Agent Orange Zone

Herbicide-tolerant Corn Subject of Regulation Debate

2012-01-29T09:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.hobbyfarms.com/farm-industry-news/2012/01/27/herbcide-tolerant-corn-subject-of-regulation-debate.aspx
Dow wants regulations lifted for its herbicide-tolerant corn, but sustainable-ag organizations say the product threatens agricultural traditions and personal and environmental health.
By Abby Tripp, Hobby Farms Assistant Editor
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is considering a petition by Dow Agrosciences to deregulate a corn genetically engineered for herbicide tolerance. The corn, which is engineered to resist several grass and broadleaf herbicides, including 2,4-D, would be marketed as part of Dow’s Enlist weed-control system.

Dow’s petition for deregulation comes on the heels of the company’s November 2011 announcement of the successful production of 2,4-D choline in a commercial scale-up setting. According to company spokesperson Garry Hamlin, the new formula has a leg up on earlier iterations of the herbicide, which used amines or esters. While Hamlin says it’s just as effective as its precursors, he adds that 2,4-D choline boasts “better characteristics [and is] less prone to drift and less prone to volatize.” This is a boon for diversified operations, he explains, because it decreases the likelihood of “particularly susceptible crops,” such as grapes and cotton, from coming into contact with the herbicide.
READ MORE: http://www.hobbyfarms.com/farm-industry-news/2012/01/27/herbcide-tolerant-corn-subject-of-regulation-debate.aspx

Dow Chemical Company proposes rule in the Federal Register allowing 2,4-D genetically modified corn

2012-01-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Dow Chemical Company has proposed a rule in the Federal Register that would allow 2,4-D genetically modified corn.
Let us look at some factors on 2 ,4-D.
First of all, 2,4-D has been found to be toxic in many animal studies. Second, there is suggestive evidence that 2,4-D may be carcinogenic to humans. A prime example is the cases of non Hodgkins Lymphoma.
This is also true in Parkinsons disease. (See TANNER, et al, Archives of Neurology, vol 66 (9), p. 1106-1113, 2009 Third,) 2,4-D composed half of the deadly herbicide Agent Orange in Vietnam. Fourth, the chemical industry claims that the deadly dioxin (TCDD), which was contained in Agent Orange, is not contained in 2,4-D. However, studies from Germany and Australia suggest that trace amounts of TCDD has been found in 2,4-D.
One fact is sure and that is that 2,4-D does contain other less toxic dioxins as outlined by EPA. The other half of Agent Orange, which was 2,4,5-T has been banned for many years. I think it is time to ban 2,4-D not get the product near food. To get 2,4-D near food is a slap in the face to Vietnam Veterans.

Faithfully submitted.
George Claxton

Dioxin down South

2012-01-27T10:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/01/25/dioxin-down-south
Here's another feather in Koch Industries' cap: Its Georgia Pacific wood products and plastics plant at Crossett is the 19th worst emitter of dioxin in the country, according to a report released by Facing South today.

Naturally, the South bears the brunt of dioxin producing plants, so eager are we to take any industry we can get: Of the top 30 polluters, 25 are in the South, according to data in the study, which dates to 2010. The list is included in the report, titled "Dumping Dioxin on Dixie."

From the story:

Environmental dioxin pollution has been declining since the 1970s, but the EPA says current exposure levels "remain a concern." That's why the agency has undertaken a reassessment of the chemicals' effects on human health. The EPA has said it would release the non-cancer portion of the reassessment this month, with the cancer portion to follow "as expeditiously as possible." The reassessment has been delayed for decades amid political pressure from industry.

Dumping dioxin on Dixie

2012-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/01/dumping-dioxin-on-dixie.html
As environmental health advocates call on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to release a long-awaited report on the health impact of dioxins, an analysis by Facing South finds that Southern communities bear a disproportionate burden of industrial dioxin pollution.

A class of toxic chemicals that persist in the environment and build up in the food chain, dioxins have been linked to a host of health problems including immune-system damage, hormone disruption and cancer -- and at very low levels of exposure. Environmental dioxin pollution has been declining since the 1970s, but the EPA says current exposure levels "remain a concern."

That's why the agency has undertaken a reassessment of the chemicals' effects on human health. The EPA has said it would release the non-cancer portion of the reassessment this month, with the cancer portion to follow "as expeditiously as possible." The reassessment has been delayed for decades amid political pressure from industry.

READ MORE: http://www.southernstudies.org/2012/01/dumping-dioxin-on-dixie.html

More Ships Added to List of Vessels with Agent Orange Risk

2012-01-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

http://blog.usnavyseals.com/2012/01/more-ships-added-to-list-of-vessels-with-agent-orange-risk.html
Posted January 23rd, 2012 by USNavySeals
Forty-seven vessels have recently been added by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the list of Navy and Coast Guard ships whose crews may have potentially been exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange.

These vessels included the hospital ship Repose, as well as the transport ship General R.M. Blatchford. Former service members who served aboard this ships – and more than 200 others who are included in the VA database from 1962 to 1975 – may be eligible for disability compensation.

The VA provides disability compensation for eligible Veterans, as well as their survivors, for 14 medical conditions associated with exposure to Agent Orange.

The online inventory of ships is updated periodically, after Veterans or VA staff are able to provide or find proof that a vessel moored, operated close to shore, or traversed an inland waterway, thereby risking exposure of its crew to the toxic herbicide.

Urgent Action! Sign our Dioxin Letter to EPA

2012-01-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

http://chej.org/2012/01/urgent-action-sign-our-dioxin-letter-to-epa/
We need your help now. For over 25 years, the EPA’s report on dioxin has been delayed time after time due to pressure by the chemical industry. Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known to science and is building up in our bodies.

The EPA is on the verge of finalizing a crucial part of their dioxin study, which they’ve pledged to do by the end of this month. Help us make sure they keep their promise!

TAKE ACTION – Sign our letter to EPA!

Dioxin is a potent cancer-causing chemical. Almost every man, woman and child in the U.S. has potentially harmful levels of this carcinogen in their bodies. Even babies are born pre-polluted with dioxin.EPA needs to hear from you because dioxin has been linked to health problems in children and adults including learning disabilities, endometriosis, decreased fertility, birth defects, cancer, and more.

We need your help today because the chemical industry, led by the American Chemistry Council, is doing all they can to get the EPA to back down.

We need to get thousands of people to sign our letter, which we will send to EPA next week.

Edward J. Derwinski, first secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, dies

2012-01-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/edward-j-derwinski-first-secretary-of-the-department-of-veterans-affairs-dies/2012/01/18/gIQA5IlL9P_story.html

from The Egyptian Gazette

2012-01-17T09:55:00.000-08:00

http://213.158.162.45/~egyptian/index.php?action=news&id=22964&title=Culture:%20Impact%20of%20war%20on%20language%20%28152%29
The US Veterans Administration (VA) recognises a wide range of birth defects as associated with women Veterans' service in Vietnam. These diseases are not tied to herbicides, including Agent Orange, or dioxin exposure, but rather to the birth mother's service in Vietnam.
“Children are our future. We have all heard that common saying.
What is the future of the children of Vietnam veterans and other veterans with toxic, service-related exposures?”, stated a position report by the Agent Orange and Other Toxic Substances Subcommittee, dated January 14, 2010.
“There is a growing realisation that both maternal and paternal toxic exposures play a role in the birth defects of the children and future generations of the exposed individuals. Research in the field of epigenetics also points towards toxic exposures turning on or off genes that, when passed on to the child, could lead to the onset of diseases later in life”, the report added.
“We now know that when we send service members in harm's way, battlefields toxins also place the future offspring of those service members in harm's way. Background: The VA recognises only one birth defect, spina bifida (a developmental congenital disorder caused by the incomplete closing of the embryonicneural tube), in the children of both male and female Vietnam veterans.
"The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concluded in its 1996 update to its report on Veterans and Agent Orange-Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam that there is limited/suggestive evidence of an association between exposure to herbicides used in Vietnam and spina bifida in children of Vietnam veterans."
"In 2000, Dr. Han Kang (referred to in the previous article of this series) and the VA's Environmental Epidemiology Service of the Veterans Health Administration published a study that estimating the risk of birth defects as significant."
As a result of these findings, the VA now funds assistance programs for spina bifida in the children of male or female Vietnam veterans and for all birth defects without other known causes in the children of female veterans. Children born to female Vietnam veterans who meet certain requirements may be eligible for compensation, vocational training, rehabilitation, and health care benefits.
sami.elshahed@yahoo.com

Waikato researchers & Ngāti Awa find hope for poisoned land

2012-01-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1201/S00015/waikato-researchers-ngati-awa-find-hope-for-poisoned-land.htm
16 January 2012

Waikato researchers and Ngāti Awa find hope for contaminated land

University of Waikato researchers have found fungi and plants that can reduce dioxins in contaminated land by up to 85%.

Waikato University Biological Sciences Professor Roberta Farrell and research associate Dr Joanne Thwaites Kelly have been working with Massey University scientist Dr Chris Anderson, Environment Bay of Plenty, S.I.G. (formerly Carter Holt Harvey) and iwi Ngāti Awa since 2009 to restore sites around Whakatane that were contaminated by pentachlorophenol (PCP) and dioxins between 1950 and the early 1980s.

Researchers have found a combination of fungi in the soil and subsequent planting of poplar trees has reduced the toxicity equivalent quotient, which measures both concentration and toxicity of the dioxins, in sediment taken from the Kopeopeo Canal near Whakatane, by 85% within 15 months.

PCP was used in sawmills to stop sap-staining or blue stain in wood, but its by-product, dioxins, are harmful to people, animals, and everything in the ecosystem, says Professor Farrell.

Some workers of the old Whakatane sawmill died and others continue to suffer side-effects of PCP exposure.

For 30 years the Kopeopeo Canal received surface run-off and storm water from PCP producers and remains a contaminated site.

Today more than 36 sites around Whakatane are still contaminated and former mill employees and iwi have joined forces with the universities, EBoP and S.I.G. to find ways to degrade the toxins.

“We looked at soil in contaminated sites for fungi, thinking that if a fungus was present in the soil and growing it would be resistant to the PCP and dioxins. We had the hypothesis that we could use these fungi to mediate the soil,” says Professor Farrell.

Thirty tonnes of contaminated sediment from the Kopeopeo Canal were excavated and various fungal and plant combinations were tested in the two year programme, funded by the Health Research Council, and led by Ngāti Awa.

The best combination for reduction of dioxins was the sediments incubated with fungi and consequently planted in poplar trees.

“The one thing we need to do now is look at what fungi work best,” says Professor Farrell. “We are running experiments at the moment and should know within the first quarter of 2012.”

The programme also looked at how Māori and iwi will consider the final bioremediated soils.

“They want the land to be useable again for kai and that is our target as well, to get dioxin levels to zero and be able to have food grown in the bioremediated soil.”

END

Speaking of Monsanto, Herbicides have no place in home garden care

2012-01-15T10:46:00.000-08:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/15/HO811MKQET.DTL
Pam Peirce
Sunday, January 15, 2012

Q: In a recent column (Nov. 13) you answered a reader who was reluctant to use the herbicide Roundup to combat Japanese anemone. Why? Is it poisonous? I thought it was a salt that got into the plant root and destroyed it. I found it great to control my neighbor's bamboo from invading my yard. I cut the stalk when approximately 18-24 inches tall, then squirt some Roundup down the hole in the stalk. Within a week or so, the bamboo dies. (Until another stalk shoots up!)

A: All pesticides are poisonous to the pests they are intended to kill. And most of them are also poisonous to unintended targets, such as wildlife and humans. The active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is not the most toxic herbicide, but it's responsible for a high number of California pesticide poisoning reports, probably because it is so widely used.

Exposure can cause nausea, sore throat, dizziness and injury to gastrointestinal or respiratory tracts. Eye contact with some formulations causes severe, though temporary, eye problems. Long-term toxicity is still being studied, but there is no longer confidence that it won't cause cancer, mutations or reproductive problems.

Glyphosate is not very toxic to insects but is toxic to aquatic wildlife and amphibians. Some of the inert ingredients that may be used in glyphosate herbicide formulations are much more poisonous to humans and wildlife than the glyphosate itself.

This is a nonselective herbicide, meaning it kills most kinds of plants. Spray that drifts to desirable plants will harm or kill them. It is a "salt" in the chemical sense of a combination of a metal or a base with an acid, but it is not a simple compound like table salt. Instead, it is a complex chemical created to kill plants by preventing the creation of essential amino acids.

A discussion of glyphosate is complicated by the actions of its original patent holder, Monsanto. This company created bioengineered crops that survive Roundup and sells both crop seeds and herbicide. This has resulted in a vast increase of Roundup use, increasing pollution, and aiding the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds.

Monsanto's actions have infuriated organic farmers and those who want to eat organic food because the genes that create the resistance have been carried by pollen to organic crops, thus rendering them uncertifiable, and Monsanto even sues those who inadvertently plant contaminated seeds.

Because of its financial interests, Monsanto mounted a vigorous campaign to convince us that Roundup was not an environmental or health hazard. As a garden writer I have been, over the years, bombarded with Monsanto literature about Roundup's virtues and harmlessness. Opponents have also put a great deal of energy into publicizing its hazards. The truth is somewhere in between - there are herbicides with far worse environmental and health hazards, others with less.

I don't think that any herbicide should be necessary in the ordinary care of a garden. Mulching, pulling and digging work fine for most weeds in gardens that get regular maintenance. For weeds growing in cracks of pavement, boiling water can help. There are some "least-toxic" herbicides, such as ones based on clove oil, vinegar or soaps. These kill the tops of plants, but do not translocate to the roots, so perennials tend to regrow after treatment.

Those who use Roundup, or glyphosate herbicide under another brand name, favor it for its low toxicity profile among herbicides that kill the weed root as well as its top. I do not advocate using it; if you do use it, I suggest you follow label directions carefully and also apply it in as small an area as possible, such as by spraying or painting individual plants. Broadcast spraying is more likely to harm unintended creatures.

The most effective nonchemical solution for the invading bamboo would be a 30- to 36-inch deep root barrier made of polypropylene that's 40mm to 60mm thick (roughly 1.5 inches to 2.3 inches thick). After using a rented power tool to dig a trench, angle the top of the barrier farther from the bamboo than the bottom. Install a continuous piece or follow manufacturer's directions for joining pieces tightly. Leave an aboveground lip of 2 to 4 inches. Pack the soil on the bamboo side back in firmly, then concentrate on digging out the disconnected shoots that remain on your side.

If a root barrier is not doable, dig a trench 8 to 10 inches deep and a foot wide at the edge of your property. Fill it with loose mulch and search through it at least twice a year to remove any rhizomes growing into it.

Do note that poisoning bamboo shoots from your neighbor's yard with a translocating herbicide might kill their plants, which could lead to a lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/HO811MKQET.DTL#ixzz1jYQZKsdp

Volatile dioxin debate rages as congressman attacks EPA radio silence

2012-01-13T10:02:00.000-08:00

A senior congressman has hit back at what he claims is industry pressure on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and also attacked it for two decades of perceived food-dragging over its health reassessment of dioxin.

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Quality-Safety/Volatile-dioxin-debate-rages-as-congressman-attacks-EPA-radio-silence

USDA Quietly Approves More GE Corn, Considering Key Agent Orange Ingredient

2012-01-13T09:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23302

SustainableBusiness.com News

Over the holidays, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced its approval of a novel strain of Monsanto genetically engineered (GE) corn, because it's purportedly "drought tolerant."

And the USDA is considering approval for corn produced by Dow AgroSciences that's been genetically engineered to resist the poisonous herbicide 2,4-D, the key ingredient in Agent Orange!

It's also considering a new soybean from Monsanto that's got more omega 3 fatty acids than naturally occur in soybeans. A public comment period for both is now open (see below).

The USDA approved Monsanto's corn even though it received only 23 comments in favor of it and nearly 45,000 public comments opposing it. It can now be freely released into the environment and American food supply, without any governmental oversight or safety tracking.

"This is just the latest in a string of approvals of GE crops. It's clear the Obama Administration doesn't have the courage to stand strong against the powerful agribusiness and biotechnology lobbies," says Mark Kastel, of The Cornucopia Institute.
READ MORE: http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/23302

An Open Letter to Shareholders of Monsanto

2012-01-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

http://aoag.org/?p=783--------Many

As you prepare to study the various resolutions for the coming annual general meeting of your company, being held in St Louis 24th January 2012, I ask you to take into consideration the history of your company and the policies you have supported at various annual general meetings.

It is a record that very few can be proud of. For example, can you as a shareholder be proud, even satisfied, that your company has been responsible for the deaths of many thousands of Vietnamese, many thousands of abnormal births in Vietnam, and today in Vietnam due to the product manufactured by your company, you have left four million Vietnamese suffering from various illnesses and deformities, and thousands of acres of once magnificent forests destroyed. The product was of course Agent Orange.

At the time you attend the shareholders meeting it will be fifty-one-years ago that Agent Orange was first sprayed over Southern areas of Vietnam, 10th August 1961. It is well recorded by international scientists and researchers from a number of countries – and includes the US – what the effects of Agent Orange has had on the people and land of Vietnam.

There has been and continues to be massive information about the effects of Agent Orange, and not only on the Vietnamese, ask the Vietnam Veterans from the US, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, who served in Vietnam, for many of them were also affected by Agent Orange. Many of these veterans are still campaigning in their respective countries for their illnesses to be recognized by their Government as being related to Agent Orange. Yes, it is a fact that not all the US veterans have been accepted as suffering from Agent Orange. Many have died, as have others, denied a pension or compensation for serving their country.

Their relatives could be amongst the many outside the annual general meeting on 24th January seeking answers to the questions they want to raise with your Chairman Mr Hugh Grant and members of your board. You will see them when you walk into the meeting. Please do not avoid them, but stop and listen to their questions, and please answer if you can.

Let me remind you that eighty-million liters of Agent Orange was sprayed on Southern Vietnam and this was carried out over a period of ten-years. And your company has for these fifty-one years refused to accept responsibility and has also refused to make any compensation to the Vietnamese. The word Sorry has not come from the lips of your Chairman, not has one cent come from the $billions of profit made from Agent Orange indeed, it has been you the shareholder that has benefited, in the dividends you have received over the years.

Perhaps among you at the AGM will be Bill and Melinda Gates, it would be interesting to hear if they make any statement that they are satisfied with the record of your company, having purchased 500,000 shares. Perhaps they will seek to ask how they can help Monsanto in its campaign to increase its sales of GM Seeds world-wide, another Monsanto product that has cost the lives of thousands of Indian Farmers who were forced into debt through the failure of their GM crops. And outside the meeting will be American farmers who do not want GM Seeds but a number of them have been taken to court by your company to protect its sales and in turn its profits and your dividends. Are you really proud of your company, one that has cost so many lives, has ruined the lives of so many others in many countries?

I hope you will consider the content of this letter, written by a person who has traveled to Vietnam for the past twenty-years and has seen the horrors of the legacy your company Monsanto has left to the people and land.

In my years of traveling there I have seen babies, youngsters, teenagers and adults crippled and in many cases minus limbs, eyes etc through being affected by Agent Orange. Remember also this: the Vietnamese affected and aged under forty-years, would have been born after the spraying ended in 1971 and amongst them are the fourth generation. So the suffering continues, generation after generation after generation, that is the legacy your company has brought on the people of Vietnam.

So, when it comes to cast your votes, for who, and for what, will you vote?
Len Aldis. Chairman
Agent Orange Action Group
Flat 2, 26 Tomlins Grove
London E3 4NX

lenaoag@gmail.com

www.aoag.org

Food Industry Wants to Keep Dioxins in Your Dinner: Report

2012-01-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2012/01/food_industry_w.php
It's always good to know that the people who raise the nation's livestock and sow the country's crops really want to put health first. Or not.

A group of top U.S. food producers has recently protested the Food and Drug Administration's upcoming demands for tougher dioxin limits in nutritional staples, according to Food Safety News. Dioxins and similar chemicals have been linked to reproductive problems and cancer in lab animals.

Though some dioxins occur naturally, they can enter the environment through industrial activities such as trash incineration, the website reports. Research indicates that humans get most of their dioxin exposure from food.

The group of U.S. food giants worries that the soon-to-come FDA guidelines -- which might set the "safe" level of dioxin exposure at 0.7 picograms daily, compared with the World Health Organization's 1-4 recommended daily picograms -- would make most agricultural products in the country "unfit for consumption."
READ MORE: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2012/01/food_industry_w.php

Agent Orange: A Tragic Legacy

2012-01-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

Until the US govt and the responsible corporations are held accountable in this bioterrorism war crime, victims will continue to be overlooked
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january062012/ao-legacy-kh.php
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - In an effort to help tip the scales for the United States during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was developed by biotechnological companies in order to help clear dense fields, giving soldiers a clearer vision of their targets. Along with the loss of vegetation, the was an additional hope that Vietnamese farmers would relocate to U.S. occupied cities, and no longer be able to grow and provide for the Vietnamese troops.

It was known as Operation Ranch Hand and lasted from 1962 to 1971; during this time, the United States military dropped millions of gallons of this synthetic herbicide over large areas of the country—spraying some areas multiple times over. It was named Agent Orange after the colored bands that were used to mark the drums that it was stored in (others were considered Agent White, Blue, Pink, Green, and Purple).

And with the effectiveness of the chemical, came a life threatening by-product, dioxin.

According to the American Cancer Society, the particular dioxin contained in Agent Orange is “one of the most toxic” man-made chemicals existing today—a weapon no doubt. High levels of dioxin rained down on the land and people of Vietnam, becoming absorbed in the soil and contaminating it completely during the war and for generations to come.

In one of the most obvious displays of chemical warfare, Agent Orange has left a debilitating mark on hundreds of thousands of people, both Vietnamese and Americans alike. In the 50 years since its first use, various types of cancer (including prostate and leukemia) birth defects, and other high-risk diseases have been cropping up from one generation to the next. And that is not the least of it.

READ MORE: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january062012/ao-legacy-kh.php

Ruling leaves dioxin cleanup out of Monsanto trial

2012-01-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

This was what the Monsanto Co. chemical plant in Nitro looked like in 1980.
http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201201070062
By Ken Ward Jr.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As the trial begins in a major toxic pollution lawsuit against Monsanto Co., jurors won't be allowed to tackle a key issue: Should the company pay to clean up dioxin it allegedly spewed across the city of Nitro?

Experts won't testify about the need for property remediation. Lawyers won't argue about the issue. Jurors won't be asked to force Monsanto to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars such a project could cost.

Judges O.C. Spaulding and Derek Swope issued rulings in July and November that threw out that part of the case.

As a result, Putnam County jurors will decide only if current and former Nitro residents should receive medical monitoring to detect diseases potentially caused by exposure to Monsanto's dioxin. They won't be able to do anything to clean up homes and businesses, ending the toxic exposure.

READ MORE: http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201201070062

Toxic releases rose 16 percent in 2010, EPA says

2012-01-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/toxic-releases-rose-16-percent-in-2010-epa-says/2012/01/05/gIQAhbTpdP_story.html
By Juliet Eilperin, Published: January 5
The amount of toxic chemicals released into the environment nationwide in 2010 increased 16 percent over the year before, reversing a downward trend in overall toxic releases since 2006, according to a report released Thursday by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The spike was driven largely by metal mining, but other sectors — including the chemical industry — also contributed to the rise in emissions, according to the new analysis from the annual federal Toxics Release Inventory.
Air releases of dioxin, which is linked to cancer as well as neurological and reproductive problems, rose 10 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to the report. Other releases, such as landfill disposal, increased 18 percent.
Dioxins are formed as a byproduct of some processes with intense heat, such as smelting and recycling metals. The 2010 increase stemmed largely from the hazardous-waste-management and mining industries, according to the EPA.
READ MORE: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/toxic-releases-rose-16-percent-in-2010-epa-says/2012/01/05/gIQAhbTpdP_story.html

U.S. judge OKs alfalfa strain made by Monsanto Co.

2012-01-07T10:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/07/BUBT1MM1DH.DTL Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 7, 2012
A federal judge has upheld the government's decision to let the nation's alfalfa growers plant the genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant strain manufactured by Monsanto Co., saying the alleged risk of contaminating other crops does not require regulators to impose buffer zones.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the use of Roundup Ready alfalfa - so named because it is designed to withstand Monsanto's Roundup herbicide - in January 2011, ending a nationwide ban that another judge had imposed in March 2007.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/06/BUBT1MM1DH.DTL#ixzz1inUV7xJf

Senate Bill S. 1629 - S. 1629: Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011

2012-01-05T09:35:00.000-08:00

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s112-1629
A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify presumptions relating to the exposure of certain veterans who served in the vicinity of the Republic of Vietnam, and for other purposes.
Sponsor: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY]
Cosponsors:
Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
Amy Klobuchar [D-MN]
Barbara Mikulski [D-MD]

Status: This bill is in the first step in the legislative process. Explanation: Introduced bills and resolutions first go to committees that deliberate, investigate, and revise them before they go to general debate. The majority of bills and resolutions never make it out of committee. [Last Updated: Dec 9, 2011 6:24AM]

US govt. urged to deregulate Agent Orange-resistant crops

2012-01-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/217986.html
A key chemical of one of the most horrifying elements of the Vietnam War - Agent Orange - may soon be unleashed on America's farmlands.

Dow AgroScience, LLC, is petitioning the U.S. government to deregulate a genetically engineered variety of corn that is resistant to 2,4-D, an extremely toxic pesticide that was 50% of the recipe to making Agent Orange.

This is all admitted right out in the open in the federal register text:

“We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has received a petition from Dow AgroScience LLC seeking a determination of nonregulated status of corn designated as DAS-40278-9, which has been genetically engineered for increased resistance to broadleaf herbicides in the phenoxy auxin group (such as the herbicide 2,4-D) and resistance to grass herbicides in the aryloxyphenoxypropionate acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase inhibitor group (such as quizalofop herbicides)”.

The chemical pesticide group 2,4-D can cause acute toxicity and was a major component (roughly 50%) of Agent Orange, according to Cornell University.

Rats fed 2,4-D produced "fetuses with abdominal cavity bleeding and increased mortality," which also states that 2,4-D may cause infertility, birth defects, organ toxicity and neurological effects. NaturalNews.com

Farmers, food industry challenge dioxin proposal

2012-01-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

They say an EPA-proposed limit is too strict and could frighten consumers, thereby hurting sales.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111221/BUSINESS/312210066/1012/NEWS11/?odyssey=nav|head
WASHINGTON — Farmers and the food industry are trying to kill a proposed safety standard for dioxins, chemicals that can cause cancer and are widely found in meat, seafood and dairy products.

Industry groups say a daily exposure limit for dioxin proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency isn’t justified and could unnecessarily scare consumers away from meat and milk products. An individual could ingest more than the proposed daily limit of dioxin in a single meal, the groups say.

“The implications of this action are chilling,” they said in a recent letter to the White House. “EPA is proposing to create a situation in which most U.S. agricultural products could arbitrarily be classified as unfit for consumption.”

The proposed standard would not by itself trigger any regulations on farmers or food companies, but the government could later recommend measures, including restrictions on the content of livestock feed, to reduce the amount of dioxins that people could consume.

READ MORE: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111221/BUSINESS/312210066/1012/NEWS11/?odyssey=nav|head

Agent Orange/Dioxin Kills Children

2011-12-28T11:31:00.001-08:00

for your own Agent Orange/Dioxin Kills Children bumper sticker send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to:

Agent Orange Zone

4966 N. Sunset Ave., Fresno, CA 93704

Thanks to VVA Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee Chairman Emeritus George Claxton

Dioxin cleanup project kicks off in central Vietnam

2011-12-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20111216-dioxin-cleanup-project-kicks-off-at-Phu-Cat-airbase.aspx
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) launched Friday a project to clean up dioxin at the Phu Cat airbase in the central province of Binh Dinh.

Under the project, a landfill site will be used to isolate 5,400 cubic meters of dioxin-contaminated soil at the airbase.

The landfill site is part of a US$5 million project launched by UNDP and GEF in July 2010. The project focuses on supporting Vietnam to remediate dioxin contamination at the three hotspots, including Phu Cat airbase.

It also aims to minimize disruption to ecosystems and health risks for people from the release of dioxin from the contaminated hotspots. The Office of the National Steering Committee 33 (Office 33) in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is responsible for implementing the project.

“This is a clear reminder that poisoning our environment is akin to poisoning ourselves,” said Ms Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, at the groundbreaking ceremony.

READ MORE: http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20111216-dioxin-cleanup-project-kicks-off-at-Phu-Cat-airbase.aspx

Agent Orange Battle Rages

2011-12-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2011/12/19/news/doc4eeeb7d01bd92795412895.txt
By PAUL LUCE
pluce@delcotimes.com

John Bury is committed to fighting on behalf of 250,000 Vietnam Navy veterans against the very government they swore to protect — even as that government slowly poisoned them.

Battling his fourth cancer in eight years, Bury, of Middletown, said two of his cancers — prostate cancer and T-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma — are on the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs list of presumptive diseases from dioxin, a poisonous chemical herbicide commonly known as Agent Orange. Bury’s ureter-kidney cancer and bladder cancer, both of which he has been cleared, are not on the list.

The retired petty officer, first class, wrote two letters to the editor appearing the in the Daily Times over the past three months. Now, the retired Westtown School safety director is calling for the support of two bills aimed at helping his Navy brethren.

“I will write to my last breath,” said Bury. “I will talk to whoever will listen.”

Death from Above

Dissatisfied with what he considered the U.S. military’s inability to deal with insurgents in Vietnam during the early 1960s, President John F. Kennedy became increasingly interested in the use of special operations strategies and counter-insurgency warfare, said Villanova University political science professor Dr. David Barrett.

READ MORE: http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2011/12/19/news/doc4eeeb7d01bd92795412895.txt

Are You Eating, Drinking and Breathing Monsanto's New Agent Orange?

2011-12-20T09:30:00.000-08:00

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december162011/agent-orange-sj.php
Dec-16-2011 14:49printcomments
Sayer Ji Special to Salem-News.com
Monsanto admits it manufactured Agent Orange, which killed and maimed 400,000 people in Vietnam and resulted in more than 500,000 birth defects.

(NEW YORK) - In a groundbreaking study published in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry last month, researchers found that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide “Roundup,” is flowing freely into the groundwater in areas where it is being applied.

The researchers found that 41% of the 140 groundwater samples taken from Catalonia Spain, had levels beyond the limit of quantification – indicating that, despite manufacturer’s claims, it does not break down rapidly in the environment, and is accumulating there in concerning quantities.

Why Is Groundwater Contamination An Important Finding?

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface, that supplies aquifers, wells and springs. If a chemical like glyphosate is mobile enough to get into the groundwater and is intrinsically resistant to being biodegraded (after all, it is being used to kill/degrade living things – not the other way around), significant environmental exposures to humans using the water are inevitable.

Keep in mind that glyphosate is considered by the EPA as a Class III toxic substance, fatal to an adult at 30 grams, and has been linked to over 20 adverse health effects in the peer-reviewed, biomedical literature.

This groundwater contamination study adds to another highly concerning finding from March, published in the journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, where researchers found the chemical in 60-100% of all air and rain samples tested, indicating that glyphosate pollution and exposure is now omnipresent in the US. When simply breathing makes you susceptible to glyphosate exposure, we know we are dealing with a problem of unprecedented scale.

Who Is Responsible For The Groundwater Contamination?

Monsanto is a multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation, presently dominating the global genetically engineered seed market, with 90% market share in the US alone. It is also the world’s largest producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as “Roundup,” among other brand names. If you are eating corn and soy, or any of their ten thousand plus byproducts – and it does not have a USDA organic logo – you are getting the Monsanto “double whammy”: the genetic modification (GM) of your health (and gene expression) that follows the consumption of GM food (because we are – literally – what we eat), and ceaseless chemical exposure to glyphosate, as all Monsanto-engineered foods have been designed to be glyphosate-resistant, and therefore are saturated with it.

READ MORE: http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december162011/agent-orange-sj.php

No! Tell me it ain't so.

2011-12-16T08:07:00.001-08:00

VVA Urges All Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange Be Screened for Prostate Cancer

2011-12-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

https://mail.google.com/mail/?hl=en&shva=1#inbox/1341ac02a71814a1
(Washington, D.C.) “Veterans exposed to Agent Orange are at least twice as likely to develop prostate cancer; their recurrence rates are higher; and recurring cancers are more aggressive,” noted Dr. Thomas Berger, Executive Director of VVA’s Veterans Health Council, before today’s Congressional Men’s Health Caucus Prostate Cancer Task Force. Berger urged his fellow Vietnam veterans to get screened, noting “it’s worth the fight.”

Said Berger, “Some three million veterans served in Southeast Asia, and no one knows for sure how many of these veterans were exposed to Agent Orange.” In 1996 the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences concluded there is “limited evidence of a positive association between prostate cancer and exposure to herbicides used in Vietnam, including Agent Orange.” As a result of IOM’s findings, Jesse Brown, then-Secretary of the Veterans Administration (VA), issued the final rule, recognizing prostate cancer as a service-connected, presumptive disease associated with exposure to Agent Orange and other phenoxy herbicides during military service, allowing such exposed veterans to become eligible for VA disability compensation and health care.

In 2008, University of California-Davis Cancer Center physicians released results of research showing Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange have greatly increased risks of prostate cancer and even greater risks of getting the most aggressive form of the disease as compared to those who were not exposed. The research was also the first to use a large population of men in their 60s and the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. More than 13,000 Vietnam veterans enrolled in the VA Northern California Health Care System were stratified into two groups, exposed or not exposed to Agent Orange between 1962 and 1971. Based on medical evaluations conducted between 1998 and 2006, the study revealed that:

§ twice as many Agent Orange-exposed men were identified with prostate cancer than non-exposed;

§ Agent Orange-exposed men were diagnosed two-and-a-half years younger than non-exposed; and

§ Agent Orange-exposed men were nearly four times more likely to present with metastatic disease than non-exposed.

Further buttressing this link, in 2009, a study of 1,495 veterans in five cities who underwent radical prostatectomy to remove their cancerous prostates showed 206 exposed to Agent Orange had a near 50 percent increased risk of their cancer recurring, despite the cancer seeming nonaggressive at the time of surgery. And the cancer came back with a vengeance. The time it took the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, level to double – an indicator of aggressiveness – was eight months versus more than 18 months in non-exposed veterans.
Contact: Mokie Porter
mporter@vva.org
301-585-4000, Ext. 146

DFA, Others Urge White House to Intervene on Dioxin Reassessment

2011-12-12T09:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.idfa.org/key-issues/details/6721/
IDFA and other members of the Food Industry Dioxin Working Group, a coalition of agriculture, processing and retail food organizations, today asked the White House to take a role in the Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing efforts to finalize a draft dioxin risk reassessment. In a letter to Melody Barnes, assistant to the president for domestic policy, the coalition expressed its concern that EPA's proposed recommendations would confuse consumers and seriously harm U.S. trade.

The term dioxin refers to a group of chemicals that are byproducts of natural and industrial processes involving combustion, such as forest fires and backyard burning. They are introduced to animals through the air, soil and plants.

Although EPA estimates that 95 percent of dioxin intake comes through food, studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that exposure to dioxin from the environment and the food supply is very low and continues to decline.

"We are concerned with EPA's plan to break from longstanding international science-based dioxin standards and split the reassessment into non-cancer and cancer risk assessments, while setting a reference dose (RfD) for non-cancer risk," the letter said. "Since the primary route of human exposure to dioxin is through food, this would not only mislead and frighten consumers about the safety of their diets, but could have significant negative economic impact on all U.S. food producers."

The coalition urged Barnes to ensure that opinions from all affected federal agencies are considered equally in the administration's approach to dioxin risk. The heads of these agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Trade Representative, also received copies of the letter.

EPA has been working to complete a comprehensive review of dioxin for more than 20 years and recently announced plans to release its final conclusions in January. IDFA sent letters last month to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to express concerns about EPA's approach.

READ MORE: http://www.idfa.org/files/resources/dioxin_background_v4_110211.pdf

Timeline: Overview of Vietnam naval veterans' struggle for Agent Orange Benefits

2011-12-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/12/timeline_overview_of_vietnam_n.html
TIMELINE
(For full coverage, please see Bob Ford's commentary "War Against U.S. Navy Veterans," available online or downloadable in pdf format here Vietnam Navy Veterans War.pdf )

1962 — U.S. military begins spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam.
vietnamwall_Navy vet.JPGA sailor's image is reflected in the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. (AP Photo)
1965 — U.S. starts sending ground troops to Vietnam.
June 1967 — More than 100 ships come through Da Nang Harbor in this month.
Dec. 1, 1969 — The first lottery drawing by the Selective Service.
1973 — President Richard Nixon orders all U.S. troops to withdraw from Vietnam.
1990 — A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that veterans who served in Vietnam have a much higher rate of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma than veterans from the same era who weren’t in Vietnam.
1991 — Congress passes the Agent Orange Act, giving health and disability benefits to anyone who earned the Vietnam Service Medal and suffers from a condition likely caused by Agent Orange exposure.
1997 — A report by the Australian government finds that its Vietnam veterans are dying at a higher rate than non-veterans and that Vietnam navy veterans have the highest early mortality rate.
2002 — The Bush administration begins denying Blue Water Navy veterans disability benefits, claiming sailors were not exposed unless they put “boots on the ground” or traveled on inland waterways.
2004 — The Board of Veterans’ Appeals rules that Da Nang Harbor is an “inland waterway” for the purposes of Agent Orange disability benefits.
2004 — Former Navy Cmdr. Jonathon L. Haas, who served in Vietnam on the USS Mount Katmai and now has two illnesses on the Agent Orange list, files for benefits. The Board of Veterans’ Appeals denies his claim because he did not set foot on land.
2006 — Cmdr. Haas appeals his case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rules in favor of him receiving Agent Orange-related benefits. Instead of taking this decision as precedent, the VA appeals.
2006 — Australia grants Agent Orange disability and health benefits to its Vietnam sailors.
2008 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rules the VA can change the rule for Blue Water veterans, thereby denying Haas’ benefits claim.
January 2009 — The Supreme Court refuses to hear the Haas case.
April and November 2009 — The Board of Veterans’ Appeals again rules that Da Nang Harbor is an inland waterway, and Blue Water veterans who served there should receive benefits.
2010 — The VA continues to claim Da Nang is not an inland waterway.
March 2011 — Japan earthquake and tsunami. The Navy concludes the USS Ronald Reagan, a ship nearly 100 miles off the coast of Japan, was exposed to “a month’s worth of radiation in just one hour.”
May 2011 — The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science study says it is plausible that Blue Water veterans were exposed to Agent Orange.
Summer 2011 — Retired Adm. Edward Straw testifies before Congress, arguing that the USS Reagan incident is similar to what happened with Agent Orange and Navy ships off the Vietnam coast.
September 2011 — Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduce the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011.

READ MORE: http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/12/timeline_overview_of_vietnam_n.html

Quick Facts: US chemical, biological weapons

2011-12-01T08:56:00.000-08:00

http://presstv.com/usdetail/212703.html
U.S. Chemical Weapons

In response to German chemical attacks during World War I, The United States established the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in 1918. During the war, the CWS manufactured, stockpiled, and used chemical weapons, primarily mustard and phosgene gases.

The U.S. rapidly expanded its Chemical weapons (CW) development and production during World War II, with production of new chemicals including cyanogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, and lewisite.

In 1969, Public Law 19-121 restricted testing, transport, storage and disposal of CW. Also in 1969, President Nixon signed an executive order halting further production of unitary chemical weapons. However, the Reagan administration reexamined the CW issue in the 1980s and began production of binary sarin artillery shells in 1987. nti

In 1987, the Pentagon admitted that it was operating 127 chemical and biological warfare research sites in the US.

During the Vietnam War the US military used about 21 million gallons of Agent Orange to defoliate trees in order to deny enemy fighters cover. Millions of Vietnamese were exposed, as were about 20,000 US soldiers. According to Vietnamese estimates, Agent Orange is responsible for the deaths of 400,000 people. Historycommons

In the 1960’s, the U.S. Defense Department sprayed live nerve and biological agents on ships and sailors in cold war-era experiments to test the Navy’s vulnerability to toxic warfare.

READ MORE: http://presstv.com/usdetail/212703.html

Agent Orange buried at beach strip?

2011-12-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

Black mark: A U.S. military veteran who claims to have witnessed the burial of dozens of drums of Agent Orange in 1969 points to the site on a map. Today the area is a busy shopping district in the heart of touristy Chatan, Okinawa Prefecture. JOE SIPALA
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111130a5.html
U.S. veteran fears toxin now beneath popular civilian area
By JON MITCHELL
Special to The Japan Times

Dozens of barrels of the toxic defoliant Agent Orange were buried in the late 1960s beneath what is now a busy neighborhood in the central Okinawa Island town of Chatan, near Araha Beach, according to a former U.S. soldier who has recently pinpointed the location thanks to a 1970 map of a U.S. base obtained by The Japan Times.

The alleged burial took place in 1969 when the area was part of the U.S. Hamby Air Field, but since its return to civilian use in 1981 the area has been redeveloped into a sightseeing area. Nearby today are restaurants, hotels and apartment buildings on a street running parallel to popular Araha Beach.

READ MORE: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20111130a5.html

An Open Letter to British Athletes and the 2012 Olympics

2011-11-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/november242011/olympic-dow-la.php
Len Aldis for Salem-News.com
http://www.lenaldis.co.uk/
(LONDON) - Next year in East London the two Olympics will be held when sportsmen and women from many countries will compete against each other in many fields of sport. This will be an opportunity to meet your competitors and to establish friendships.

Unfortunately, the Stadium, in which the opening and closing ceremonies will take place and field events held, will be stained in blood.

This is due to Dow Chemical being given a contract by the London Olympic Committee to surround the stadium with 336 huge panels’ for advertisements. Stained by the blood of innocent people, Dow Chemical was and remains responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange and Napalm, used extensively on Southern Vietnam from 1961 until 1971, resulting in the deaths of many thousands of Vietnamese and causing many thousands more to suffer from various illnesses and deformities.

Eighty million litres of Agent Orange/Dioxin was sprayed by US forces that destroyed thousands of acres of Forests and the animal life within, poisoned the lakes and streams and in turn the fishes.

In my yearly visit to Vietnam from 1989, I have seen the jars at the Tu Du Hospital that contain the foetus of abnormal births. Have also met with children born with missing limbs, eyes etc, with twisted bodies due to Spina Bifida, and Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation to these tragic victims.

Dow's legacy in Vietnam - antiwar.com

This is the same company that bought United Carbide responsible for the horrific toxic gas leak causing the deaths of over 15,000 people of Bhopal in India. Today in Bhopal there are 100,000 still suffering from the effects of that explosion, and as with the Vietnamese of which there are four million still suffering, Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation.

Friends, it is into that Stadium that you will march and compete during the period of the two Olympic Games, in a stadium surrounded by a curtain of shame made by Dow Chemical. Ask the athletes from the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam about Agent Orange whose relatives may have served in the Vietnam War, and became affected by Agent Orange?

You might also consider this, in a letter to Lord Coe asking for the contract to be cancelled there were signatures of twenty-three MPs and twenty-one Indian athletes who took part in previous Olympics. There are reports that some Indian athletes, if not all, will boycott the Olympics if the Dow contract goes ahead.

Yours sincerely
Len Aldis. Secretary
Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
http://www.lenaldis.co.uk/

Agent Orange: With more diseases tied to use during Vietnam War, bill for veterans' care skyrockets

2011-11-25T12:27:00.000-08:00

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/222189/group/homepage/
By: Lindsey Bever, Dallas Morning News / MCT
More than 40 years after the U.S. military used Agent Orange to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam, the health-care bill is escalating.

Over the past two years, federal officials say, an estimated 10,000 more veterans have sought medical compensation for diseases related to Agent Orange, an herbicide that contains a toxic chemical called dioxin.

The Institute of Medicine said in a recent report that there is sufficient evidence of an association between exposure to Agent Orange and illnesses including soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma and chloracne.

The report recommended further research to determine whether there could be a link between Agent Orange exposure and other illnesses such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, tonsil cancer, melanoma and Alzheimer’s disease.

READ MORE: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/222189/group/homepage/

Agent Orange Aftermath - Vietnam Veterans Speak Out - Vietnam: The Secret Agent

2011-11-22T10:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/HumanArtsAssociation
Mokie Porter of Vietnam Veterans of America and US veteran families discuss the ongoing effects of Agent Orange on their children, and the impact on their progeny - excerpted from the DVD re-release of the award winning documentary film, Vietnam: The Secret Agent.

MORE: http://www.youtube.com/user/HumanArtsAssociation#p/a/7D1B0FBA24DF2B8B/0/BGFdLNL2zHw

How Agent Orange Led to Ischemic Heart Disease In Veterans

2011-11-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/11/how-agent-orange-led-to-ischemic-heart-disease-in-veterans/
agent orange ischemic heart diseaseAgent Orange was a chemical defoliant that was used during the Vietnam War, with the goal of defoliating forested area so the guerrillas would have less cover and a reduced food supply.

Later, it was discovered that the Agent Orange used was contaminated with a dioxin compound called TCDD.

The US sprayed nearly 20 million gallons of this and other similar chemicals, destroying over five million acres of land between 1962 and 1971.

Not only were forests and food crops destroyed, but hundreds of thousands of people were killed or injured as a direct result of these chemicals, including as many as a half million babies born with severe birth defects.

READ MORE: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/11/how-agent-orange-led-to-ischemic-heart-disease-in-veterans/

Veterans on C-123 planes post-Vietnam

2011-11-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange
Some Veterans who were crew members on C-123 aircraft, formerly used to spray herbicides in Vietnam, have expressed health concerns about possible exposure to Agent Orange residue on plane surfaces. After reviewing available scientific reports, VA has concluded the potential for long-term adverse health effects from Agent Orange residue in these planes was minimal. Even if crew exposure did occur, it is unlikely that sufficient amounts of dried Agent Orange residue could have entered the body to have caused harm.

Visit the Agent Orange homepage to learn more about Agent Orange: www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange.

Vietnam: The Secret Agent

2011-11-17T10:29:00.000-08:00

This Week Only! Go to http://www.vietnamthesecretagent.com/ and click on Veterans Day Movie Pass (This Week Only!) on bottom left of web page to watch the film FOR FREE in a video stream online. This Week Only!

Monsanto Agent Orange Past Continues to Haunt the Company

2011-11-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/11/monsanto-agent-orange-past/
Many people these days recognize Monsanto as the massive corporation that maintains 95 percent control over the soybean market and nearly 80 percent control over the genetically engineered seed market.

Monsanto is famous for using every tactic in the book to crush all competition when it comes to agriculture and the farming industry.

We’ve covered Monsanto often in the past, specifically regarding the threat that the Monsanto monopoly poses to the U.S. and world food supply.

We recently covered the public survey conducted by the DoJ, where thousands of concerned citizens voiced their opposition against the Monsanto monopoly.

The threat isn’t so much from the amount of control that the massive corporation maintains over the seed industry, but from the ethical history of the company itself.

READ MORE: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/11/monsanto-agent-orange-past/

Vietnam: The Secret Agent

2011-11-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

A Look inside the Department of Veteran’s Affairs on Veterans Day

2011-11-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/314273
Families across the United States are quick to forget just how many Veterans from wars that took place so long ago are still around to celebrate this special day with their friends and families.
Veteran’s day is a day to remember all of those soldiers who have served for the freedom of our country. While thousands of soldiers are being sent home and urged to file claims through the Department of Veterans Affairs through their new expedited claims process, the Department of Veterans Affairs is quick to forget just how many old claims they have yet to process.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/314273

An Opinion

2011-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

from the Peoria (IL) Journal Star
http://www.pjstar.com/opinion/spotlight/x228647287/In-the-Spotlight-Vietnam-veterans-now-fighting-for-health-benefits
John George

As I read the Nov. 11 Forum letter, "He honored the flag, now the flag will honor him," it reminded me of the many soldiers who fought in Vietnam from 1967 to 1971. During that period, a herbicide known as Agent Orange was heavily used around U.S. military outposts to defoliate the surrounding area. A chemical known as TCDD was found in Agent Orange and has caused a wide variety of diseases, many of them fatal.

On a daily basis, tens of thousands of soldiers were exposed to this herbicide. Many have since died or are now suffering from cancer, migraine headaches, blackouts, irregular heart rate, brain tumors and other ailments.

John T. George is retired from Caterpillar as a Global Information Services systems supervisor. He lives in Peoria.

READ MORE: http://www.pjstar.com/opinion/spotlight/x228647287/In-the-Spotlight-Vietnam-veterans-now-fighting-for-health-benefits

Vietnam: The Secret Agent

2011-11-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

Go to http://www.vietnamthesecretagent.com/ and click on Veterans Day Movie Pass on bottom left of web page to watch the film FOR FREE in a video stream online. This Week Only!

Agent Orange is recognized as the most toxic man-made chemical. We dumped it on Vietnam and we dumped it on the dusty backroads of Southern Missouri .

Vietnam: The Secret Agent is the first comprehensive look at the history, the effects and the implications of the deadly contaminant 2, 4,5-T — a main ingredient of the defoliant code-named Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Using rare archival and striking war footage in support of interviews with veterans, scientists, attorneys and representatives of the U.S. Air Force, the VA and Dow Chemical — this film documents the history of chemical warfare and the plight of our Vietnam vets.

Every issue raised in the film continues to resonate in today's political climate. As soldiers return from Iraq and Afghanistan , plagued by illness, disability and post-traumatic stress, as Americans — particularly students — question political decisions, it's critical to learn from past conflicts. This award winning 1984 documentary classic, re-released on DVD, is loaded with new bonus interviews: class action update, eye witness accounts from Vietnam , dioxin problem solving, U.S. veterans today, and more.

Using striking archive and war footage in support of interviews with veterans, scientists, attorneys, the U.S. Air Force, the Veterans Administration, Dow Chemical and more; this film documents the extraordinary history of chemical warfare, agricultural herbicides, damage to the world environment, and the plight of Vietnam veterans and their families as they struggle for treatment of exposure to Agent Orange and dioxin.

As soldiers return from new wars plagued by illness, disability and post-traumatic stress, as citizens question leaders’ decisions, as fresh environmental catastrophes evoke debate about accountability; it is critical to illuminate struggles and lessons from the past. Every issue raised in this film resonates in today’s political climate.

DVD extras include a PowerPoint/PDF timeline of Agent Orange facts to date, witnesses to the effects in Vietnam, and more.

THIS WEEK ONLY!

Seminar on AO/dioxin opens in US

2011-11-12T10:33:00.001-08:00

http://tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/politics/seminar-on-ao-dioxin-opens-in-us-1.50437
Nearly 150 delegates gathered at a two-day seminar on Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin at Berkeley University in San Francisco city, California state of the US.

The event also drew the participation of US veteran families of Vietnamese origin and US AO victims.

Speaking at the seminar, Head of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on AO/dioxin Ngo Quang Xuan said the seminar discussed efforts and contributions of sides to overcome the consequences of AO/dioxin in Vietnam.

The seminar highly valued the project to detoxify dioxin-affected Da Nang International Airport, Xuan said, expressing his hope that Vietnam will receive more support to treat Bien Hoa airport, the country’s second “hot spot” of dioxin, in the southern province of Dong Nai.

He added that the seminar helped raise awareness of the public and organisations in the US about AO consequences suffered by Vietnam.

The Rotary Foundation and the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on AO/dioxin are currently carrying out a project to improve access to safe water sources in Dong Son commune, A Luoi district, in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue, which was severely affected by AO/dioxin contamination.

VVA Chapter 862, Beaver County , PA , Hosts 14th Agent Orange Town Hall & VVA has a new Agent Orange PSA

2011-11-12T10:25:00.000-08:00

On November 5, VVA Chapter 862 hosted VVA’s 14th Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting at the Penn State Beaver campus, near Pittsburgh . Kudos to the members of VVA/AVVA Chapter 862, to organizers Bobby and Phil Morris, and to all who worked so hard to make this event a success!

VVA National VP Fred Elliott; PASC President Larry Holman; AVVA President Nancy Switzer ; and PA AVVA President Nancy Rekowski were joined by over one hundred veterans and family members--many of them new to VVA. They came from Pennsylvania , from West Virginia , and from Ohio to listen to the panelists and to share their own Agent Orange stories. PASC Treasurer David Johnston traveled the distance from Harrisburg to be there. Panelists included Bobbie Morris; AVVA National President Nancy Switzer ; Peter and Sue Petrosky; Heather Bowser; George Claxton, and VVA BOD Member Sandie Wilson. Larry Googins, 2nd VP of PASC and VVA 862 Treasurer, was the master of ceremonies; Chapter 862 VP Pete Petrosky led the presentation of the colors; and F. Lee Corfield, PASC Secretary and VVA 862 Secretary (also in the Color Guard) led the singing of the National Anthem.

Jacki Ochs, filmmaker/director of the soon-to-be rereleased, award-winning documentary, Vietnam: The Secret Agent, has recently posted to YouTube the below short, which she filmed at the town hall held at the VVA Region 2 Meeting in Atlantic City—VVA 862’s Petroskys, as well as the Morrises, are featured in this piece—and the PSA directs viewers to the VVA Agent Orange Committee page at www.vva.org

The children of Veterans are the innocent victims of Agent Orange

2011-11-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

from Paul Sutton ssgtusmc6169@yahoo.com

http://www.examiner.com/military-affairs-in-national/the-children-of-veterans-are-the-innocent-victims-of-agent-orange?CID=examiner_alerts_article
Ed Mattson
Military Affairs Examiner November 11, 2011

The debate goes on and probably will until the end of time as to the effects of DIOXIN on dozens of health related issues. The Veteran on this Veteran’s Day does not have to be reminded of the long battle with the Veteran’s Administration, the Department of Defense, and 13 chemical manufacturing companies on the massive exposure to dioxin from the use of Agent Orange and other defoliants during the Vietnam War.

The same hold true for the public population , both in the United States and many other countries, where dioxin laced products were used in a effort to “improve our lives”, by limiting growth of weeds, vegetation, and disease carrying insects, only to learn that increase health issues would become a nightmare for many of those exposed. We now understand that we cannot rewind the clock and easily solve the problems caused by dioxin, but must learn how to deal with it in a fair and equitable manner to all who have health related issues, and find ways to prevent further exposure.
READ MORE: http://www.examiner.com/military-affairs-in-national/the-children-of-veterans-are-the-innocent-victims-of-agent-orange?CID=examiner_alerts_article

2011-11-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1453869
It was a cold and windy morning, but that didn't stop approximately 30 people from gathering outside MP Keith Ashfield's office Saturday for a rally to mark the second annual Canadian Veterans National Day of Protest.

ANDREW MEADE/THE DAILY GLEANER

A mix of veterans and family members of all ages bundled up in coats and mittens to take part in the event, one of many organized across Canada by the Canadian Veterans Advocacy.

Fred Doucette, a member of the Canadian Veterans Advocacy, said the point of the rallies is to give veterans and supporters a chance to air their concerns about the New Veterans Charter, changes to widows' benefits and pensions and Agent Orange compensation.

READ MORE: http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/1453869

Study says pesticides in food chain causes ADHD in children

2011-11-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_19276804
Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard
Posted: 11/06/2011 02:39:41 AM PST

Pesticides threaten our health, yet we still use them in America today. In the Vietnam War, herbicides (a subclass of pesticides) and their deadly effects created a dark legacy that still lingers.

Many Americans have heard about Agent Orange and are aware that the Veterans Administration has recognized numerous ill effects it had on people who were exposed to it. Not so well known is that nine of the 12 most dangerous and persistent organic chemicals are pesticides, according to the 2001 Stockholm Convention findings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Convention) on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

The result of the convention was an international environmental treaty, which went into effect in May 2004. The aim was to eliminate or restrict the production and use of POPs, defined as “chemical substances that persist in the environment, bio-accumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment.”

In the early 1960s, we sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam as a defoliant. It contained dioxin, but the chemical companies assured everyone that dioxin occurred naturally in the environment and was not harmful to humans. They knew better.

In March 1965, Dow official V.K. Rowe convened a meeting of executives of Monsanto, Hooker Chemical, which operated the
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Love Canal dump, Diamond Alkali, the forerunner of Diamond-Shamrock, and the Hercules Powder Co., which later became Hercules Inc.

According to documents uncovered years later, the purpose of this meeting was “to discuss the toxicological problems caused by the presence of certain highly toxic impurities” in samples of 2,4,5-T. The primary “highly toxic impurity” was 2,3,7,8 TCDD, one of 75 dioxin compounds.

READ MORE: http://www.times-standard.com/guest_opinion/ci_19276804

2011-11-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.vietnamthesecretagent.com/

Vietnam: The Secret Agent delivers the authoritative account of the history and troubling legacy of Agent Orange. — David Zierler, Ph.D., Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State

Human Arts Association is pleased to announce the re-release on DVD of the classic film Vietnam: The Secret Agent.

In honor of Veterans Day, in collaboration with New Day Digital, we invite VVA members to watch the newly restored, and re-digitized film over the internet — free for one week starting at 12:01 a.m. PST, 11/11/11.

This award-winning film documents the Vietnam Veterans' struggle in the early 80's to attain just treatment and compensation for illnesses caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

"... excellent ... a tough, angry look at the consequences of exposure to Agent Orange... a chilling issue that is effectively addressed here." — The New York Times

The new DVD is loaded with bonus features — updated interviews of veterans, families of veterans, eye witness photographers, and artists' responses to the legacy of Agent Orange. For more information, visit: VietnamTheSecretAgent.com

We hope you will take us up on our offer to watch this film for free on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Vietnam War.

http://www.vietnamthesecretagent.com/

Book Marks 50th Anniversary Of Agent Orange In Vietnam

2011-11-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Veterans back bill to create registry of illnesses blamed on burn pits

2011-11-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans-back-bill-to-create-registry-of-illnesses-blamed-on-burn-pits-1.159539
WASHINGTON — Veterans exposed to burn pits during their war deployments are backing legislation to create an ongoing registry of patients and illnesses believed connected to the toxic smoke, suggesting it may be the last chance to discover what long-term health problems they’ll face.

On Thursday, Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., will introduce companion bills requiring the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a burn pit registry, similar to past efforts tracking illnesses related to Agent Orange and Gulf War Illness.

The measures will not mandate new benefits or treatment for those veterans, but will establish a database of common symptoms for physicians to use in future research.

On Monday, the Institute of Medicine released a new report saying that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ respiratory problems may have more to do with poor air quality in those countries than the burn pits used by U.S. forces to dispose of trash, human waste and excess equipment.

READ MORE: http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans-back-bill-to-create-registry-of-illnesses-blamed-on-burn-pits-1.159539

Vietnam Veterans of America Joins Over 200 Organizations in Urging Congress to Reject Changes to Medicare Part D Program

2011-11-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

http://vva.org/PressReleases/2011/pr11-031.html
(Washington, D.C.)--Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) joined with several hundred organizations representing veterans, seniors, and low-income beneficiaries to express the urgent need for Congress to reject the proposal to make harmful changes to the government's prescription drug program, Medicare Part D.

In a joint letter to Congress, the organizations cite that Medicare Part D is actually performing above expectation, and since its implementation, has cost taxpayers 41 percent less than originally projected. In addition, premiums for beneficiaries are 46 percent less than projected and are expected to decline slightly in 2012, with the average monthly premium remaining around $30. This change would have a negative impact on veterans using both the Tricare for Life program as well as Medicare Part D.

"Clearly, savings need to be achieved within our healthcare system in order to sustain these vital programs for future generations of Americans, but it is our duty to ensure these changes do not harm the very people they are meant to protect," said John Rowan, VVA National President. "Instead of targeting a program that is actually saving money while providing affordable prescription drug options to seniors, the attention of Congress could be better spent identifying those programs wasting taxpayer's money."

If the rebate proposal is implemented, the groups cite that, by some estimates, the premium increase for seniors could rise by 20 to 40 percent. In an attempt to limit premium increases, the groups make the point that prescription drug plans may opt to adjust their formularies, giving seniors and disabled Americans fewer preferred options, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs--costs which many cannot afford and will cause some to forgo treatment.

"Higher costs will cause a breakdown in treatment plan adherence, as seniors opt out of Part D coverage or fail to purchase the drugs they need to maintain their health. This could lead to higher costs in Medicare for hospitalizations and nursing home care. The availability of drug coverage is achieving savings of up to $13 billion a year by keeping more seniors healthier and out of institutional settings, according to recent estimates by Harvard researchers. The rebate plan jeopardizes these savings and the lives they represent," the groups noted.

Said Rowan, "America's veterans and seniors have served their country and have contributed their entire working lives to building the wealth of this great nation. Instead of forcing beneficiaries to once again reach into their own pockets, now is the time to preserve the quality of care that supports the health of our veterans, our seniors, and those with disabilities, while providing a sustainable blueprint for the long-term health of our nation. Frankly, our veterans have sacrificed enough." For a full copy of the letter and list of supporting organizations, click here: http://f.cl.ly/items/3y3U1Y3x321B0F2m3X3f/Letter.pdf

Agent Orange Study Links for October 28, 2011, Courtesy George Claxton

2011-10-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Agent Orange Links October 28, 2011

Propolis protects against 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin-induced toxicity in rat hepatocytes.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21714773

Attenuating effect of lycopene and ellagic acid on 2, 3, 7, 8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin-induced spermiotoxicity and testicular apoptosis.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21770727

Tenuous dose-response correlations for common disease states: case study of cholesterol and perfluorooctanoate/sulfonate (PFOA/PFOS) in the C8 Health Project.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21804314

Pathological study for the effects of in utero and postnatal exposure to diesel exhaust on a rat endometriosis model.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21804314

Do Thyroid Disrupting Chemicals Influence Foetal Development during Pregnancy?
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jtr/2011/342189/

Mark the Date - November 5, 2011

2011-10-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting
VVA/AVVA Chapter 862, Beaver County to hold Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting

November 5, 2011
3:00 PM
Penn State, BEAVER CAMPUS
Monaca, PA 15061

National Speakers:

Mokie Pratt Porter
VVA Director of Communications, former editor of The VVA Veteran, and Long-time VVA staff member, Mokie is the coordinator of the Faces of Agent Orange Initiative

George Claxton
Chair Emeritus of the VVA Agent Orange Committee and long-time advocate for veterans, George ’s knowledge of Agent Orange is unparalleled. His life-time work, a massive database of studies on the health impact of Agent Orange, is an exceptional resource which is used by scientists and service officers alike.

Sandie Wilson
A long-standing member of VVA’s National Board of Directors, Sandie served as an OR Nurse in Vietnam . Her pioneering work on Agent Orange began with her return home in 1971, when she served on the pediatric ward at Fort Campbell ’s base hospital. A steadfast advocate, she has never faltered from her quest for truth and justice for her fellow veterans.

Nancy Switzer
AVVA’s current and founding National President, Nancy has been an outstanding advocate for veterans and their families for more than 30 years. Married to Rick, who is service-connected for Agent Orange, she understands well the legacy of war. A long-time advisor to VVA’s legislative and health committees, Nancy has played a critical role in the Faces of Agent Orange, convening the first-ever FAO Town Hall Meeting at the AVVA leadership conference in 2009.

Pete and Sue Petrosky - A Vietnam veteran, Pete served in the USAF from 64-68.
Married for 42 years, Sue and Pete have two daughters, both born with birth defects. The Petroskys are sharing their compelling story, with hopes that they can make a difference.

Philip and Bobbie Morris
Philip served in Thailand with the USAF, 65-69. When he returned home, he married Bobbie, and their daughter, Dara Rae, was born in 1973. By sharing Dara’s amazing journey, they hope to let others know that they are not alone.

Open Forum

We hope to hear from you, our Vietnam Veteran families, to learn more about the health of our veterans, their children, and their grandchildren.

For more information on the Town Hall Meeting, Contact: bobby514@comcast.net

EPA, MDEQ won't use U-M dioxin study in decision making

2011-10-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

By Lindsay Knake | The Saginaw News
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/10/epa_mdeq_wont_use_u-m_dioxin_s.html
KOCHVILLE TWP. — The Environmental Protection Agency and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality won’t use a University of Michigan study on dioxins to make future decisions on cleanup of the chemical.

Dr. David Garabrant, the leader of the U-M Dioxin Exposure Study, presented the results of the study at Monday’s Tittabawassee-Saginaw Rivers Contamination Community Advisory Group meeting.

About 25 people, mostly Delta College students, attended the meeting at Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay in Kochville Township.

The eight-year study which tested levels of dioxins in soil, household dust and blood samples from residents in the Tittabawassee River floodplain from the Dow Chemical Co. plant in Midland through Midland and Saginaw counties. It found dioxins in property soil and household dust do not have a significant effect on residents’ dioxin blood levels.

READ MORE: http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2011/10/epa_mdeq_wont_use_u-m_dioxin_s.html

Agent Orange Studies Overlook Vietnamese Americans

2011-10-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Commentary by Ngoc Nguyen, New American Media
The numerous studies on American veterans of the war stand in stark contrast to what little is known about the health effects of dioxin in Vietnamese living in the United States.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/october202011/agent-orange-nn.php
(WASHINGTON D.C.) - A few years ago, my father, a former naval officer in the South Vietnamese Army, developed liver cancer. The diagnosis followed decades of struggle with Hepatitis C, a viral infection he contracted through a blood transfusion during the war. A liver transplant saved his life.

More than two years since the operation, and my father’s life has been transformed from a state of “wait and see” to near normalcy, except for a daily regimen of dozens of pills. But, for Vietnamese Americans there is another legacy of the war that, like a sleeping dragon, may be starting to awaken: The possible health effects of exposure to wartime Agent Orange.

American forces sprayed 19 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides during the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1971, mostly in South Vietnam, to deny North Vietnamese soldiers cover in the country’s dense forests and jungles. Agent Orange was contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic chemical that is persistent in human tissues and the environment.

That wartime spraying has been devastating to American veterans who came into contact with the defoliant and then developed any number of a long list of illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences have linked Agent Orange/dioxin exposure to a slew of health conditions, including prostate, lung and other cancers, Parkinson’s disease and leukemia, and birth defects in the children of veterans, such as spina bifida. Many of the symptoms are only just showing up now in soldiers who served and were exposed.

But the numerous studies on American veterans of the war stand in stark contrast to what little is known about the health effects of dioxin in Vietnamese living in the United States – whether they were born here or are former residents of South Vietnam.

According to a study published in the journal Nature by Columbia University professor emeritus Jeanne Stellman, as many as 4.8 million Vietnamese civilians were exposed to the chemicals during the war. The collapse of the government of South Vietnam brought an exodus of Vietnamese to the United States, with more than 125,000 refugees resettling here after 1975. The country’s Vietnamese population now stands at more than 1.6 million, according to the last census count.

Among that group are former South Vietnamese veterans, who do not receive VA benefits, so their health status is not being tracked. The federal government has yet to conduct large-scale epidemiological studies of U.S. Vietnam veterans, and has not funded studies on their South Vietnamese counterparts.

Additionally, ARVN forces were not part of a 1985 out-of-court settlement with the chemical makers totaling $180 million. Much of that money dried up before thousands of American veterans started to become sick from Agent Orange-related illnesses. Now, as the legal and medical battles move to the children and grandchildren of Vietnam vets who are also suffering the long-term effects of the chemical war agent, Vietnamese Americans continue to be overlooked.

Sailing up and down rivers in Binh Duong province in southern Vietnam during the war, my father says he didn’t handle Agent Orange. But he does recalled seeing charred vegetation along the riverbanks, and said he knew it had been sprayed there. He says he doesn’t believe he was exposed, as he was mainly on the vessel and drank from the boat’s water supply.

But studies show the defoliant was sprayed on about 10 to 15 percent of South Vietnam in certain locations, with little spraying in urban areas. From Saigon, my father says areas outside of the city were sprayed. One in particular, Bien Hoa, just 32 kilometers north of Saigon, is a dioxin “hotspot.”

Bien Hoa is home to a former U.S. air base used for Agent Orange-spraying missions. A large spill of the herbicide occurred underground there, and the area is still contaminated. A study from 2003 found that residents were still exposed to dioxin through animal fat, from eating fish, chickens and ducks and other tainted wildlife.

Bien Hoa residents also had higher dioxin levels than their counterparts in the North, where there was no spraying, and one resident of the city was found to have the highest level of dioxin ever recorded in the country. But while their children also showed elevated dioxin levels, these studies did not address long-term health effects.

Arnold Schecter, a professor of environmental sciences at the Univ. of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas and a leading researcher on dioxin exposure in the Vietnamese American community, said no one has conducted measures of dioxin exposure levels in the population.

Political Sensitivities

Vietnamese immigrants in the United States are largely from South Vietnam, which fell to the communists in 1975. As such, many here do not want to do or say anything that gives credence to Hanoi’s claims about the health effects of Agent Orange, part of a massive campaign to win compensation for victims of the defoliant. [A lawsuit brought by Vietnam against the chemical makers in federal court in New York was dismissed in 2005, and subsequent appeals have failed.]

Yet the lack of health studies for this group comes at a time when the symptoms of wartime exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin could be surfacing.

According to a Chicago Tribune investigation, “Service-related disability payments to Vietnam veterans have surged 60 percent since 2003, reaching $13.7 billion last year, and now account for more than half of such payments the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides to veterans of all wars.” The spike in disability claims suggests that the “long dormant effects of Agent Orange [are beginning] to surface,” according to the article.

For Vietnamese immigrants in the United States, who may have had a history of toxic exposure, it is critical to have this basic and baseline public health data, especially as many go on to work in jobs here, such as nail salons and dry cleaning shops, where they are exposed to additional harmful chemicals.

Growing up, my siblings and I never knew what my father saw or did on the battlefield, what he felt when he loaded his mother, brothers and sisters, his wife and his nine-month-old daughter, and others onto a ship that he then commandeered to Subic Bay, Philippines on April 30, 1975 – the day Saigon fell. We are just starting to have those conversations.

Now, with both my parents aging, the legacy of the war is both a distant memory and a palpable reality, sometimes extending its fingers into our lives.

Ngoc Nguyen is environmental health editor and reporter for New America Media, a national nonprofit news service for ethnic media. She is reporting on the health impacts of Agent Orange/dioxin on the Vietnamese American community through a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Contact her at nnguyen@newamericamedia.org.

Special thanks to New American Media

Originally published here: http://newamericamedia.org/2011/10/agent-orange-studies-overlook-vietnamese-americans.php

Texas A&M System researchers sought for Agent Orange remediation

2011-10-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

http://agrilife.org/today/2011/10/14/texas-am-system-researchers-sought-for-agent-orange-remediation/

By: Kay Ledbetter
Print Friendly

COLLEGE STATION – It’s been almost 50 years since Agent Orange was spread as a jungle defoliant across parts of Vietnam in a conflict that has since healed, but the same may not be true for the land, according to Texas A&M University and Texas AgriLife Research officials who are being sought out for some answers.

Faculty from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, especially Dr. Scott Senseman, a professor in the department of soil and crop sciences and an AgriLife Research weed scientist specializing in pesticide fate and management, have been asked to participate in a project with Vietnam National University–Hanoi.

The partnership has been identified as a key strategic project by the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam. Senseman was recently invited to address the Joint Advisory Commission, the key inter-governmental commission for cooperation between the two governments, about the collaboration.

READ MORE: http://agrilife.org/today/2011/10/14/texas-am-system-researchers-sought-for-agent-orange-remediation/

Waiting For An Army To Die - Redux

2011-10-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.truth-out.org/scorched-earth-legacies-chemical-warfare-vietnam/1318963345
"Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam"
by Fred A. Wilcox
Seven Stories Press (2011)

"Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange"
by Fred A. Wilcox
Seven Stories Press, Second Edition (2011)

Fifty years ago, while President Kennedy deliberated waging a sweeping herbicide warfare campaign in Vietnam, Rachel Carson may well have been scrutinizing the galley proofs of "Silent Spring," a book Kennedy would soon read and respect. The biologist painstakingly amassed evidence that widespread aerial spraying with toxic insecticides and herbicides constituted a "peacetime" war on nature and human health.

Her electrifying treatise nailed the agricultural industrial complex - pesticide industries and the gaggle of research scientists, government bureaucrats and Congressionals tethered to the industry - for collusion in a chemical assault on nature and public health.

A firestorm ensued. The industry threatened to sue Carson's publisher; their hacks peddled sexist depictions of Carson and satires of "Silent Spring." A tempest of Congressional hearings and citizen lawsuits over DDT pesticide excoriated the pesticide industry and government complicity, provoked immense national debate and launched the modern environmental movement. As Fred Wilcox bitingly observes, though, in "Waiting for an Army to Die," this domestic outbreak of public debate, regulatory action and civic activism against our pesticide-drenched model of agriculture did not stymie the executive decision to wage and sustain massive chemical warfare in Vietnam for nearly ten years.

The most hazardous of the chemicals sprayed in Vietnam was Agent Orange, an equal mixture of the herbicides 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, contaminated during the manufacturing process with the dioxin TCDD, arguably the most toxic small molecule known. First researched for use as warfare agents in World War II, the herbicides were given a post-war makeover for domestic use on brush and weeds in forests, agriculture, pasturelands and suburban yards. In 1961, they became the dominant weapon of choice to defoliate rainforest, mangroves and food crops over one-seventh of the land area of South Vietnam and parts of Laos and Cambodia. Wartime herbicide production spurred an accelerated manufacturing process, a haste which increased industry profits - while it also knowingly magnified the dioxin content and herbicide toxicity in Agent Orange manyfold.

In "Waiting for an Army to Die," the author forcefully illustrates that wartime and peacetime uses of herbicides are two sides of the same coin. He recounts the stories of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange and also of Oregon mothers, Arizona potters, and others living near sprayed public lands, all of whom were suffering from a plague of cancers, nervous system effects, miscarriages and birth disorders of their children. In this eminently compassionate and politically astute book, reissued with a new introduction 22 years after the first edition, Wilcox takes us inside the tragic, yet gutsy lives of young, working-class vets who were left to die by "government stonewalling, bureaucratic shell games and the contempt of multinational corporations." Their resolve to win just, respectful medical treatment and disability payment from the Veterans Administration (VA) in the face of stigmatization as neurotic, substance-abusing, mental cases is nothing short of heroic.

"Waiting for an Army to Die" is an unblinking high beam focused on the VA's heartless, obstacle-laden treatment of Vietnam veterans. But Wilcox also highlights a few noble people within an otherwise obstructive medical system, whose stories of courage and altruism relieve the callous betrayal of these veterans poisoned by their country. ("Sprayed and Betrayed" as the vets put it). One is a lower-level employee, Maude DeVictor, in the Benefits Division of the Chicago VA regional. On her own initiative, she collected personal data from clients seeking benefits - Vietnam vets, their wives and their widows - about their exposure to Agent Orange, health effects and reproductive history. When directed by her supervisor to cease her data collection, she turned the results over to the local media. DeVictor's pluck in the face of a punitive bureaucracy is one of numerous chinks in the VA's armored resistance to acknowledging the toxicity of Agent Orange and to undertaking independent scientific studies of Agent Orange exposure illnesses.

The other human face of this ruinous chemical warfare on a rural country's ecosystem and people is that of more than three million Vietnamese war victims of Agent Orange and the three generations of children born since with horrific birth defects and disabilities. Wilcox tells their tragic yet dogged story in a newly published companion book, "Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam." Again, with compassion and an unflinching investigation into the multigenerational Agent Orange victims, he constructs a cogent moral case for compensation by the United States. Read separately, but more so together, the books' core contribution is that they do not let us leave the toxic legacy of the Vietnam War behind us as we wage new wars with new chemicals.

READ MORE: http://www.truth-out.org/scorched-earth-legacies-chemical-warfare-vietnam/1318963345

A death from cancer, and a search for answers - Frederick native calls attention to Fort Detrick contamination

2011-10-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-10-08/news/bs-md-fort-detrick-contamination-20111008_1_fort-detrick-cancer-rate-breast-cancer
FREDERICK — — Randy White had just buried a daughter, dead at 30 with a brain tumor. Now his other daughter had been diagnosed with growths in her abdomen.

When doctors told White in 2009 that their conditions were likely caused by something in their environment, the Frederick native thought of Fort Detrick. His children had grown up near the Army base.

Detrick was home to the nation's biological weapons program from the 1940s through the 1960s. It remains a key center for medical research.

"Anybody that lives in Frederick knows all the rumors," White says. "It's kind of like, 'Fort Detrick, they created anthrax, we knew that, smallpox …' It just clicked for me."

For decades, Frederick residents had speculated about the possible effects of the experiments at the base on the health of the surrounding community. But it took a grieving father with scientists, lawyers and money — White says he has spent more than $1 million so far — to drag questions about contamination and cancer out into the open.

White hired epidemiologists and toxicologists to monitor the air, soil and water around Detrick. He asked neighbors about their health histories and paid for lab tests to measure the toxins in their blood. He shared his findings with government officials.

The county and state health departments are now studying the cancer rate within a two-mile radius of the base. The Army has released details of Agent Orange testing. And local, state and federal officials are meeting regularly with the community to discuss their progress.

READ MORE: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-10-08/news/bs-md-fort-detrick-contamination-20111008_1_fort-detrick-cancer-rate-breast-cancer

Fourteen Vietnam Vets Needed for Agent Orange Claims Research Project

2011-10-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

Graduate student at Johns Hopkins University seeks Vietnam vets for a comparative study of the VA’s “Fast Track Agent Orange Claims Processing System”. The study involves interviews with two groups of seven Vietnam vets each who have filed a VA claim of service connection for any of the three following conditions: ischemic heart disease, hairy cell and other B-Cell leukemias and Parkinson’s disease – one group of seven who’ve filed using the on-line fast track system and one group of seven who has not used the fast track system. For more information, contact Kelly Campbell at kcampbell826@gmail.com or 301/575-7318 by October 25th.

NOTE: this study’s I.R.B. documentation has been filed and reviewed by VVA’s I.R.B. research officer and judged to be in compliance with all applicable human subjects research guidelines.

Keeping the lid on the Congressional pressure cooker

2011-10-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/military-affairs-in-national/keeping-the-lid-on-the-congressional-pressure-cooker
Many veterans have simply given up in the battle over Agent Orange. With so many no longer alive there are fewer voices to tell the stories. As I have been writing, this IS NOT an issue confined to Vietnam as we all know. Agent Orange was used in many countries and local communities, forests, and along the nation’s highways back here at home.

With Agent Orange legislation the focus of committee hearings in both the Senate and House, this is not the time to cut and run. This is the time to keep the lid on the pressure cooker and not let up. As I said in Friday’s column, the government and the chemical companies devised a game plan early-on to divide the enemy (the US veterans, civilian populations, the government contractors, and the USO volunteers), keep each isolated as much as possible, and wait out the inevitable time period when our numbers die off.

We will never know to what degree collusion between government agencies and the chemical companies has occurred because the way the system works, there has been no simple way to drag them all into court, present all the evidence, and let the jury decide. No, the cards are stacked against those with claims, with “tribunal-type systems”, which restrict access to justice. Decisions are being made by bureaucrats based on applications that have to be made without full access to all the facts. Since the government controls the records/files, and can hide behind the cloak of secrecy, it becomes a steep uphill climb for an individual to justify his/her claim in many instances. By keeping each group separated…“boats on the ground”, blue water navy, civilian contractors, and USO volunteers, each must navigate whatever legal channels can be opened, which is beyond the financial reach of most.

Vet claims exposure to Agent Orange on Guam

2011-10-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

http://www.kuam.com/story/15646771/2011/10/08/vet-claims-exposure-to-agent-orange-on-guam
by Nick Delgado

Guam - Veterans and their families who were on Guam during the Vietnam War and were exposed to Agent Orange have launched a petition drive, calling on the Obama Administration to launch a full investigation into the matter. One such veteran hopes the White House will listen and learn from his story.

"I'm Master Sergeant Leroy Foster," the man said, introducing himself. "I'm retired from the U.S. Air Force. I came over to Guam during the Vietnam War 412 with the 99th Air Force Base and I was assigned to at that time it was the 3960th Combat Support Group. I think it was the 819th Support Squadron converted to the 43rd Supply Squadron."

According to Foster, he arrived to Guam in September 1968. "I was assigned to the Fuel Division and I worked on fuel tank farms refueling aircrafts, B-52s. They had me spraying Agent Orange herbicides."

Foster is one of many veterans who say they were exposed to Agent Orange on Guam during the Vietnam War and have signed a petition calling on President Barack Obama to launch an investigation. Foster says it wasn't too long after working in the fuel tank farms on Guam his health began to deteriorate and just got worse through his military career and into retirement. "Sometime in 1978, not realizing that it was all connected to Agent Orange, I ended up having some severe health problems right up ‘til I retired from active duty. But they discovered I had spongeolosis. I was denied employment after I retired from active duty because I'm paralyzed from my waist down."

He added, "[I] had strokes and heart attacks not knowing what happened to me, and then in July 2009, the Agent Orange Commission released Agent Orange Update and I realized then what was happening to me and it was from those herbicides that I sprayed over there in Guam from and on Andersen AFB and off-base."

A total of 5,000 signatures are needed in order to get the White House's attention. Currently there are only 126 people who have signed the petition.

If you would like to read the petition you can read it on http://www.whitehouse.gov/. The deadline to get the required number of signatures is October 22. Meanwhile, Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo supports the initiative, telling KUAM News that individuals who may have been exposed to these chemicals deserve to have this matter investigated fully.

Monsanto is secretly poisoning the population with Roundup

2011-10-07T08:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.naturalnews.com/033772_Monsanto_Roundup.html#ixzz1a5G4Y6k4
(NaturalNews) Dr. Andreas Carrasco remained in the locked car and watched with fear as the crowd beat the vehicle and shouted at him -- for two hours. His friends who didn't make it into the vehicle were not so lucky. One ended up paralyzed. Another unconscious. The angry crowd of about 100 were likely organized by a local rice grower who was furious at Carrasco for what he was trying to do that day. Carrasco's crime? Telling people that Roundup herbicide from Monsanto causes birth defects in animals, and probably humans.

Carrasco is a leading embryologist at the University of Buenos Aires Medical School and the Argentinean national research council. He had heard the horrific stories of peasant farmers working near the vast fields of Roundup Ready soybeans -- plants genetically engineered to withstand generous doses of Monsanto's poisonous weed killer. The short-term impact of getting sprayed was obvious: skin rashes, headaches, loss of appetite, and for one 11 year old Paraguayan boy named Silvino Talavera, who biked through a fog of herbicides in 2003, death. But Carrasco also heard about the rise of birth defects, cancer, and other disorders that now plagued the peasants who were sprayed by plane. He decided to conduct a study.

Exposing Roundup's 30 year cover-up of birth defects
Carrasco injected minute amounts of Roundup into chicken and frog embryos, and sure enough, the offspring exhibited the same type of birth deformities that the peasant communities were seeing in their newborns. A report by the provincial government of Chaco soon followed, confirming that those living near soy and rice fields sprayed with Roundup and other chemicals did in fact have higher rates of birth defects -- nearly a fourfold increase between 2000-2009. (Child cancer rates tripled during the same period.)

Regulatory agencies had given Roundup a green light years before, claiming that it was free of such problems. However after Carrasco's findings were published, European authorities quietly pushed their official re-assessment of Roundup, due in 2012, back to 2015. And the German Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety, charged with responding to Carrasco's findings, issued a statement claiming that the Argentine scientist must be mistaken; earlier studies conducted by manufacturers of Roundup (including Monsanto) had already demonstrated that Roundup does not cause birth defects.

But in June 2011, a group of international scientists released a report detailing a massive cover-up that went back to the 1980s. The very industry studies cited by the German Consumer Protection office in fact showed just the opposite. Roundup did increase birth defects. Using scientific sleight of hand, Europe's regulators had ignored statistically significant increases in birth defects, and so did every other regulatory agency worldwide. Monsanto has relied on these misleading statements of safety by regulators ever since, using them to deny that Roundup causes birth defects.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/033772_Monsanto_Roundup.html#ixzz1a6wNHDJD

Dioxin-Like Chemical Messenger Makes Brain Tumors More Aggressive

2011-10-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006102615.htm
ScienceDaily (Oct. 6, 2011) — A research alliance of Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ), jointly with colleagues of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, has discovered a new metabolic pathway which makes malignant brain tumors (gliomas) more aggressive and weakens patients' immune systems. Using drugs to inhibit this metabolic pathway is a new approach in cancer treatment.

The group's results have been published in the journal Nature.

Glioma is the most frequent and most malignant brain tumor in adults. In Germany, about 4,500 people are newly diagnosed with glioma every year. About 75 percent of such tumors are considered particularly aggressive with an average life expectancy of eight months to two years. The standard treatment is surgery to remove the tumor as completely as possible, followed by radiotherapy, usually in combination with chemotherapy. However, results are unsatisfactory, because these tumors are very resilient and soon start growing back. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new treatment approaches.

Tumors grow more aggressively and immune system is weakened

The Helmholtz Junior Research Group "Experimental Neuroimmunology" led by Professor Dr. Michael Platten of DKFZ and the Department of Neurooncology of Heidelberg University Hospital and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) headed by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Wick have come across the kynurenin molecule in their studies of human cancer cells and in the mouse model. Kynurenin is formed when the amino acid tryptophan -- a protein component taken in with food -- is broken down in the body. "We have been able to detect increased levels of kynurenin in cancer cells of glioma patients with particularly aggressive tumors," Professor Michael Platten explained. The current research results from Heidelberg show that this link also appears to exist in other types of cancer such as cancers of the bladder, bowel or lungs.

READ MORE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111006102615.htm

AOZ Posting & Distribution

2011-10-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Please check AgentOrangeZone.blogspot.com regularly for new postings.Items of interest are posted almost daily. Distribution is typically done twice each week unless a time sensitive item is posted. There are always exceptions to the rules.

26 Hawkins Vietnam Vets get $2.7 million for Agent Orange exposure

2011-10-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.timesnews.net/article/9036488/26-hawkins-vietnam-vets-get-27-million-for-agent-orange-exposure
ROGERSVILLE (Tennessee)— Vietnam veterans nationwide who were exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange during the war are now being awarded disability back pay for heart disease. Among those receiving payments are 26 Hawkins County veterans who have been paid a total of more than $2.7 million in the past 11 months.

A lawsuit against the Veterans Administration was settled last year in favor of Vietnam veterans. The lawsuit, as of Nov. 1, 2010, established ischemic heart disease as a presumptive service connected condition based on exposure to herbicides used during the Vietnam War.

Information about Agent Orange & possible health-related problems and VA benefits

2011-10-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/29/agent-orange-update/
Latest Agent Orange Report: The Institute of Medicine has just released, “Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2010.” This is one in a series of reviews of the long-term health effects of herbicides on Vietnam Veterans. VA is assessing this report.
New Vietnam Veterans ship list: VA has released a list of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships that operated in Vietnam to help Vietnam-era Veterans find out if they qualify for presumption of Agent Orange exposure.

Agent Orange is the name of a specific blend of herbicides used during the Vietnam era. The military sprayed millions of gallons on trees and vegetation that provided cover for enemy forces.

Some Vietnam-era Veterans were exposed to these herbicides. Learn how Veterans may have been exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides during military service, including outside Vietnam.

VA and many other government departments and agencies have conducted research studies on the possible health effects of Agent Orange exposure on U.S. Veterans.

VA has recognized certain cancers and other diseases related to Agent Orange exposure. Veterans, Veterans’ children and survivors may be eligible for compensation benefits for these diseases and health care benefits.

50 Years of Poisoning - Agent Orange on Okinawa

2011-10-05T16:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/agent-orange-on-okinawa/

“Without Okinawa, we cannot carry on the Vietnam war.”

– Admiral Ulysses Sharp, Commander of U.S. Pacific Forces, December 1965.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, the United States military transformed Okinawa into a forward operating base for its war in Vietnam. From mainland American ports, it transported supplies to the island it dubbed its “Keystone of the Pacific” before transferring them into smaller ships for the passage to South East Asia. But there is one vital ingredient of its war machine that the Pentagon denies ever passed through Okinawa – the defoliant, Agent Orange.

Given the fact that the military transported everything else through the island – from tanks and toilet paper to guard dogs and hundreds of thousands of GI’s – such a claim is implausible. Yet as recently as 2004, the US government has asserted that its records “contain no information linking use or storage of Agent Orange or other herbicides in Okinawa.”

Over the past few years, though, the cracks in that denial have started to show. In 2007, it came to light that the Department of Veterans Affairs – the US government body responsible for caring for sick soldiers – awarded compensation to a marine who had developed prostate cancer as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in the northern jungles of the island. Then in 2009, the same department admitted that “herbicide agents were stored and later disposed in Okinawa” during Operation Red Hat – the 1971 US military project to remove its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons from Okinawa to Johnston Island.

READ MORE: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/09/30/agent-orange-on-okinawa/

Review of Risk Assessment Work Plan for the Medical Countermeasures Test and Evaluation Facility at Fort Detrick: A Letter Report

2011-10-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

Committee on Risk Assessment of the Medical Countermeasures Test and
Evaluation (MCMT&E) Facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland; National
Research Council
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13265

Veterans keep waiting for their just rewards

2011-10-03T11:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/oct/01/anthony-westbury-veterans-keep-waiting-for-their/
Cathryn Currie of St. Lucie West is sick of waiting.

She has spent the past two years going back and forth with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs over disability payments for her Vietnam veteran husband's service-related illnesses.

Sadly, her husband, Tech. Sgt. William C. Currie, couldn't wait anymore.

He died in January, suffering from dementia, prostate cancer and Parkinson's Disease that the VA agreed in 2010 were a result of his exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange during two tours in Vietnam.

Over the past two years, his widow has amassed a mountain of paperwork relating to the claim, and the VA keeps asking for the same information over and over, she said.

"Are they waiting for me to die, too?," Currie, 77, wonders. She calls the VA's Pension Maintenance Center in Philadelphia "a broken-down business."

READ MORE: http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/oct/01/anthony-westbury-veterans-keep-waiting-for-their/

Judge Lets Agent Orange Case Against Monsanto Proceed

2011-10-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/09/29/217902.htm
Monsanto Co. has lost a bid to close part of a lawsuit alleging the company caused health injuries to residents living near a plant that made the Vietnam War-era U.S. military defoliant “Agent Orange.”

Monsanto, which operated a Nitro, West Virginia, chemical plant from 1934 to 2000, argued it was working as a government contractor and therefore protected from certain claims related to its waste disposal at that facility.

But U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in New York on Wednesday rejected the company’s request for partial summary judgment based on its “government contractor defense” and said the suit, filed in 2009 by West Virginia residents, could proceed.

Monsanto spokesman Thomas Helscher said the case related to “the former Monsanto company from over 40 years ago.”

“Although the motion has been denied at this time, we remain confident that we will prevail on the merits at the trial of this case,” Helscher said.

In his written ruling, Gardephe cited the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upholding a trial court’s finding in signature Agent Orange litigation.

“Here, there is no evidence that the U.S. government was ever aware of the alleged open pit burning practice, much less that it had evaluated the hazard posed by such a practice,” Gardephe said.

“Because defendants have not demonstrated that the complained-of activity — the open pit burning of dioxin waste at the Nitro plant — was conducted ‘pursuant to reasonably precise government specifications,’ their motion for summary judgment based on the government contractor defense must be denied,” the judge said.

Monsanto manufactured a herbicide — 2,4,5- trichlorophenoxyacacidic acid (“2,4,5-T”) — a compound used in “Agent Orange,” so-called in the Vietnam War because of the orange color of the barrels in which it was stored.

Plaintiffs Mary Spaulding and Sandy Spaulding lived in the Nitro area during the period of Monsanto’s activities and said they suffered injuries from being exposed to the harmful chemicals, which are also known as dioxins, due to negligence disposal practices by Monsanto.

In the lawsuit, plaintiffs allege Monsanto disposed of the dangerous dioxin waste by burning the materials in open pits. They said the dioxin also contaminated soils.

In 1984, seven chemical companies, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, agreed to a $180 million settlement with U.S. veterans who claimed that agent orange caused health problems.

The case is Mary Spaulding and Sandy Spaulding v. Monsanto Company, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 09-09470.

Children of Agent Orange - How a group of US veterans in Vietnam are trying to atone for the mistakes of the past

2011-10-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/09/2011928111920665336.html
Fifty years ago this month, in the early stages of the Vietnam War, the US military began spraying rural areas of the country with the herbicide, Agent Orange. The programme's goal was to defoliate forested land, depriving the enemy Viet Cong of cover and driving peasants to the cities, thus destroying the Viet Cong's support base and food supply.

Over the next 10 years more than 80 million litres were deployed across 7.4 million hectares of Vietnam, eastern Laos and parts of Cambodia. They were an effective defoliant, but there is strong evidence that the deadly dioxins contained in Agent Orange also had a catastrophic effect on the health of millions of Vietnamese – killing hundreds of thousands and causing dreadful diseases and birth defects in subsequent generations right up to this day.

Thousands of US servicemen - men who handled the herbicide and who operated in areas where it was deployed - were affected too, and they and their families eventually won compensation through the courts. But attempts to get similar US financial aid for the Vietnamese victims, or even much help with a clean up of polluted land, have been less successful.

With many areas of Vietnam still poisoned by the dioxin and the country's hard pressed health and welfare services struggling to support those suffering, this film by Risto Vuorinen tells the remarkable story of the children of Agent Orange and a group of US veterans in Vietnam who are trying to atone for the mistakes of the past.

Gillibrand, Graham To Help 250,000 Vietnam Vets Harmed By Agent Orange, But Ignored By Feds Due To Technicality In The Law

2011-10-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

http://gillibrand.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=ba519e08-57cc-4d7d-8fde-d56fd7a967b0
Current Law Would Require VA to Provide Benefits for Service Members Exposed to Agent Orange On Dry Ground, But Ignores Vets In the Water

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced legislation to ensure that more than 250,000 Navy veterans from the Vietnam War exposed to the powerful toxin Agent Orange will be eligible to receive the disability and health care benefits they have earned for diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam to remove jungle foliage. This toxic chemical had devastating effects for millions serving in Vietnam. In 1991, Congress passed a law requiring the Veterans Administration (VA) to provide presumptive coverage to Vietnam veterans with illnesses that the Institute of Medicine has directly linked to Agent Orange exposure. However, in 2002 the VA determined that it would only cover Veterans who could prove that they had orders for “boots on the ground” during the Vietnam War. This exclusion affects as many as 250,000 sailors who may have still received significant Agent Orange exposure from receiving VA benefits.

“Because of technicality in the law, hundreds of thousands of American veterans are being denied the benefits they need and deserve,” Senator Gillibrand said. “Our government must fulfill its commitment to the service members who have fallen victim to Agent Orange-related disease and enact new legislation that will provide our vets with the disability compensation and healthcare benefits they have earned. Agent Orange is a very difficult chapter in our nation’s history. It is time that we correct the errors of the past.”

“This is a legacy issue that needs to be dealt with,” said Senator Graham. “There are Vietnam vets who are suffering from Agent-Orange related illnesses and we need to ensure they are getting the care they need. It’s now time to ensure the government takes care of their needs which were incurred during their defense of our nation.”

READ MORE: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=ba519e08-57cc-4d7d-8fde-d56fd7a967b0

Vitenam Navy Vets Deserve Better Than Second-Class Treatment

2011-10-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2011/09/vitenam-navy-vets-deserve-better-than-second-class-treatment
By ALISON GENDAR

New York’s junior senator is leading a bi-partisan push to make sure thousands of Naval vets exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War get the health benefits they are entitled to.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) teamed up with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R—N.C.) on legislation that would enable Naval veterans exposed to the toxin to get disability and health care benefits.

The Veterans Administration decided in 2002 it would only provide Agent Orange benefits to veterans who could prove they had orders for “boots on the ground,” a definition that excluded some 250,000 sailors who may have still received significant Agent Orange exposure.

“Because of technicality in the law, hundreds of thousands of American veterans are being denied the benefits they need and deserve,” Gillibrand said.

“Agent Orange is a very difficult chapter in our nation’s history. It is time that we correct the errors of the past," she said.

The U.S. military sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam to remove jungle foliage.

Blue Water Navy Vets – veterans who were on duty in the waters around Vietnam, but did not have “boots on the ground” – were often exposed to Agent Orange on a daily basis, Gillibrand noted.

In 2005, the VA’s former director of Environmental Agents Service publicly acknowledged that there was no scientific basis for the exclusion of Blue Water Vietnam veterans, but the VA has continued to refuse these veterans the benefits.

2011-09-28T11:34:00.000-07:00

Loose Cannons Inc. invites you & friends to an
Open House
with Noam Chomsky & Fred Wilcox, author of
Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam &
Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange
Monday, October 17, 2011
2 to 3:30 pm
at
Loose Cannons Inc.
471 West End Avenue (near 82nd Street) NY NY 10024
followed by a
Colloquy and Book-signing
with Noam Chomsky & Fred Wilcox
4 pm
at the
Housing Works Thrift Store
2569 Broadway (near 96th Street) NY NY 10025
Vietnamese food will be served at the Open House.
Photo enlargements & books will be on sale.

Raising Awareness in Memory of Dad

2011-09-28T10:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.vetsfirst.org/raising-awareness-in-memory-of-dad/
“This month is Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month. My father-in-law was a Vietnam veteran who was diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He passed away in 4 months. We never put it together that he was a veteran and that his condition was presumptively related to his service. Below, my husband Jonathan shares his story. We hope you also take a moment to watch the video we put together in his memory.” ––Heather Ansley, Esq., MSW, VetsFirst director of Veterans Policy.

My dad, James Ansley, was a Vietnam veteran. He died on January 4, 2008. Four months earlier, he had been diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Anytime something like this happens it is difficult at best.

Unfortunately, my dad’s fortunes crashed with the real estate market in Florida. When he got sick, he had no health insurance and few other resources.

My family did not have time to process the emotions of the situation. We spent our time applying for Medicaid, Social Security disability, and food stamps for my dad. We also moved him from Florida to live with my sister in Arkansas.

It wasn’t until after he passed away that we realized his cancer was presumptively related to his military service in Vietnam. If we had understood VA benefits, we would have known that he most likely would have been eligible for VA disability compensation and health care.

My dad liked to help people. This month is Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month. It is in his memory that my wife Heather and I pass along his story in hopes of helping another family.

If you or someone you know served in Vietnam and has cancer or another serious disease, please check here to see if you may be eligible for VA benefits.

Agent Orange Woes Draw Attention From Blumenthal, National Vets Group

2011-09-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/agent_orange_woes_draw_attention_from_blumenthal_national_vets_group/
by Lisa Chedekel
Over the years, Andy Gow of Wallingford didn’t know what to make of word that more and more of his former Air Force buddies were being diagnosed with prostate cancer or diabetes.

Then, in 2003, he got the news firsthand—he had both diseases – and began to connect the dots.

“I never had boots on the ground in Vietnam, but I know for a fact that they were spraying Agent Orange” at Udorn base in Thailand, about 10 miles from where Gow was stationed from 1967 to 1969. “A lot of the guys who are sick have filed claims with the VA, but they’ve all been rejected. It doesn’t seem right.”

Gow was among about a dozen veterans who met Tuesday in Rocky Hill for an informal discussion of Agent Orange exposure with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., state veterans affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz, and Rick Weidman, executive director for policy & government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America. Blumenthal and Schwartz convened the meeting to begin forming an action plan to help Vietnam veterans suffering from health problems connected to Agent Orange exposure get compensation from the VA.

“The health problems of our veterans who were exposed to substances used in Vietnam, without any real knowledge, are something we should not ignore,” Blumenthal told the group. “This is a step towards educating us to see what we can do.”

The group said that while the VA has taken steps to expand the list of illnesses linked to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, the agency has yet to recognize claims from veterans who did not serve in-country, but were exposed to residual toxins in the U.S. and other countries. That issue is of special interest in New England, where many Air Force reservists from Connecticut and Massachusetts flew out of Westover Air Force Base on planes that had been used to spray the herbicides.

READ MORE: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/agent_orange_woes_draw_attention_from_blumenthal_national_vets_group/

The Toxic Chemical Dioxin

2011-09-27T08:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.ttcdd.org/2011/09/22/the-toxic-chemical-dioxin/
The question seemed simple.

“In human medicine, most people would agree that a person becomes sick with a cold or flu when their immune system is depressed. Has anyone thought about what that suppress the immune system of humans and chickens inVietnam, making them? more sensitive to the lethal H5N1 Has anyone looked into that suppress the immune system of migratory birds “The question was posed to Dr. Alex Thiermann, President of the Organization of the OIE, World Organization Animal Health at its summit bird flu first in Washington, DC, February 27? – 28, 2006. His answer: “Nobody looks at it in reality, no one has even thought about it” was repeated by journalists and academics during the coffee break that followed.

An investigation into the immunosuppressive effects of chemicals in the environment – with particular emphasis on dioxins – can shed light on the houses scattered and disconnected, apparently of avian flu around the world. The association between dioxin and the flu can still explain the increased number of deaths in China,Vietnam,Indonesia and in particular.

READ MORE: http://www.ttcdd.org/2011/09/22/the-toxic-chemical-dioxin/

Dioxins present at Parker Street Waste Site

2011-09-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110926/NEWS/109260318/-1/NEWS10
By Dan McDonald
September 26, 2011 12:00 AM

NEW BEDFORD — A recent environmental consultant memo affirms that dioxins are present in soil around the high school, according to a scientist, while CLEAN, a local environmental advocacy group, is calling for more assessment at the site.

In June, city consultants took soil samples from around the high school and proceeded to test the samples for dioxins and dioxin-like compounds.

The consultants, Lowell-based TRC, released a memo last week regarding the sampling.

The school sits atop the Parker Street Waste Site, which formerly was an industrial burn dump for decades during the last century.

While acknowledging that "it is difficult to assess what the data from the June sampling means in the big picture," Ian Phillips, a scientist who is working pro bono for CLEAN, did say the memo indicates "they need to consider dioxins as a contaminant of concern at the site."

Polychlorinated biphenyls, organic compounds considered to be carcinogenic by the Department of Health and Human Services, were used in lubricating agents in the manufacture of electrolytic capacitors at New Bedford factories, and were among the substances dumped at Parker Street. They were not known to cause cancer at the time.

Dioxins are toxic compounds that result from the burning of PCBs and other organic materials.

Tom Derosier, CLEAN vice president, said based on "the dioxin sampling that has been done to date, it only validates that more investigation has to be done."
READ MORE: http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110926/NEWS/109260318/-1/NEWS10

THE ASPEN INSTITUTE, USAID AND PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTNERS COMMIT TO HELP DISABLED IN VIETNAM AT THE CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE

2011-09-27T08:48:00.000-07:00

The Rockefeller Foundation, Children of Vietnam , IBM and Hyatt among private donors
New York, NY, September 22, 2011 –– At the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Aspen Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, IBM, Hyatt Hotels and many other private sector donors, committed to provide assistance to address the challenges of the disabled in Vietnam, without regard to cause.

The announcement at the CGI, valued at over $3.5 million, represents a unique opportunity for governments, foundations and the private sector to coordinate efforts to improve the lives of people with disabilities.

In the 40 years since the end of the war in Vietnam , the country has become a regional economic and commercial leader, and its relations with the United States have steadily improved. But high rates of physical and mental disabilities have continued to afflict the Vietnamese, causing heartache to countless families and a major economic burden to the country.

The CGI commitment includes $3 million from USAID. “In Vietnam , the U.S. Government has provided over $48 million in assistance since 1989 to people with disabilities. USAID’s assistance addresses the health, education, livelihood and social needs and promotes equal opportunities for and social integration of people with disabilities to enable them to contribute to Vietnam ’s growing economy,” said Frank Donovan, USAID Mission Director in Vietnam .

The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin, has created a comprehensive ten-year strategic Plan of Action that includes practical steps to expand humanitarian services to people with disabilities and their families, without regard to cause. The Dialogue Group is co-chaired by Aspen Institute president Walter Isaacson, who remarked that the Dialogue Group “has helped move both countries towards a common understanding of how to address the challenge of meeting the needs of people with disabilities. We are delighted to see the Plan of Action’s recommendations gain real momentum with help from so many partners.”

Dr. Charles Bailey heads Aspen’s program, which seeks financial contributions and in-kind technical assistance from US corporations, foundations and private individuals, as well as governments, in an unusual alliance of public and private partners in the two countries. The program will support projects which pilot and expand models for comprehensive services benefiting people with disabilities and their families, in collaboration with local governments and agencies in Vietnam . This program will demonstrate ways that alliances of public and private partners can contribute to improving the lives of people with disabilities.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Since 2005, CGI Annual Meetings have brought together nearly 150 current and former heads of state, 18 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, along with heads of foundations, major philanthropists, directors of the most effective nongovernmental organizations, and prominent members of the media. These CGI members have made nearly 2,000 commitments, which have already improved the lives of 300 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued in excess of $63 billion. The CGI community also includes CGI University (CGI U), a forum to engage college students in global citizenship, MyCommitment.org, an online portal where anybody can make a Commitment to Action, and CGI Lead, which engages a select group of young CGI members for leadership development and collective commitment-making. CGI America is the newest addition to this community. For more information, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington , DC ; Aspen , Colorado ; and on the Wye River on Maryland 's Eastern Shore . It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit http://www.aspeninstitute.org/

Former pastor accuses Fort Detrick of causing nearby residents’ cancers

2011-09-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

http://www.gazette.net/article/20110919/NEWS/709199921/1009/former-pastor-accuses-fort-detrick-of-causing-nearby-residents&template=gazette

White said he thinks he could go to jail for disclosing communications with Fort Detrick officials
by Katherine Heerbrandt, Staff Writer

A former Florida pastor who blames Fort Detrick for causing his daughter and ex-wife’s fatal cancers told a group Saturday he could wind up in jail for his efforts to ferret the truth from Detrick officials.

As part of a package distributed to the media, Randy White, a native of Frederick, included a recording he made of a meeting last summer between his representatives and Detrick officials, moderated by Dr. Barbara Brookmyer, health officer for the Frederick County Health Department.

Gary Zolyak, an attorney for the fort, was at the meeting, which he said was to exchange ideas on how to handle White’s allegations that Fort Detrick’s actions have caused environmental cancers in hundreds of people who live near it.

“Randy [White] had a laptop open during the meeting. We told him that we do not consent to having [the meeting] recorded, and he assured us he would not,” Zolyak said in an interview Monday.

White denied that his group was asked to refrain from recording the meeting.

READ MORE: http://www.gazette.net/article/20110919/NEWS/709199921/1009/former-pastor-accuses-fort-detrick-of-causing-nearby-residents&template=gazette

Gulf War Claims Deadline

2011-09-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.military.com/veterans-report/gulf-war-claims-deadline?ESRC=vr.nl
For Gulf War Veterans with certain ailments like: Chronic fatigue syndrome; Firbromyalgia; Functional gastrointestinal disorders; and other undiagnosed illnesses the current deadline for when the condition must have "appeared" is on or before December 31, 2011. If you have any conditions that are "undiagnosed" and you did a tour in the Middle East, this could apply to you. The VA is working to extend the deadline to December 31, 2018. If this occurs, it will be great news for veterans and military members who develop symptoms after the 2011 cut-off. However, since there is no guarantee that the deadline will be extended veterans suffering from undiagnosed conditions are encouraged to talk with their Veteran Service Officer about filing a disability claim for these conditions.
Check out the Military Advantage Blog to get more information.

Dig It!

2011-09-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/agent_orange_and_our_legacy_of_chemical_warfare_20110909/

This week on Truthdig Radio, in collaboration with KPFK, we hear about Agent Orange and the continuing devastation from America’s chemical warfare.

book review; "Scorched Earth" by Fred Wilcox

2011-09-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

In the past thirty three years I have read every book published on the tragedy of Agent Orange and dioxin. Beyond a doubt, "Scorched Earth" written by Fred Wilcox is one of the most informative works of truth released on the market. This expose is published by Seven Stories Press and released in September. 2011. For most people, who have little knowledge on the devastating affects on dioxin thanks to the suppression by industry, this book is a valuable work of truth that can be disseminated to the world.

Although I was logically aware of the fact that North Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange and dioxin while fighting in the south, the magnitude of the problem is just now becoming an issue for human dialogue. Wilcox points out that Dr. Ton That Tung illuminated the fact that North Vietnamese woman were never exposed to dioxin while living in the north during the war. I have some of Dr. Tung's studies and they have been reviewed by some of the most eminent scientists in the United Stated. The striking observation is that the birth defects experienced by the families of North Vietnamese soldiers could not have come from the exposure of females. THEREFORE, the defects must have been male mediated. Also, many of the North Vietnamese birth defects are the same anomalies experienced by American soldiers. Hopefully, Wilcox just opened up Pandora’s Box.

One of the many interesting points of "Scorched Earth" is that Judge Weinstein went out of his way to assume that the U.S. Government knew about the poison dioxin which as a byproduct of Agent Orange. Judge Weinstein knew that by alleging the knowledge of dioxin to the U.S. Government the defendant chemical companies could evade liability by the Government Contractor Defense. Is it any wonder that that the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York is known as the "Wall Street Court"? Also, why was the original judge in the Agent Orange case removed by promotion to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals? (Judge George C. Pratt). Perhaps this move paved the way for Weinstein to unleash his own far fetched theories on tort liability in the industrial age. When Weinstein said that the U.S. Government knew about dioxin, why was the Government going to build their own Agent Orange facility at Weldon Springs, Missouri. Wilcox illuminates this irony.

I would recommend "Scorched Earth" for anyone to read; but, particularly for those who have little knowledge on the toxic affects of Agent Orange and dioxin. This book is the best handbook ever written on Agent Orange and dioxin. It could be utilized as a primer on the subject and it must be disseminated through out the world. People must not be misled by propaganda when their friends and neighbors are dying from dioxin poisoning.

Faithfully submitted

George Claxton, Chair Emeritus
National Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee
Vietnam Veterans of America

Agent Orange treated mountains burn, sending smoke into Arizona communities

2011-09-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-mesa/agent-orange-treated-mountains-burn-sending-smoke-into-arizona-communities
Lola Veil, Mesa Public Policy Examiner

The Frio Fire, that burned in the Pinal Mountains near Globe Arizona, burned from August 28 to sometime in mid September. The fire was lightning caused. The Forest Service utilized the fire to clear underbrush. This natural thinning of the forest is good for the ecosystem and helps to prevent a more catastrophic fire in the future.

There are however issues with how the smoke affected, and will affect, the health of the community. Nearly everyone we have talked to experienced some type of negative physical affects from the smoke.

There is also the issue of what some in area call “Globe's Dirty Little Secret.” That being the fact in 1965, the US Forest Service began a land improvement program in the Pinal Mountains. The program called for spraying an area of chaparral with Agent Orange to accomplish the objectives of multiple land use. The toxins were sprayed numerous times through 1965 to 1969.

There is a great deal of information available on the internet regarding the health affects this toxin had on Globe/Miami citizens. Many died very young, suffering from the horrific affects of Agent Orange. The water table in the canyons was polluted. There are reports of ongoing health issues with children and grandchildren of those exposed.
READ MORE: http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-mesa/agent-orange-treated-mountains-burn-sending-smoke-into-arizona-communities

Where Have All The Lawyers Gone…Long Time Passing

2011-09-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/07/where-have-all-the-lawyers-gone-long-time-passing/

by Ed Mattson
On Monday I wrote about those who have fallen through the crack at the VA regarding their application for benefits from exposure to Agent Orange and other toxins. Over the course of the years many veterans have filed claims that were denied; went through the appeals process, sought legal counsel, and have still come up short.

Not surprising to most, my research and research done by many others, have turned up a massive cover-up by the government in support of Big Chemical (Dow, Monsanto, and 10-12 other companies) in denial of the effects of Agent Orange and other toxins as being the cause of countless healthcare issues. This has occurred not only among Vietnam era veterans, but also USO volunteers, innocent civilians in the countries where such toxins were deployed, and by citizens in countries that are US Allies.
READ MORE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/07/where-have-all-the-lawyers-gone-long-time-passing/

US Military Defoliants on Okinawa: Agent Orange

2011-09-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.truth-out.org/us-military-defoliants-okinawa-agent-orange/1315921304
by: Jon Mitchell, The Asia-Pacific Journal

On August 19th, 2011, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement in response to recent media coverage about the US military’s use and storage of defoliants (including Agent Orange) on Okinawa during the Vietnam War. MOFA announced that, although it had requested the US Department of Defense to investigate these allegations, Washington had replied that it was unable to find any evidence from the period in question. As a result, Tokyo asked the US government to re-check its records in more detail.1 This was the first time that the Japanese government had asked the US about military defoliants since 2007 - and its refusal to accept the Pentagon’s stock denial was rare. The current announcement arose after two weeks of unprecedented press reports which alleged that these chemicals had been widely used on Okinawa during the 1960s and ‘70s.
READ MORE: http://www.truth-out.org/us-military-defoliants-okinawa-agent-orange/1315921304

AGENT ORANGE: AN EXPOSURE (1980)

2011-09-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0cJUmEWlxE
This short video (1980) details the deadly and mutagenic effects of Agent Orange. It not only killed Vietnam veterans through it's carcinogenic properties. It also caused birth defects in their children. This chemical agent might very well be responsible for the deaths of more Americans than their opponents the National Liberation Front and the North Vietnamese Army.

This film was produced by James Byrd, Michael Galvis and Celeste Villareal.

Banned pesticide found in human milk

2011-09-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-14/health/30153979_1_human-milk-ddt-dairy-products

Banned agricultural pesticide DDT, which can cause cancer, is still widely found in human bodies, new research claims.

In a study of 146 human milk samples, most of the Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) were from the DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) group, said noted environmental researchers Tze Wai Wong of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"Finding them in human milk indicates that these pollutants are still present in food chain, which means that they're highly persistent and have a slow decline rate.

They are still being used in some countries in food production - neither of which is good news for consumers," says Wong, according to a statement of CRC for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment.

Truth Revealed: Fort Detrick Cancer Cluster Fighting For Frederick Press Conference September 14, 2011 at 1:00 p.m.

2011-09-14T10:17:00.000-07:00

Date: Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Time: 1 p.m. - 2 p.m.

Location: The W Washington DC

515 15th Street NW Washington, DC 20004 (202) 661-2407

Monday, September 12, 2011- The Kristen Renee Foundation and Fighting for Frederick announces a press conference to be held. It has been one year since the Kristen Renee Foundation started its campaign; "Fighting for Frederick" to investigate the mishaps at Fort Detrick, which we believe are the causes of the cancers and illnesses that have affected more then 1,000 families who have worked at or lived near Area B. Throughout the past year we have uncovered shocking evidence and have continued to fight for truth and justice. Fighting for Frederick has not stopped; in fact, we recently discovered information that you need to see.

We have brand new results and significant findings that will be released during a PRESS CONFERENCE, Wednesday September 14, 2011 at 1:00 p.m. to be held at The W Washington DC, located at 515 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004 (202) 661-2407 Please join us to hear these facts being released for the first time.

Randy White, of the Kristen Renee Foundation, also invites you and your family to join him and Fighting for Frederick at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 17, 2011 at the International Community Church (formerly Maranatha), 123 Byte Drive, Frederick, Maryland 21702. For directions, please call (301) 663-5444. Fighting for Frederick is coming together, just as we did on July 10, 2010 to reveal what has been accomplished, honor those who have died in this fight, unveil new information and to share with you a definitive plan of action that has been put in place over the last 30 days. The truth is being revealed!!

Contact us: (301) 433-4561
info@fightingforfrederick.org

Media Contact: Rachel Kelley-Pisani
(703) 203-4961

Here We Go Again! - Don't let depleted uranium become another Agent Orange

2011-09-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

http://www.pjstar.com/opinion/spotlight/x948306006/In-the-Spotlight-Dont-let-depleted-uranium-become-another-Agent-Orange
On Aug. 24, my son died. His name was Aaron Barnes. He was 26 with a wife and two young children. He died of a very rare and extremely aggressive cancer called Sacramatoid Renal Sarcoma.
Aaron was a soldier. He joined the Army in response to 9/11. He served two tours in Iraq, a total of 26 months.

During his time in Iraq, he was exposed daily to depleted uranium. This is believed to have caused his cancer. Depleted uranium is everywhere in Iraq and Afghanistan, as leftover shrapnel from previous wars. Veterans of the current wars are coming home and getting sick with rare diseases at a much higher percentage than the general population.

Unfortunately, neither the U.S. Department of Defense nor the Veterans Administration are releasing this information or suggesting that returning soldiers be tested regularly, before symptoms become present.

It took several months for Aaron to be diagnosed. During that time, he repeatedly stated that it was from exposure to something in Iraq. When he was finally operated on and diagnosed, he lived four more months.

If you know a veteran from the current wars or are one yourself, please be hypervigilant about your health. Mention to your doctor that you were exposed to depleted uranium. My son may have had a chance if his doctors knew what they were dealing with.

Please don't let DU be this generation's Agent Orange. Write to your congressmen, senators, the Defense Department and VA, asking them to address this matter. Aaron was a casualty of war just as if he had been killed in combat.

I would also like to thank everyone who helped my son during his illness: Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Fishkin, the Cancer Care nurses, Graham Hospice, the hospital nurses and everyone who contributed to his children's educational fund. I especially want to thank the Legion and VFW members and the Patriot Guard Riders for providing a wonderful military service. Also, thank you to the Fairview Auxiliary for the great dinner following the funeral.
Kim Schisler is Aaron Barnes' mother and lives in Canton.

CANTON —
Aaron S. Barnes, 26, of 1465 E. Myrtle St. Canton, passed away Wednesday (Aug. 24, 2011) at 8:15 a.m. at his residence.
He was born Feb. 9, 1985, in Houston, Texas, the son of David Lynn Barnes and Kimberley Schisler. Aaron married Amanda Bowton on May 14, 2005 in Canton. She survives.
Also surviving are his mother, Kimberley Schisler of Canton; two children, Emmalynne Barnes and David Barnes, both at home; one brother, Corey Barnes of Peoria; maternal grandparents, Gale and Gloria Schisler of London Mills; maternal grandmother, Carolyn Stevens of Galesburg; paternal grandmother, Dalphna Barnes of Texas; father and mother in law, Tim and Tammy Bowton of Canton; one niece, Melody Barnes; and his grandmother-in-law, Bertha Newlan of Canton.
He was preceded in death by his father.
Aaron was a student at Spoon River College and had served in the U.S. Army as an E-3, serving two tours of duty in Iraq.
He was a member of both American Legion Posts 16 of Canton and 644 of Fairview.
Aaron was a loving father, husband, and friend to many and always brought a smile to everyone’s face.
Services will be Monday 1 p.m. at Murphy-Sedgwick Memorial Home, Canton, with visitation from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Rev. Kevin VanTine will officiate. Burial, with military honors, will follow in Greenwood Cemetery, Canton.
Memorials may be made to an education fund for his children c/o Wells Fargo Bank of Canton.
To view Aaron’s memorial tribute or send online condolences, you may go to www.sedgwickfuneralhomes.com.

N.J. court rules Tierra Solutions Inc. of Newark must help pay for cleanup of polluted lower Passaic River

2011-09-14T10:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/nj-court-rules-tierra-solutions-inc-of-newark-must-help-pay-for-cleanup-of-polluted-lower-passaic-river
Cost could range from $1 billion to $4 billion

The state Department of Environmental Protection has won another round in the legal fight to hold companies that polluted the lower Passaic River with pesticides and herbicides, including the Vietnam War-era defoliant Agent Orange, responsible for cleaning up the waterway.

State Superior Court Judge Sebastian P. Lombardi in Newark has ruled that Tierra Solutions Inc. is liable under the state Spill Compensation and Control Act for past and future costs of cleaning up the contamination that has polluted a large stretch of the Lower Passaic. Tierra Solutions is the current owner of the site of the former Diamond Alkali/Diamond Shamrock plant on Newark's Lister Avenue.

The ruling is the second in two months by Lombardi that holds companies responsible for the cleanup. On July 19, The judge ruled Occidental Chemical Corp. also is liable for cleanup costs under the Spill Act.

"Cleaning up the Lower Passaic is very important to the public health and safety of residents living in the many communities located along the river,'' DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. "These rulings affirm New Jersey's firm stance that companies sued by the State must accept responsibility for the pollution they and their predecessors caused.

READ MORE: http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/nj-court-rules-tierra-solutions-inc-of-newark-must-help-pay-for-cleanup-of-polluted-lower-passaic-river

September 11

2011-09-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Section 60, in the southeast part of the cemetery, is the burial ground for military personnel killed in the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.

GUEST VIEWPOINT: Herbicides are spawning a tragedy

2011-09-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Be sure to read the comments at the end of the article. Clearly additional public education on the calamity of Agent Orange is needed...

http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26792830-47/chemicals-oregon-toxic-herbicides-kelley.html.csp

By Barbara Kelley and Kim Kauffman
Laboratory confirmation of powerful toxic chemicals found in the bodies of Triangle Lake residents, while shocking, is not surprising to us. Citizens throughout Oregon have pleaded for decades for an end to this “rain of terror.”

Ever since Agent Orange (2,4-D plus 2,4,5-T) was brought home after the Vietnam War, the forest industry has been using herbicides originally designed for chemical warfare. Dr. Michael Newton of Oregon State University ordered these chemicals from the Air Force to destroy “unwanted vegetation” that competed with Oregon’s commercial crop, Douglas fir, for sun and soil. This practice has resulted in toxic contamination of water, soil, air, wildlife, plants and people.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency stopped 2,4,5-T in an emergency cancellation, the use of 2,4-D has continued unabated, and indeed is one of the most widely used toxic chemicals in America. It is 2,4-D and Atrazine that were found in the urine of Triangle Lake residents, even children. The newspapers have been filled with letters on this subject. Some herbicide victims have written entire books on the war against these poisons, having experienced illness and the death of animals.

Our organization won a federal lawsuit in 1983. It was later combined on appeal with Vietnam veteran Paul Merrell’s case against the U.S. Forest Service, and was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1984. The court’s ruling concluded, “The entire spraying program of both agencies should be halted until they comply with NEPA,” the National Environmental Policy Act.

Several lawsuits in a row came during the 1970s and ’80s, all of them victorious. Herbicide spraying of public forests became illegal — but the cessation was temporary, and the spray programs on private forests have never even paused.

READ MORE: http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/26792830-47/chemicals-oregon-toxic-herbicides-kelley.html.csp

Westover Vets Fight For Agent Orange Benefits

2011-09-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

Air Force Lt. Col. Aaron Olmsted in a C-123
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/westover_vets_fight_for_agent_orange_benefits/id_39708
by Lisa Chedeke
In the years since they flew together out of Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts in the post-Vietnam War era, Wes Carter and Paul Bailey have stayed in close touch, swapping information about families, jobs, and their former crewmates in the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

This year, the conversation took a strange turn: Bailey, who lives in New Hampshire, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February. Two months later, Carter, a former Massachusetts resident who now lives in Oregon, got the same diagnosis.

Curious about the coincidence, the two men began checking around with members of their Air Force Reserve squadron – particularly those who had flown the C-123 Provider, a plane that was used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and then was reassigned to domestic missions at Westover and two other U.S. bases.

Carter was stunned: the first five crewmen he called had prostate cancer or heart disease.

The sixth man he tried had died.

Since then, he and Bailey have found dozens more former Westover reservists who are sick – with prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy and other illnesses connected to exposure to Agent Orange [AO]. In just a few months, they have compiled a list of close to 40 of their fellow pilots, medical technicians, maintenance workers and flight engineers who are sick or have died of such illnesses, many of them from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“I’ve had trouble finding guys who don’t have AO-related illnesses,” said Carter, who also suffers from heart disease.

Now, Carter and Bailey are spearheading an effort to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize that the crews who manned the “spray planes” stateside from 1972 to 1982 were exposed to lingering Agent Orange contamination and should receive compensation for their illnesses, as their fellow veterans who served in Vietnam do.

Under current policy, veterans must have set foot in Vietnam to be eligible for compensation for exposure to Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide sprayed in the jungles to destroy foliage and crops. Diseases related to exposure to Agent Orange include prostate cancer, neuropathy, ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus and respiratory cancers.

“For years, for many hundreds of hours, we flew that aircraft,” Carter said. “We ate in it. We worked in it. We fixed it. We slept in it… Most of us total thousands of hours inside the fuselage—inside that area the Air Force considers, even 25 years after the aircraft were retired, to be contaminated.”

In recent complaints to the Air Force Inspector General, the chief of the Air Force Reserve, the Institute of Medicine and other officials, Carter has cited documents showing that the Air Force knew, at least since 1994, of Agent Orange contamination aboard C-123 aircraft flown at Westover and other bases — but failed to warn personnel of the health risks.

Among the documents is a 1994 Air Force report that found one of the airplanes, known as Patches, was “heavily contaminated” with dioxins. Tests on other planes showed similar contamination, records show. In a 2000 legal brief, the General Services Administration argued that the proposed sale of C-123s to a private buyer should be canceled, dubbing the planes “extremely hazardous” and saying their release would carry “the risk of dioxin contamination to the general public.”

In a 1996 internal memo, an official in the Air Force Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, Directorate of Environmental Law, had expressed similar concerns about the possibly contaminated aircraft being sold to third parties, but said: “I do not believe we should alert anyone outside of official channels of this potential problem until we fully determine its extent.”

So far, attempts by Westover reservists to claim veterans’ benefits linked to Agent Orange exposure on C-123s have been stymied.

READ MORE: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/health/entry/westover_vets_fight_for_agent_orange_benefits/id_39708

COUNTERPOINT As 9/11 nears, morality dictates we recall victims of America, too

2011-09-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110904rp.html

By ROGER PULVERS
Special to The Japan Times

In the lead-up this week to the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, it is important to keep in mind this: Dates take on a mythical significance that may mask reality.

Sept. 11, Dec. 7, July 4 ... celebration of sacrifice adopts a spiritual and patriotic voice, while the tragedies engendered by the loss of life persist in the bodies and memories of others for decades to come. On this coming 9/11 anniversary, what came to mind was not a legacy of terror at the hands of fanatics, but that of sustained war and its aftermath. That is why a single date masks the true tragedies of loss.

A new documentary comes as a reminder of such tragedies. Titled "Living the Silent Spring," the film made by Masako Sakata opens on Sept. 24 at Tokyo's Iwanami Hall for a four-week run.

Prior to the release of Sakata's earlier documentary "Agent Orange — a personal requiem," I wrote about that powerful work in a December 2006 Counterpoint headlined "Ongoing Vietnam tragedy revives ghosts of a Christmas past" (search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20061224rp.html)

Now, with "Living the Silent Spring," Sakata has returned to the subject of that deadly defoliant sprayed over the land of Vietnam for a decade from 1961 to strip its forests so that they couldn't provide cover from the air for enemy troop movements.

The toxic chemicals in Agent Orange, which included dioxin, were 25 times more potent than those used in herbicides employed in the United States. Dioxin accumulates in the body and remains in nature for years. It is responsible for an estimated 3 million victims in Vietnam — some of them third-generation sufferers of birth defects and a variety of chronic health problems.

The U.S. has consistently turned its back on the Vietnamese victims its criminal war in that country created. It was only in 1991, 16 years after hostilities ended, that Congress authorized assistance to U.S. veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

Significantly, however, the legislation specified that conclusive links between exposure to Agent Orange and subsequent illness and death were "presumptive." This insipidly coy use of words allowed Americans to legally avoid responsibility for the fate of the Vietnamese.

How would Americans react were a foreign government to proclaim the perpetration of 9/11 by radical Islamists "presumptive"?

"Living the Silent Spring" takes up the Agent Orange story from both sides. Sakata returns to some of the villages she visited for her earlier film so that we may see how the children genetically maimed by their parents' exposure to Agent Orange have fared. But this time she also introduces us to a number of Americans who have equally suffered — bringing home the message that, in war, we are all victims.

The story of Heather Bowser begins not in Canfield, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and two children, but with her father, who was stationed in Vietnam in 1968-'69. He returned to the U.S. with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and struggled for the rest of his life with alcoholism and persistent thoughts of suicide.

Heather was born in 1972 missing a leg, a toe and several fingers. Her father said, "I didn't realize I was taking my children to war."

READ MORE: http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20110904rp.html

VA adds to list of Agent Orange-exposed ships

2011-09-05T06:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2011/09/military-agent-orange-exposure-ships-090211w/
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Sep 2, 2011 15:53:09 EDT

The Veterans Affairs Department has expanded its list of Navy and Coast Guard ships whose crews may be eligible for disability compensation as a result of exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange.

It is an updated inventory of “Blue Water” platforms that operated along Vietnam’s coastline from 1962 to 1975. The designated vessels either entered the country’s inland waterways, docked in Vietnam, or their sailors went ashore, possibly exposing them to the widely used herbicide.

Many of the new ships are landing vessels or destroyers that operated near the shore. The large escort carrier Kula Gulf also was added because it served as a helicopter and troop transport in Cam Ranh Bay for three days in November 1965.

“Posting of the ships list is an important recognition of the sacrifices U.S. Navy and Coast Guard veterans made for this nation,” VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a Friday release.

VA pays disability compensation to veterans or survivors for 14 medical conditions associated with exposure to Agent Orange.

Department officials couldn’t say how many veterans might meet the criteria for exposure from the named ships.

The VA ship list is not static; officials said vessels will be added based on documentation such as deck logs, ship histories and cruise books often provided by veterans as well as records kept in the National Archives.

The day before it published the expanded ship list, VA disclosed that in the past year it has paid $2.2 billion in benefits to 89,000 Vietnam veterans or survivors who qualify for compensation under a ruling that added three conditions to the list of health conditions presumed to be related to Agent Orange exposure.

The VA faces a backlog of claims as a result of the jump in those applicants, as well as claims filed by troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of claims taking more than three months to process went from 200,000 in 2010 to 450,000 in spring 2011.

VA Posts Online List of Ships Associated with Presumptive Agent Orange Exposure

2011-09-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/va-posts-online-list-of-ships-associated-with-presumptive-agent-orange-exposure-2011-09-02
WASHINGTON, Sep 02, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Veterans who served aboard U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships operating on the waters of Vietnam between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, may be eligible to receive Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) disability compensation for 14 medical conditions associated with presumptive exposure to Agent Orange.

An updated list of U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships confirmed to have operated on Vietnam's inland waterways, docked on shore, or had crewmembers sent ashore, has been posted at http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/ to assist Vietnam Veterans in determining potential eligibility for compensation benefits.

"Posting of the ships list is an important recognition of the sacrifices U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Veterans made for this Nation," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "It provides an easier path for Veterans who served in Vietnam to get the benefits and services they are entitled to under the law."

VA presumes herbicide exposure for any Veteran with duty or visitation within the country of Vietnam or on its inland waterways during the Vietnam era. Comprehensive information about the 14 recognized illnesses under VA's "presumption" rule for Agent Orange is also located on the webpage.

In practical terms, Veterans with qualifying Vietnam service who develop a disease associated with Agent Orange exposure need not prove a medical link between their illnesses and their military service. This presumption simplifies and speeds up the application process for benefits.

For questions about Agent Orange and the online list of ships, Veterans may call VA's Special Issues Helpline at 1-800-749-8387 and press 3.

When a claim is filed by a Veteran, surviving spouse or child, VA will determine whether the Veteran qualifies for the presumption of exposure based on official records of the ship's operations. Ships will be regularly added to the list based on information confirmed in these official records.

Even if a Veteran is not filing a claim, a Veteran may conduct his or her own research and submit scanned documentary evidence such as deck logs, ship histories, and cruise book entries via email to 211_AOSHIPS.VBACO@va.gov.

Service on board ships anchored in an open water harbor, such as Da Nang Harbor, or on ships on other open waters around Vietnam during the war, is not considered sufficient for the presumption of Agent Orange exposure. For Veterans interested in obtaining deck logs, contact the National Archives at College Park, Md., at http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/researcher-info.html .

The Agent Orange Claims Processing System website located at https://www.fasttrack.va.gov/AOFastTrack/ may be used to submit claims related to the three conditions added to the list of Agent Orange presumptives last year (Parkinson's disease, hairy cell and other chronic B-cell leukemias, and ischemic heart disease).

This website makes it easy to electronically file a claim and allows Veterans and their physicians to upload evidence supporting the claim. It also permits online viewing of claim status.

Veterans claiming other conditions may file online at VA's My-eBenefits web site at: https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal . They can check the status of their claim with a premium account (confirming their identity), and use a growing number of online services.

Servicemembers may enroll in My-eBenefits using their Common Access Card at any time during their military service, or before they leave during their Transition Assistance Program briefings.

Veterans may also enroll through their myPay or MyHealtheVet accounts, by visiting their local VA regional office or Veteran Service Organization, or by calling 1-800-827-1000.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Links about pesticide poisonings in Vietnam

2011-09-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organophosphate_poisoning

http://www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/82

http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdf/whats_your_poison.pdf

http://brownwaternavyanddeltaarmyvietnamveterans.yuku.com/topic/6918/--suspected--mosquito-spray-used--Vietnam--#.TmDw947Ar40

In Myasthenia Gravis, there are two ways to get it: congenital; acquired. Congenital means a person is born with it and develops in childhood: http://journals.lww.com/coneurology/Abstract/2010/10000/Acquired_myasthenia_gravis_in_childhood.16.aspx

http://www.myasthenia.org/HealthProfessionals/ClinicalOverviewofMG.aspx

Myasthenia Gravis is a debilitating disease. It causes intense fatigue and loss of muscle strength.

http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/TIB/cholinesterase.html

Guilty Verdict in Case of Agent Orange

2011-09-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

If Dioxin wasn't so dangerous, why the haz-mat suits and why did the government evacuate the town of Times Beach, MO?

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/31/the-guilty-verdict-in-the-case-of-agent-orange/
by Ed Mattson
Going back to the long history of Agent Orange and its chief component, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), Wednesday I wrote about the original studies of AO by Professor E.J. Kraus, chairman of the school’s botany department, at the University of Chicago during World War II. Among the discoveries he made was that certain broadleaf vegetation could be killed by causing the plants to experience sudden, uncontrolled growth (much in the way cancer tumor growth works in the body).

Though Agent Orange was not adopted by the Department of the Army for use in WWII, it was eventually added to the arsenal in the late 1950’s and used in Vietnam beginning on January 13, 1962, as part of Operation Hades to eliminate foliage that concealed enemy movement and food supplies. Agent Orange was not the only defoliant used however, and the combination of chemicals became known as “The Rainbow Herbicides” including Agent Blue, White, and Purple. Agent Blue added arsenic to the cocktail while White and Purple included other, just as deadly combinations of chemicals. Remarkably, in spite of knowing how deadly these agents were, little training went into the storage, mixing, and handling of these products, and that is where the criminality of anyone making the case against Agent Orange and these toxins should begin.

According to theSampley Report, “Operation Hades (later called Operation Ranch Hand), the defoliation of portions of South Vietnam’s heavily forested countryside in which Viet Cong guerrillas could easily hide, began in earnest out of Tan Sun Nhut airfield. By September, 1962, the spraying program had intensified, despite an early lack of success, as U.S. officials targeted the Ca Mau Peninsula, a scene of heavy communist activity. Ranch Hand aircraft sprayed more than 9,000 acres of mangrove forests there, defoliating approximately 95 percent of the targeted area. That mission was deemed a success and full approval was given for continuation of Operation Ranch Hand as the U.S. stepped up its involvement in Vietnam”.

An estimated 12 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed over all areas of vegetation in Vietnam. The military claimed that the physical impact of humans would have little adverse effects. After all, these same herbicides were being used in the United States. In the US however, the commercial use was heavily diluted with water or oil, and mixed in proper concentrations. It is also obvious that more training in the handling of these agents occurred in the US, because in Vietnam, with the constant turnover of personnel, the military allowed applications of six to 25 times the dilution formula suggested by the manufacturer.

Again, according to the Sampley Report, “The pilots who flew these missions became so proficient at their jobs that it would take only a few minutes after reaching their target areas to dump their 1,000-gallon loads before turning for home. Flying over portions of South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia that had been sprayed, the pilots could see the effects of their work. Many of them adopted a grim fatalism about the job. Over the door of the ready room for Ranch Hand pilots at Tan Son Nhut Airport near Saigon hung this sign: ‘Only You Can Prevent Forests’.”

READ MORE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/08/31/the-guilty-verdict-in-the-case-of-agent-orange/

EPA Announces Schedule for Dioxin Assessment

2011-09-01T11:08:00.000-07:00

Contact Information: Latisha Petteway (News Media Only), petteway.latisha@epa.gov, 202-564-3191, 202-564-4355

WASHINGTON - The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it plans to complete the non-cancer portion of EPA’s Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Comments, and post the final non-cancer assessment to the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) by the end of January 2012. After completing the non-cancer portion, EPA will finalize the cancer portion of the dioxin reanalysis as quickly as possible.

The decision to split the dioxin assessment into two portions, one being the cancer assessment and the other being the non-cancer assessment, follows the release by the Science Advisory Board (SAB) of its final review report of EPA’s Reanalysis of Key Issues Related to Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Comments on August 26, 2011. This reanalysis report responded to the recommendations and comments included in the National Academy of Sciences' (NAS) 2006 review of EPA's 2003 draft dioxin assessment.

The SAB report indicates that EPA selected the most appropriate scientific studies to support the non-cancer health assessment and the oral reference dose derived in the draft assessment. The SAB also commended EPA for a clear and logical reanalysis document that responded to many of the recommendations offered previously by the NAS. Specifically, the SAB acknowledged that the process the agency used to identify, review and evaluate the scientific literature was both comprehensive and rigorous, and the SAB report noted that “the criteria for study selection have been clearly articulated, well justified, and applied in a scientifically sound manner.”

Dioxins are toxic chemicals that share a similar chemical structure and act through a similar mechanism. While dioxin levels in the environment have been declining since the early seventies, dioxins remain a concern because they will continue to enter the food chain through releases from soils and sediments, and they have been the subject of a number of federal and state regulations and cleanup actions.

More information on dioxin: http://www.epa.gov/dioxin/

More information on IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/IRIS/

More information on the SAB Report: http://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/WebReportsLastMonthBOARD/9DE6A0825A9C050F85257412005EA22A?OpenDocument&TableRow=2.3#2