February 18, 2017
Balboa Park, California
Contact: Sunny Richard  Farrand 
619-791-6694 
rcf14@sbcglobal.net

March 9, 2017
Newport, Oregon
Contact: Tony Molina  541 -270-0569
Tom Owen  541-619-8187

March 10, 2017
Lebanon, Oregon
Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8187

March 11, 2017
Portland, Oregon
Contact: Gary McAdams 503-577-6639
Tom Owen 541-619-8187

March 11, 2017
Sedro Woolley, Washington
Contact: Chapter President Bob Garrison (360) 770-0545
Pete Sill (360) 420-3891

March 18, 2017
Victoria, Texas
Contact: Leonard Sternadel
lasternadel@yahoo.com

April 21, 2017
Frankfort, Kentucky
Contact: David Cowherd
270-312-0463

April 22, 2017
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Contact: MA State Council
413-772-1571
413-775-1825
Gumersindo Gomez
sgtgomez@aol.com

April 22, 2017
Faribault, Minnesota
Contact: Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
James Mayr 608-556-0617

April 22, 2017
Appleton, Wisconsin
Contact Joe Eiting (920) 205-1565
joseph.eiting@vvawi351.org

April 29, 2017
Arvada, Colorado
Contact: Lee White                 
303-519-2252

June 3, 2017
Lincoln, Rhode Island
Contact: Fran Guevremont
photobyamanda@icloud.com

Announcing Establishment of the Office of Military and Veterans Health

On January 1, 2017, the Health and Medicine Division (HMD) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine established the Office of Military and Veterans Health. This office, which is under HMD’s Executive Office, will serve as a point of contact for anyone seeking information on HMD’s current or past work in military and veterans health or who has an inquiry about future work. It will build on our past studies and activities in this area, which were previously housed under the now-dissolved Board on the Health of Select Populations. It will also coordinate the efforts of our Medical Follow Up Agency, Air Force Health Study activities, and our Twins Registries. David Butler is the Director of and point of contact for this new office, and in his role he will collaborate with Julie Pavlin, Director of HMD’s Board on Global Health.
This change is part of our continued efforts to be responsive to the needs of the nation and the world in exploring and answering tough questions in health and health care. To learn more about work on military and veterans health as carried out by HMD and, previously, by the Institute of Medicine, visit our Military and Veterans Health topic page.
Questions about the work of the Office of Military and Veterans Health should be directed to David Butler. Questions about development of this new office should be directed to Clyde Behney.

Contact Information
For More Information Contact
Office of Communications
Phone:
    202-334-2352
Fax:
    202-334-1412
E-mail:
Mailing Address
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Health and Medicine Division
500 Fifth St, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

VA leaving navy veterans adrift in sea of Agent Orange

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017 (HR 299), a bill to restore the presumption of Agent Orange exposure to those veterans who served in the bays, harbors and territorial seas of Vietnam, was introduced on Jan. 5. It was introduced by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) and co-sponsored by Rep Tim Walz, D-(Minn.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Joseph Courtney (D-Conn.), Joe Lobiondo (R-N.J.) and Dennis Ross, (R-Fla.) It picked up over 100 additional co-sponsors in less than a week.
HR 299 would correct a Veteran’s Affairs (VA) policy decision implemented in 2002, that unilaterally striped these veterans of the presumption of exposure granted by the Agent Orange Act of 1991.
This action was based on a 1997 General Counsel’s opinion (27-97) that interpreted the phrase “service in the Republic of Vietnam” to apply only to the landmass. This opinion ignored international recognition that national sovereignty extended to the territorial seas.
The United States specifically recognized this sovereignty in the 1954 Geneva Accords and the 1973 Paris Peace Treaty that ended the Vietnam War.   
Inexplicably, the VA bureaucracy has refused to reconsider its position despite Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies showing a higher incidence of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma among Navy veterans who did not serve in-country.
The Australian VA also discovered that the cancer incidence among Royal Australian Navy veterans was 22 to 26 percent above the norm, compared to an 11 to 16 percent increase above the norm in those who fought onshore.