skip to main |
skip to sidebar
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release
October 15, 2010
No. 10-22
Contact:
Ken Holybee
707-217-9933
Vietnam Veterans of America To Hold Town Hall Meeting on Generational Effects of Agent Orange/Dioxin
Santa Rosa, CA —Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 223 in Santa Rosa will hold a Town Hall meeting to address the birth defects, diseases, and learning disabilities affecting the children and grandchildren of Vietnam veterans. The forum will be held on Saturday, October 16, 2010, at 1:00 pm, at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building , 1351 Maple Avenue, in Santa Rosa , California .
“We cannot be silent about the effects of our battlefield exposures on our children in the face of overwhelming evidence connecting many diseases and birth defects to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam ,” said Ken Holybee, Legislative Coordinator for the California State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America and for Chapter 223, Santa Rosa .
“We encourage all veterans with children and/or grandchildren suffering from illnesses, learning disabilities, or physical disabilities to come share their stories. We will explore issues surrounding Agent Orange exposure, including scientific information, health effects, and methods for educating the public and elected representatives about the issues of Vietnam veterans, their children, and their families,” said Holybee.
The goal of the town hall meeting is to bring attention to the hidden cost of our service and to encourage the government to create and maintain a registry of these birth defects as well as assist our doctors in finding ways to diagnose and treat these birth defects. Veterans of all wars are subjected to many contaminates and most were not aware of what was being used or what effects most would have on their health. Said Holybee, “Our children are innocent victims of our war and need the help of our government to cope with these problems. We worry, who will be there to take care of them when we are gone?”
In keeping with VVA’s founding principle, “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another,” Vietnam veterans throughout the state of California continue to fight for the welfare of our nation’s veterans from all wars.
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation's only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA's founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”
From: George Claxton
A new study released last month shows that dairy cows exposed to dioxins and dioxin like compounds have genetic damage. Genetic damage is one route to chemically induced cancer. Althouugh IOM has consistantly stated that dioxin does not cause genetic damage, the evidence is clearly in the other direction.
The study authored by G.P. Di Meo, et al, and published in the journal "Carcinogenesis" as an in press clearly shows that "although the role of other pollutants in the genesis of the recorded chromosome alterations cannot be ruled out, our results confirm the findings of previous research into dioxin exposed sheep".
I believe that the reason the chemical industry and government have tried to deny mutagenic damage by dioxin is because the connection would be a clear cut answer to dioxin being the most dangerous chemical on earth and is in fact, a "human carcinogen".
Faithfully submitted by
George Claxton
READ MORE: http://mutage.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/5/355.full
http://www.veteranstoday.com/
“No mama, no popa, no Uncle Sam.
No aunts, no uncles, no nephews, no nieces.
No rifles, no planes, or artillery pieces.
And nobody gives a damn.
We’re the sick and dead who lived and worked on contaminated land.”
Veteran Service Organizations are not providing critical health information to their memberships on military installations that are EPA Superfund sites. (WASHINGTON, DC) – Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) have not notified veterans of their possible exposure to environmental hazards at 130 military installations on the EPA National Priority List (Superfund sites).
Courtesy: CNN
There‟s a critical need for the VSOs to exercise leadership by identifying the 130 military bases on the NPL, including the EPA internet link to Contaminants of Concern for each base.
There is no legal requirement or interest by the Defense Department or any government agency to notify veterans that they may have been exposed to toxic chemicals, radiation or other environmental hazards.
It‟s unlikely that the government will step into this role without specific legislation. Under intense pressure from Congress, the Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune established a website registry for veterans who may have been affected by TCE contaminated drinking water at the base.
2
A number of Congressional hearings were held, bills introduced into Congress to provide medical care to veterans and their dependents, but as of this date, the Marine Corps has not accepted responsibility for illnesses and deaths linked to the contaminated well water.
With 130 military bases on the EPA National Priority List (EPA Superfund), veterans are at risk of exposure to environmental hazards.
The mission of VSOs is to serve veterans and support their needs. Nothing can be more important than your health. There‟s no magic pill for exposure to an environmental hazard. Medical care providers need to know when a patient has been exposed to particular environmental hazards to provide appropriate medical care. Failure to provide this critical information is inexcusable.
Not everyone who was stationed on an EPA Superfund base was exposed to an environmental hazard, but an indeterminate number were and the health effects are serious.
Emails to the national headquarters of the American Legion, VFW, the Marine Corps League and other VSOs asking them to alert their membership of possible exposure to toxic chemicals were left unanswered.
This is not rocket science. The information on environmental hazards is resident on the EPA Superfund database. The link to the websites is contained in this article. This is literally a „no brainer.‟ Any VSO with a website only has to cut and paste the list of military bases.
Courtesy: Salem-News.com
MCAS El Toro Example. Marine Corps Air Station El Toro, California, has been an EPA Superfund site since 1990. In 1985, the Orange County Water District found trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE) in shallow irrigation wells down gradient of the base.
Before knowledge of the adverse health effects on humans from exposure to these TCE and PCE were known, they were commonly used as degreasers for aircraft and vehicles.
In 1990, MCAS El Toro was placed on EPA‟s National Priorities List (NPL) primarily because of a plume of toxic waste of TCE and PCE spreading off base several miles which threatened the local water supply. In 1993, MCAS El Toro was placed on the DoD BRAC list and officially closed in 1999.
At El Toro, the Navy identified 25 contaminated areas on base, including landfills containing both hazardous and solid waste; buried drums of explosives and low-level radioactive waste; and areas where PCBs, battery acids, leaded fuels, and other hazardous substances were dumped or spilled. The Navy spent millions of dollars in cleaning up the former base.
3
At a September 2010 Irvine City Council meeting, the Navy estimated that it would take 40 years to complete the environmental clean-up at El Toro.
Assuming a Marine veteran “connects the dots of military services to a current medical condition,” their only remedy is to file a claim with the Veterans Administration, assuming they are aware of what happened to them and unless they lived in Orange County, California that‟s unlikely.
EPA‟s Contaminants of Concern
For military bases that are EPA Superfunds, EPA defines environmental hazards as Contaminants of Concern (COC‟s).
According to EPA, “COC‟s are the chemical substances found at the site that the EPA has determined pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. These are the substances that are addressed by cleanup actions at the site.”
“ Identifying COC‟s is a process where the EPA identifies people and ecological resources that could be exposed to contamination found at the site, determines the amount and type of contaminants present, and identifies the possible negative human health or ecological effects that could result from contact with the contaminants.”
READ MORE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/
http://www.veteranstoday.com/
Courtesy: CNN
(PITTSBURGH, PA) – An informational meeting about the CAMP LEJEUNE WATER CONTAMINATION effects will be held Saturday, November 6, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel, located at 107 6th Street, Pittsburgh, PA.
Sometime in the 1950’s through 1987, the US Military improperly disposed of chemical degreasers and other toxic substances that ultimately contaminated the drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
2
These contaminants posed multiple health risks to countless military personnel, their families, and private individuals living and working near the vicinity of the base. These risks include:
• Cancers
• Reproductive disorders
• Birth defects
• Neurological problems
• Kidney and Liver disease If you believe your health or the health of a loved one has been affected from exposure to the water at Camp Lejeune, you are invited to attend this free informational seminar. Lunch will be provided at no charge to registered guests.
We currently have 19 people registered to attend the November 6th meeting in Pittsburgh. In order to justify the expenses incurred with such a trip it will be necessary to have at least 50 people registered and confirmed by October 30th.
Mike Partain and Jerry Ensminger will be giving an overview of the contamination which includes the supporting documents.
Representatives from the Bell Legal Group will be present for questions during the lunch break and after the presentation.
This is your opportunity to get informed about what happened at Camp Lejeune. If you would like to receive more information about our meeting, email Vanessa Bertka at vbertka@edbelllaw.com. Please copy Mike.Partain@tftptf.com and jerry.ensminger@tftptf.com in the email.
Additional meetings are scheduled for:
November 21, Elks Lodge, Troy, NY
December, exact date TBD, Tampa Florida
from George Claxton
A new study released last month shows a connection between dioxin like polychlorinated biphenyls and malignant melanoma. The study is titled "Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), UV radiation, and cutaneous malignant melanoma". The study was published in the journal BMC PROCEEDINGS ( 4 SUPP : 04). The study is from the 16th International Charles Heidelberger Symposium on Cancer Research in Colmbra, Portugal, 26-28 September 2010. The authors are Richard P. Gallagher, et al.
Vietnam Veterans have claimed for many years that their skin cancers have been caused by the deadly dioxins and furans in Agent Orange. The US Government and big industry have always peddled the excuse that the real culprit was sunlight in Vietnam. However, the above study has finally accounted for the confounding problem of sunlight.
The study stated that "a strong association was seen between melanoma risk and plasma levels of total PCBs" AND "these associations persisted after adjustment for recreational sun exposure, sun sensitivity and pigmentatior". This study will have to be confirmed by a larger study (non industrial by company lackeys).
READ the abstract of the study: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1753-6561/4/S2/O4
The Press 14/10/2010
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4230406/Blood-tests-for-Mapua
Mapua residents could be blood-tested for dioxins next year to see if they have been affected by the cleanup of the town's toxic chemical site.
The Ministry of Health and the Health Research Council this week called for proposals for the study. The contract is expected to be awarded in April.
The study will involve health questionnaires and blood samples, which will be matched against samples from volunteers from outside the region.
The samples will be tested for dioxins and other toxins, such as organochlorine pesticides.
Experimental New Zealand-designed technology was used to remediate the 3.3-hectare site where the former Fruitgrowers Chemical Company made pesticides for 55 years.
The three-year cleanup project finished in 2007.
Up to 200 people lived near the site from 2004-2006 – a period thought to cover the highest dioxin emissions.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Mapua&biw=1920&bih=860&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=il
From Wikipedia
Mapua is a small town in the South Island of New Zealand.
It is to the west of Nelson on State Highway 60 and on the coastline of Tasman Bay. The 2006 census gave a population of 1878, up 16.1 percent since the 2001 Census.
With a thriving wharf and commercial area, Mapua has grown in popularity for visitors, with numbers swelling the region over the summer months.
A large fair and market is held every Easter Sunday. Up to 30,000 people visit the town on this day to enjoy rides, stalls, and other attractions. The local schools and playcentre benefit from the fair, which is their primary fundraising activity.
[edit] Former contaminated site
In the 20th century, Mapua was one of the most contaminated sites in New Zealand due to pesticide residues in the soils from a now defunct factory, but has since had a major cleanup operation.
In 1932 the Fruitgrowers Chemical Company built a plant to manufacture pesticides for use in the numerous orchards in the surrounding area. In the 1940s organomercury and organochlorine pesticides, including DDT, DDD, dieldrin, 2,4-D and paraquat, were produced. Organophosphorous pesticides were produced from the 1960s. By 1978, 124 chemicals were being used to produce 84 different formulations. The plant closed in 1988.
The site was taken over by the Tasman District Council in 1989, and measures were taken to prevent leaching of the chemicals into the adjoining Waimea Inlet. The 1999 Budget allocated $3.7 million towards containment of the site. Site decontamination was carried out, initially by Thiess Pty. Ltd. but later by the Ministry for the Environment. The site was handed back to the Tasman District Council in November 2007.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2078027
October 13, 2010 - 5:01pm
Related Stories
Fort Detrick signing 'covenant' with Md. hometown
Detrick likely exposed man to Agent Orange, V.A. says
Cancer clusters near Fort Detrick investigated
Fort Detrick tested Agent Orange between 1946-1963
EPA outlines Fort Detrick, Md., sampling plan
FORT DETRICK, Md. - Army researchers at Fort Detrick sprayed the dangerous herbicide Agent Orange at various locations outside the fort, a four-year-old report reveals.
The Department of Defense has evidence that Fort Detrick worked to develop Agent Orange -- a defoliant sprayed on forests to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam War -- beginning in the 1950s.
The poison reportedly was sprayed on grass around Fort Ritchie, Md. and other locations.
The information comes as Frederick County residents express increasing concern that experiments at Fort Detrick may have raised their risk of cancer. After the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was linked to cancer and birth defects in Vietnamese and Americans who served in the war.
A Fort Detrick scientist tells The Gazette he and his colleagues are "trying to get their hands" around the idea that Agent Orange was tested outside and not just in greenhouses as they previously thought.
Bob Craig tells the Gazette he and other scientists only recently discovered the 2006 report along with other documents.
FORT DETRICK, Md. - Army researchers at Fort Detrick sprayed the dangerous herbicide Agent Orange at various locations outside the fort, a four-year-old report reveals.
The Department of Defense has evidence that Fort Detrick worked to develop Agent Orange -- a defoliant sprayed on forests to destroy vegetation during the Vietnam War -- beginning in the 1950s.
The poison reportedly was sprayed on grass around Fort Ritchie, Md. and other locations.
The information comes as Frederick County residents express increasing concern that experiments at Fort Detrick may have raised their risk of cancer. After the Vietnam War, Agent Orange was linked to cancer and birth defects in Vietnamese and Americans who served in the war.
A Fort Detrick scientist tells The Gazette he and his colleagues are "trying to get their hands" around the idea that Agent Orange was tested outside and not just in greenhouses as they previously thought.
Bob Craig tells the Gazette he and other scientists only recently discovered the 2006 report along with other documents.
For the full Gazette report click here:http://www.gazette.net/stories/10072010/frednew155356_32544.php
WTOP's Evan Haning contributed to this report.
WTOP's Evan Haning contributed to this report.
(Copyright 2010 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
BYLINE: David Rogers
http://www.Politico.com
With costs mounting, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee is laying the groundwork for a second look at the landmark 1991 Agent Orange law that has governed nearly two-decades of disability claims related to the herbicide widely used in the Vietnam War.
That was the consistent theme of a hearing Thursday that featured testimony by Cabinet secretaries past and present about living under the law's limits and navigating through the often vague scientific standards for judging what diseases qualify as service-connected claims.
Veterans Affairs Secy. Eric Shinseki strongly defended his controversial decision last year to add ischemic heart disease but allowed too that having just 60 days to reach a conclusion -as prescribed by the Agent Orange law- was "a bit constraining....a little challenging."
Former VA Secretary Anthony Principi, whose decision to add type 2 diabetes in 2001 has since led to an explosion is claims, was more blunt, saying he had desperately wanted clearer scientific evidence to help him sort through confounding life style factors, like diet or smoking, which might contribute to an illness.
"It's a greater challenge for secretaries, when you're dealing with the diabetes, the prostate cancer, because we know if we live long enough, we're going to die of prostate cancer, as well as heart disease," Principi said. "And those confounding factors really make it very, very difficult for us"
Indeed, Agent Orange claims are a world turned-upside-down from decades ago when returning soldiers had to fight to get attention to deadly lymphomas linked to the herbicide. Now the more common frailties of men in their sixties-prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease-lead the list, and VA estimates that one out of every four surviving Vietnam veterans could soon be collecting payments for one Agent Orange claim or another.
The hearing brought some touching moments. Shinseki, who served himself in Vietnam, repeatedly referred to the infantry soldiers then as "the youngsters."
"We are asking the secretary to play God," exclaimed Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, "At the end of the day, we used the poison and we poisoned our own people."
But for many who also served in the war, the sheer number of claims now defies credibility.
"If the American people lose faith in the integrity of the V.A.'s disability compensation system - and that's not just about cost - veterans and their families will most certainly suffer," said Principi, a Navy veteran of Vietnam. "And the surest way for that to happen is for the American people to believe that large numbers of veterans are being compensated for illnesses that may not be the result of their military service. And I think that's the crux of the issue."
Vietnam Reporting Project
Vietnam Reporting Project fellow and CBS5 reporter/anchor travels to Vietnam to report on the impact of Agent Orange on Vietnam, 35 years after the end of the war. Generations of Vietnamese continue to be born with birth defects and other illnesses believed to be the result of exposure to herbicide Agent Orange.
View the video at: http://www.vietnamreportingproject.org/video/vrp-special-report-vietnam-35-years-later-agent-orange
Associations of Agent Orange (AO) victims in 50 cities and provinces across the country have collected 56 billion VND during the Action month for Vietnamese AO victims.
Of the total, the AO victims sponsor fund spent nearly 49 billion VND on supporting 188,669 victims with a wide range of activities.
Part of the money was used to provide free health care check-ups and medicine for victims in remote areas and health insurance books for poor victims.
Besides, the fund provided orthopedic surgeries and rehabilitation treatment for 1,971 patients. A total of 2,743 wheelchairs and supporting devices were also handed to the victims.
Meanwhile, over 23 billion VND was used to assist 34,234 victims in developing their business.
The fund has found individuals and organisations to provide regular allowances ranging from 150,000-500,000 VND a month for 1,979 victims.
Those suffering from AO effects in high areas were provided with savings books and blankets, mosquito-nets, clothes and household utensils.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
BYLINE: William Cole
The Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to review the cases of 16,830 "brown water" Navy and other Vietnam-era veterans whose disability claims related to the herbicide Agent Orange were denied, U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka's office said.
Akaka, D-Hawaii, said the VA denied claims without properly determining whether veterans served in Vietnam's inland waterways, referred to as "brown water," or in other locations where they may have been exposed to Agent Orange.
Akaka, chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, urged the VA to reconsider cases in which claims by Vietnam veterans potentially exposed to Agent Orange were denied without obtaining relevant military records.
Akaka sent a letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki on March 30 saying Veterans' Affairs Committee staff visited VA offices, reviewed 80 randomly selected claims "and found some alarming trends in adjudication."
Most of the files reviewed did not include evidence such as deck logs, a captain's history or other documents that would make it possible to determine whether the veteran served exclusively offshore, where exposure to Agent Orange was unlikely, or served on inland waterways and could have been exposed, the letter said.
Shinseki wrote back on Sept. 17 saying he agreed that a review of all 16,830 affected cases was warranted "and will be conducted to identify and correct any case that was improperly denied."
"I commend VA for responding to data showing that many Navy vessels thought to have stayed at sea actually traveled into the inland waters of Vietnam," Akaka said. "As a result, veterans who served on these vessels are eligible for the same benefits as Vietnam veterans who served on land."
From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange -- which contains highly poisonous dioxin -- and other herbicides to remove leaves from trees that provided cover for enemy forces, the VA said.
The VA said it has recognized certain cancers and other diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure, and that veterans, their children and survivors may be eligible for compensation.
Claims had been placed on hold by the VA while litigation was pending concerning veterans who served on "blue water" ships away from shore and their exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides. Those claims were subsequently denied.
Many of those veterans actually served in inland waters, and should have received the same presumption of exposure as veterans who had "boots on the ground," Akaka's office said.
With the review, the claims of some veterans previously considered "blue water" veterans will be re-evaluated for evidence of "brown water" service, or evidence of service in other locations where the VA acknowledges that herbicides may have been used, such as the perimeter of Air Force bases in Thailand, Akaka's office said.
The committee website -- http://veterans.senate.gov -- provides a list of vessels the VA has acknowledged traveled in inland waters, as well as evidence about other ships.
Thanh Nien News; October 1, 2010
http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20101001153723.aspx
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will make an official visit to Vietnam this October 11, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of National Defense Nguyen Chi Vinh said Thursday.
Vinh added that, during Gates’ visit, the two countries will discuss their cooperative efforts to search for the remains of US MIAs, overcoming the war’s consequences and developing international trainings, including teaching each other Vietnamese and English.
On September 29, Vinh returned from a three-day visit to the US where he met with leaders about the first-ever ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+) to be held this October 12 in Hanoi.
Read more at: http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20101001153723.aspx
