US Fed News; October 15, 2009
The House Veterans' Affairs Committee issued the following statement:
House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) released the following statement in response to Secretary Shinseki's decision to establish a service-connection for Vietnam veterans with three specific illnesses (B cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease, and ischemic heart disease) based on evidence of an association with the herbicides referred to as Agent Orange:
"I am happy that Secretary Shinseki has reviewed the overwhelming evidence of an association between exposure to Agent Orange and certain illnesses - and decided to make it easier for thousands of veterans to receive the benefits and health care treatment they earned while serving this country in uniform. Strong evidence has existed for decades to make the association link between exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange and veterans who suffer from health problems. I am pleased that VA now recognizes B cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease, and ischemic heart disease as 'presumed service-connected illnesses. As a result, veterans no longer will have to prove an association between these illnesses and their military service.
"I understand that this decision comes too late for too many. I know that other illnesses continue to affect Vietnam veterans that VA does not recognize as being caused by exposure to Agent Orange. Time is of the essence for many Vietnam veterans currently suffering from illness as a result of their service.
"Today's announcement, however, is an important first step towards addressing the immediate needs of our veterans. This is a start into fixing the claims backlog and ensuring veterans have access to the care they earned. We must do more to keep the promises made to our Nation's heroes of the past, present, and future."
For more information please contact:
Sarabjit Jagirdar, Email:- htsyndication@hindustantimes.com
Monday, October 19, 2009
EDITORIAL: A Long Ordeal; Vietnam Veterans Had to Wait Too Long for Effects of Agent Orange to be Recognized
The Las Vegas Sun; October 15, 2009
For nine years during the Vietnam War the United States sprayed millions of gallons of a toxic chemical over vast areas of jungle — areas traversed by American military forces.
The chemical was shipped to South Vietnam in 50-gallon drums that were identified by their orange stripes. It quickly took on a name that now conjures images of birth defects and horrible diseases: Agent Orange.
The Pentagon authorized the spraying of Agent Orange for two reasons — to defoliate trees so Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese military forces would have less cover, and to poison crop fields to prevent those enemies from having access to plentiful food.
Vietnam veterans began complaining of serious health problems after use of the chemical began in 1962. By 1971, when its use was ended, the evidence that Agent Orange had caused health problems was overwhelming.
Nevertheless, the federal government did not make this issue a priority, even when it became clear that thousands of Vietnam veterans were citing Agent Orange as a cause for their ill health.
It took Congress until 1991 to pass the Agent Orange Act. This law authorized the Department of Veterans Affairs to compile a list of certain diseases prevalent among Vietnam veterans, including cancer, that are presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange. It also allowed Vietnam veterans with those diseases to be covered for their treatments.
Congress also required the Institute of Medicine to report on Agent Orange’s health effects every two years. The latest report, released in July, said another three serious diseases, including Parkinson’s, are now presumed to have an association with Agent Orange.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, former Army chief of staff and a Vietnam veteran, has proposed adding the diseases to the list. “I’ve often asked why, 40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam , we’re still trying to determine the health consequences to our veterans,” Shinseki said.
It’s a good question, one that should not have to be asked ever again.
For nine years during the Vietnam War the United States sprayed millions of gallons of a toxic chemical over vast areas of jungle — areas traversed by American military forces.
The chemical was shipped to South Vietnam in 50-gallon drums that were identified by their orange stripes. It quickly took on a name that now conjures images of birth defects and horrible diseases: Agent Orange.
The Pentagon authorized the spraying of Agent Orange for two reasons — to defoliate trees so Viet Cong insurgents and North Vietnamese military forces would have less cover, and to poison crop fields to prevent those enemies from having access to plentiful food.
Vietnam veterans began complaining of serious health problems after use of the chemical began in 1962. By 1971, when its use was ended, the evidence that Agent Orange had caused health problems was overwhelming.
Nevertheless, the federal government did not make this issue a priority, even when it became clear that thousands of Vietnam veterans were citing Agent Orange as a cause for their ill health.
It took Congress until 1991 to pass the Agent Orange Act. This law authorized the Department of Veterans Affairs to compile a list of certain diseases prevalent among Vietnam veterans, including cancer, that are presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange. It also allowed Vietnam veterans with those diseases to be covered for their treatments.
Congress also required the Institute of Medicine to report on Agent Orange’s health effects every two years. The latest report, released in July, said another three serious diseases, including Parkinson’s, are now presumed to have an association with Agent Orange.
VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, former Army chief of staff and a Vietnam veteran, has proposed adding the diseases to the list. “I’ve often asked why, 40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam , we’re still trying to determine the health consequences to our veterans,” Shinseki said.
It’s a good question, one that should not have to be asked ever again.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
October is Agent Orange Awareness Month in Minnesota
An event to raise awareness about Agent Orange in memory of Steve Emery who served his country in Vietnam and lost his battle with Agent Orange related cancer on July 23, 2009.
Event:
Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 23, 2009 – At noon near the Vietnam Veteran Memorial, in front of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Veterans, their families, the public and the media are invited to attend Steve Emery Agent Orange Day. Those affected by Agent Orange will be encouraged to share their stories. Orange balloons will be given out to the first 60 people in attendance, along with orange ribbon pins. The balloons are to be released and will include a message about Agent Orange. Those who attend are encouraged to come in uniform or wear orange.
Purpose:
To inform Vietnam Veterans who served our country about the related disease and health risks to Vietnam Veterans, their post-war children and families. To encourage all Veterans to obtain a health examination for Agent Orange related diseases and health risks. To promote public awareness and recognize the victims of Agent Orange and their families..
Organizer:
Jen Bakken, of Delano, lost her father, and best friend, to Agent Orange related cancer on July 23 at the young age of 60 years old. The experience of hospice care, and the traumatic painful death of her father lead her into a deep depression and a nearly successful suicide attempt on September 9, 2009. The battle with Agent Orange doesn't end with the Vietnam Veterans- it affects families, and friends.... there are many victims. She hopes this event will promote awareness about Agent Orange, offer support to others affected by it, in memory of her father. She hopes to share with others how Agent Orange broke her heart.
Agent Orange information:
Agent Orange was one of the weed-killing chemicals used by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. It was sprayed to remove leaves from trees that enemy troops hid behind. Agent Orange and similar chemicals were known as “herbicides.” Agent Orange was applied by airplanes, helicopters, trucks and backpack sprayers. There is a large list of diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure.
For more information regarding Agent Orange visit www.va.gov
Contact Information:
Jen Bakken
1466 St. Peter Ave. #103 Delano, Mn. 55328
763-438-2592
jlynnb70@yahoo.com
###
Event:
Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 23, 2009 – At noon near the Vietnam Veteran Memorial, in front of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, Veterans, their families, the public and the media are invited to attend Steve Emery Agent Orange Day. Those affected by Agent Orange will be encouraged to share their stories. Orange balloons will be given out to the first 60 people in attendance, along with orange ribbon pins. The balloons are to be released and will include a message about Agent Orange. Those who attend are encouraged to come in uniform or wear orange.
Purpose:
To inform Vietnam Veterans who served our country about the related disease and health risks to Vietnam Veterans, their post-war children and families. To encourage all Veterans to obtain a health examination for Agent Orange related diseases and health risks. To promote public awareness and recognize the victims of Agent Orange and their families..
Organizer:
Jen Bakken, of Delano, lost her father, and best friend, to Agent Orange related cancer on July 23 at the young age of 60 years old. The experience of hospice care, and the traumatic painful death of her father lead her into a deep depression and a nearly successful suicide attempt on September 9, 2009. The battle with Agent Orange doesn't end with the Vietnam Veterans- it affects families, and friends.... there are many victims. She hopes this event will promote awareness about Agent Orange, offer support to others affected by it, in memory of her father. She hopes to share with others how Agent Orange broke her heart.
Agent Orange information:
Agent Orange was one of the weed-killing chemicals used by the U.S. military in the Vietnam War. It was sprayed to remove leaves from trees that enemy troops hid behind. Agent Orange and similar chemicals were known as “herbicides.” Agent Orange was applied by airplanes, helicopters, trucks and backpack sprayers. There is a large list of diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure.
For more information regarding Agent Orange visit www.va.gov
Contact Information:
Jen Bakken
1466 St. Peter Ave. #103 Delano, Mn. 55328
763-438-2592
jlynnb70@yahoo.com
###
Friday, October 16, 2009
Artist produces "documentary sculpture" around Agent Orange exposure
Steve Zind
Hanover, NH
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/86115/
(Host) When Dartmouth student Keisha Luce went to Vietnam earlier this year, she was warned her chances of success were not great.
Luce wanted to find victims of Agent Orange - the defoliant used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
Her plan was to document their stories and create sculptures capturing the deformities believed to be caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
As VPR's Steve Zind reports, Luce's work tells a story about her subjects and about herself.
(Zind) A casual passerby might not notice anything unusual about the stark white human forms on display at the entrance to Dartmouth's Hopkins Center. But a moment's study reveals the forms are casts of human bodies, each with abnormalities. There's a deformed upper torso of a man who is 28 inches tall. Another figure has misshapen feet and hands.
(Luce) "He has what he describes as dinosaur hands and feet. They are severely deformed."
(Zind) Keisha Luce says these six pieces on display at Dartmouth are not works of her imagination; they're casts of real people - Vietnamese people whose defects are the result of exposure one or two generations earlier to Agent Orange. The exhibit is called ‘Sum and Parts'. Luce calls her work documentary sculpture.
(Luce orange) "They are difficult bodies to look at. Part of what I was trying to do is to bring this type of body - the war body - into the public sphere."
(Zind) In the 1960s, the U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of herbicides on Vietnam to defoliate the forest and jungle and expose the enemy. Agent Orange, which was the most widely used, has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other health problems experienced by American soldiers.
The Vietnamese government, too, says the descendants of those exposed to Agent Orange are similarly afflicted. It is these people, whose parents and grandparents lived in the 1960s, whose lives Luce sought to document in the three months she spent in Vietnam.
Luce says finding and speaking with Agent Orange victims wasn't easy at first, because of institutional red tape. But then she met someone who took her to a place outside Ho Chi Minh City where people suffering from the genetic effects of the herbicide are cared for.
(Luce) "When we arrived, there was a group of people that they called, all victims of Agent Orange and they sat down and I told them my story, what I was doing and I said ‘if anyone wants to participate let me know' and everyone raised their hands."
(Zind) Luce used a skin-safe silicon to make molds of the bodies of volunteers. The painstaking process took up to five hours. Back in the United States she created casts from the molds.
Luce says the idea for the project came to her one day last year. But her awareness of Agent Orange and its effects goes back much further.
(Luce) "My father was a disabled Vietnam veteran. He stepped on a land mine. He was 21 and he lost his right leg and several fingers and his left leg was severely damaged. He returned to the states and in 1987 he got an Agent Orange related cancer and within the year he died."
(Zind) Keisha Luce was ten years old when her father, Scott, died. The family is from Franconia, New Hampshire. Luce says her father's experience gave her an understanding of the effects of Agent Orange - but she didn't really conceive of the project with her father in mind.
(Luce) "I don't think my father would have been someone to go back to Vietnam. I think he could never have moved past his own horrific experience there. I don't know how he would have felt about this project. As this project took life, I realized he became increasingly important. Being in a country where he experienced really traumatic injuries that shaped the rest of his life, it was difficult to know how I would be accepted and how I would feel about being there, but I have to say I would go back.."
(Zind) Luce says none of the victims of Agent Orange she met in Vietnam were alive during the Vietnam War - and none showed bitterness toward the U.S. She says they simply want Americans to know the toll the war continues to take. For VPR news, I'm Steve Zind.
Note: Keisha Luce's work is on display until October 20th at the entrance to Dartmouth's Hopkin's Center in Hanover.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Agent Orange in Vietnam: Ignoring the Crimes Before Our Eyes
http://pubrecord.org/nation/5757/agent-orange-vietnam-ignoring-crimes/
By Dave Lindorff
The Public Record
Oct 15th, 2009
On Oct. 13, the New York Times ran a news story headlined, “Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange,” which was sure to be good news to many American veterans of the Indochina War. It reported that 38 years after the Pentagon ceased spreading the deadly dioxin-laced herbicide/defoliant over much of South Vietnam, it was acknowledging what veterans have long claimed: in addition to 13 ailments already traced to exposure to the chemical, it was also responsible for three more dread diseases—Parkinson’s, ischemic hedart disease and hairy-cell leukemia.
Under a new policy adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA will now start providing free care to any of the 2.1 million Vietnam-era veterans who can show that they might have been hurt by exposure to Agent Orange.
This is another belated step forward in the decades-long struggle by Vietnam War veterans to get the Defense Department and the VA to acknowledge the American government’s responsibility for poisoning them and causing permanent damage to them and often to their children and grandchildren. Dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances known to man, is known to cause many serious systemic diseases, autoimmune illnesses, cancers and birth defects. (It is also a warning about the general Pentagon and government approach to other hazards caused by its battlefield use of toxins—most significantly the increasingly common use of depleted uranium projectiles in bombs, shells and bullets—an approach which features lack of concern about health effects on troops and civilians, denial of information to troops, and denial of care to eventual victims.)
Missing from the Times article, written by military affairs reporter James Dao, which did include mention of the obstructionist role the government has played through this whole sorry saga, was a single mention of the far larger number of victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam—the people on whose heads and lands the toxic chemical was actually dropped, or of the adamant refusal by the US government to accept any responsibility for what it did to them.
According to the article, the VA estimates that there may be as many as 200,000 US veterans who are suffering from Agent Orange-related illnesses. But according to a court case brought on behalf of Vietnamese victims, which was dismissed by a US Federal District Judge who ruled that there was “no basis for the claims,” there are at least three million Vietnamese, and possibly as many as 4.8 million, who are suffering the same Agent Orange-related illnesses as American veterans and their children.
It is estimated that as many as 800,000 Vietnamese in the country’s south currently suffer from chronic health problems due to Agent Orange exposure, either to themselves, or to a parent or grandparent. Most of these victims, some of whom are retarded, and others of whom cannot walk or have no use of their arms, need constant care.
Veterans for Peace, an organization whose membership includes a large number of Vietnam War veterans, has issued a call for the US to provide funds for health care, education, vocational education, chronic care, home care and equipment to clean up hotspots of dioxin in Vietnam—a call which Congress and the White House have consistently ignored. Tests have found dioxin levels around the sites of the three main former US bases in what was South Vietnam to be 300-400 times recognized safe levels. The US dumped huge amounts of Agent Orange for miles around those bases to kill off jungle cover that Vietnamese fighters could use to approach the bases, but it was never cleaned up when the US pulled out.
One organization that includes a number of American veterans of the way, including former military doctors or soldiers who later became physicians, is the Vietnam Friendship Village Project USA Inc., which raises funds to help establish communities in Vietnam to care for the victims of Agent Orange.
It may seem a pathetic stab at principle given America’s use of two nuclear weapons against civilian targets in Japan a few years later, but back in World War II, in the midst of the most brutal island-to-island fighting during the Pacific War, a US Judge Advocate General in the Pentagon ruled that a military request for permission to use herbicides against the Japanese on Pacific islands would be illegal under the Hague Convention (forerunner of what are now called the Geneva Conventions).
He ruled that trying to destroy the crops of civilians on those islands to deny food to the Japanese troops would be a war crime. The US went ahead and used the herbicides anyway, arguing that even though it was illegal, the US was free to go ahead, since the Japanese had already broken the laws of war by using strychnine to kill military guard dogs in Siberia. Under the rules of war, if one side breaks a rule, the other side is no longer bound by it.
But the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese never used toxic materials against US forces or against South Vietnamese forces. And the Pentagon in the Vietnam War never even considered whether spraying a highly toxic herbicide over 1.4 million acres—12 percent of the total land area of Vietnam and almost 25 percent of the southern half of the country—might be a war crime.
Moreover, the Pentagon knew, before it began its massive defoliation campaign, about studies showing that Agent Orange was heavily laced with deadly dioxin, but covered up those studies, some by the chemical’s makers, Dow Chemical and Monsanto, and never even warned the troops who handled the material daily, or who were sent out to fight in areas that had been heavily sprayed.
The ongoing medical disaster in Vietnam caused by America’s criminal use of Agent Orange to defoliate a nation would be a good place for President Obama to start earning his just-awarded Nobel Peace Prize. He could kick off his peace campaign by finally honoring President Richard Nixon’s immediately broken promise to provide several billion dollars in reconstruction aid to Vietnam at the conclusion of peace talks at the end of the war. Not a dollar of such aid was ever given.
Meanwhile, perhaps the New York Times could salvage a bit of its journalistic reputation by having Dao or some other reporter write a piece about the impact of America’s Agent Orange use on the people of Vietnam.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist. He is author of Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Common Courage Press, 2003) and The Case for Impeachment (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at thiscantbehappening.net
By Dave Lindorff
The Public Record
Oct 15th, 2009
On Oct. 13, the New York Times ran a news story headlined, “Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange,” which was sure to be good news to many American veterans of the Indochina War. It reported that 38 years after the Pentagon ceased spreading the deadly dioxin-laced herbicide/defoliant over much of South Vietnam, it was acknowledging what veterans have long claimed: in addition to 13 ailments already traced to exposure to the chemical, it was also responsible for three more dread diseases—Parkinson’s, ischemic hedart disease and hairy-cell leukemia.
Under a new policy adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA will now start providing free care to any of the 2.1 million Vietnam-era veterans who can show that they might have been hurt by exposure to Agent Orange.
This is another belated step forward in the decades-long struggle by Vietnam War veterans to get the Defense Department and the VA to acknowledge the American government’s responsibility for poisoning them and causing permanent damage to them and often to their children and grandchildren. Dioxin, one of the most poisonous substances known to man, is known to cause many serious systemic diseases, autoimmune illnesses, cancers and birth defects. (It is also a warning about the general Pentagon and government approach to other hazards caused by its battlefield use of toxins—most significantly the increasingly common use of depleted uranium projectiles in bombs, shells and bullets—an approach which features lack of concern about health effects on troops and civilians, denial of information to troops, and denial of care to eventual victims.)
Missing from the Times article, written by military affairs reporter James Dao, which did include mention of the obstructionist role the government has played through this whole sorry saga, was a single mention of the far larger number of victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam—the people on whose heads and lands the toxic chemical was actually dropped, or of the adamant refusal by the US government to accept any responsibility for what it did to them.
According to the article, the VA estimates that there may be as many as 200,000 US veterans who are suffering from Agent Orange-related illnesses. But according to a court case brought on behalf of Vietnamese victims, which was dismissed by a US Federal District Judge who ruled that there was “no basis for the claims,” there are at least three million Vietnamese, and possibly as many as 4.8 million, who are suffering the same Agent Orange-related illnesses as American veterans and their children.
It is estimated that as many as 800,000 Vietnamese in the country’s south currently suffer from chronic health problems due to Agent Orange exposure, either to themselves, or to a parent or grandparent. Most of these victims, some of whom are retarded, and others of whom cannot walk or have no use of their arms, need constant care.
Veterans for Peace, an organization whose membership includes a large number of Vietnam War veterans, has issued a call for the US to provide funds for health care, education, vocational education, chronic care, home care and equipment to clean up hotspots of dioxin in Vietnam—a call which Congress and the White House have consistently ignored. Tests have found dioxin levels around the sites of the three main former US bases in what was South Vietnam to be 300-400 times recognized safe levels. The US dumped huge amounts of Agent Orange for miles around those bases to kill off jungle cover that Vietnamese fighters could use to approach the bases, but it was never cleaned up when the US pulled out.
One organization that includes a number of American veterans of the way, including former military doctors or soldiers who later became physicians, is the Vietnam Friendship Village Project USA Inc., which raises funds to help establish communities in Vietnam to care for the victims of Agent Orange.
It may seem a pathetic stab at principle given America’s use of two nuclear weapons against civilian targets in Japan a few years later, but back in World War II, in the midst of the most brutal island-to-island fighting during the Pacific War, a US Judge Advocate General in the Pentagon ruled that a military request for permission to use herbicides against the Japanese on Pacific islands would be illegal under the Hague Convention (forerunner of what are now called the Geneva Conventions).
He ruled that trying to destroy the crops of civilians on those islands to deny food to the Japanese troops would be a war crime. The US went ahead and used the herbicides anyway, arguing that even though it was illegal, the US was free to go ahead, since the Japanese had already broken the laws of war by using strychnine to kill military guard dogs in Siberia. Under the rules of war, if one side breaks a rule, the other side is no longer bound by it.
But the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese never used toxic materials against US forces or against South Vietnamese forces. And the Pentagon in the Vietnam War never even considered whether spraying a highly toxic herbicide over 1.4 million acres—12 percent of the total land area of Vietnam and almost 25 percent of the southern half of the country—might be a war crime.
Moreover, the Pentagon knew, before it began its massive defoliation campaign, about studies showing that Agent Orange was heavily laced with deadly dioxin, but covered up those studies, some by the chemical’s makers, Dow Chemical and Monsanto, and never even warned the troops who handled the material daily, or who were sent out to fight in areas that had been heavily sprayed.
The ongoing medical disaster in Vietnam caused by America’s criminal use of Agent Orange to defoliate a nation would be a good place for President Obama to start earning his just-awarded Nobel Peace Prize. He could kick off his peace campaign by finally honoring President Richard Nixon’s immediately broken promise to provide several billion dollars in reconstruction aid to Vietnam at the conclusion of peace talks at the end of the war. Not a dollar of such aid was ever given.
Meanwhile, perhaps the New York Times could salvage a bit of its journalistic reputation by having Dao or some other reporter write a piece about the impact of America’s Agent Orange use on the people of Vietnam.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist. He is author of Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal (Common Courage Press, 2003) and The Case for Impeachment (St. Martin’s Press, 2006). His work is available at thiscantbehappening.net
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Service-connection for Vietnam Veterans with three specific illnesses
WASHINGTON (Oct. 13, 2009) - Relying on an independent study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki decided to establish a service-connection for Vietnam Veterans with three specific illnesses based on the latest evidence of an association with the herbicides referred to Agent Orange.
The illnesses affected by the recent decision are B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia; Parkinson's disease; and ischemic heart disease.
Used in Vietnam to defoliate trees and remove concealment for the enemy, Agent Orange left a legacy of suffering and disability that continues to the present. Between January 1965 and April 1970, an estimated 2.6 million military personnel who served in Vietnam were potentially exposed to sprayed Agent Orange.
In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and who have a "presumed" illness don't have to prove an association between their illnesses and their military service. This "presumption"
simplifies and speeds up the application process for benefits.
The Secretary's decision brings to 15 the number of presumed illnesses recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
"We must do better reviews of illnesses that may be connected to service, and we will," Shinseki added. "Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence."
Other illnesses previously recognized under VA's "presumption" rule as being caused by exposure to herbicides during the Vietnam War are:
* Acute and Subacute Transient Peripheral Neuropathy
* AL Amyloidosis
* Chloracne
* Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
* Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2)
* Hodgkin's Disease
* Multiple Myeloma
* Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
* Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
* Prostate Cancer
* Respiratory Cancers
* Soft Tissue Sarcoma (other than Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, or Mesothelioma)
Additional information about Agent Orange and VA's services and programs for Veterans exposed to the chemical are available at
www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange
The illnesses affected by the recent decision are B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia; Parkinson's disease; and ischemic heart disease.
Used in Vietnam to defoliate trees and remove concealment for the enemy, Agent Orange left a legacy of suffering and disability that continues to the present. Between January 1965 and April 1970, an estimated 2.6 million military personnel who served in Vietnam were potentially exposed to sprayed Agent Orange.
In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and who have a "presumed" illness don't have to prove an association between their illnesses and their military service. This "presumption"
simplifies and speeds up the application process for benefits.
The Secretary's decision brings to 15 the number of presumed illnesses recognized by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
"We must do better reviews of illnesses that may be connected to service, and we will," Shinseki added. "Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence."
Other illnesses previously recognized under VA's "presumption" rule as being caused by exposure to herbicides during the Vietnam War are:
* Acute and Subacute Transient Peripheral Neuropathy
* AL Amyloidosis
* Chloracne
* Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
* Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2)
* Hodgkin's Disease
* Multiple Myeloma
* Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
* Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
* Prostate Cancer
* Respiratory Cancers
* Soft Tissue Sarcoma (other than Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, or Mesothelioma)
Additional information about Agent Orange and VA's services and programs for Veterans exposed to the chemical are available at
www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange
Quilt of Tears Video
http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/Videos.html
As I gaze upon these Quilts today,
the image of death is altered.
I see instead the symbol of life,
for heroes that never faltered.
Fear not my great soldier!
For your story shall be passed through the years
Because the fabric of your life is sewn into the Quilt Of Tears
As I gaze upon these Quilts today,
the image of death is altered.
I see instead the symbol of life,
for heroes that never faltered.
Fear not my great soldier!
For your story shall be passed through the years
Because the fabric of your life is sewn into the Quilt Of Tears
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Int’l friends support Vietnamese Agent Orange victims
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Intl-friends-support-Vietnamese-Agent-Orange-victims/200910/108576.vov
The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) on October 6 received US$292,000 donated by the Greek Embassy in Vietnam, the Overseas Vietnamese Association in Russia and Viettel Corporation.
Of the sum, the Greek Embassy donated US$8,810, the Overseas Vietnamese Association (US$3,000) and Viettel Corporation (US$280,190).
Greek Ambassador to Vietnam Platon Alexis Hadjimichalis said that after finishing his term in Vietnam he will persuade the Greek Government to continue support for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims. He added that in recent years the embassy has taken part in a wide range of activities to support Vietnamese AO victims. In the near future, the embassy will present 6,000 euro and 50 wheelchairs to the Ministry of Defence and 30 propaganda pictures taken during the war to the Vietnam Military History Museum to raise funds for AO victims.
Senior Lieutenant General Nguyen Van Rinh, president of VAVA, said that two months after launching the campaign to support AO victims, VAVA has received VND29 billion from domestic and foreign donors.
The campaign aims to build 500 houses of gratitude and 55 care centres for AO victims, grant 1,100 scholarships and generate 1,100 jobs for children of AO victims. This year, VAVA will build three AO care centers.
An television programme demanding justice for the victims will be broadcast live in Vietnam, the US and France in early 2010.
Tran Xuan Thu, General Secretary and Vice President of VAVA said on October 6 that the broadcast will attract the attention of the world public. He said that the rejection by a US court of a suit against US chemical companies does not put an end to the lawsuit. In other words, the AO victims will continue to demand justice in the US or in a third country. Some international news online websites will also carry articles on this campaign.
In April next year, a delegation will come to the US to re-launch their campaign. VAVA will then go to Russia and Latin American countries like Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina to continue the campaign.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Birth Defect Research for Children
October 5, 2009
Our National Birth Defect Registry was just cited in an article (page 443) on Environmental Factors in Birth Defects in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. http://www.ehponline.org/members/2009/117-10/EHP117pa440PDF.PDF
I hope that this will give the registry even more credibility on the work we have been doing for veterans.
With best regards,
Betty Mekdeci
Executive Director
Birth Defect Research for Children
http://www.birthdefects.org
800 Celebration Ave., Suite 225
Celebration FL 34747
407-566-8304 Fax 407-566-8341
2009 Veterans Day Agent Orange Balloon Release
Hello Friends & Loved Ones,
It's that time again where we are thinking about Veterans Day approaching soon. My thoughts immediately bring me to the grand participation that we had last year with the first Veterans Day Agent Orange Balloon Release & I am really humbled as I looked through the pictures from last years event. I honestly cannot think of a more touching experience & look forward to doing it again this year! Thanks so much to everyone that participated last year & I hope that you can encourage others to join us this year.
Please check out our event page for all the details of this years event at:
http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/Events.html
In preparing for this years event I took most of the pictures from last year & combined them all in a video. You can find it on the page http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/Events.htmlor by going directly to this link: 2008 Agent Orange Balloon Release I left some of last years photos on the Event Page along with some beautiful videos that others made to share. I've also attached a flyer that you can forward or print out to share.
I've also attached the 2009 Patches Walk poster which is a very worthy cause & I encourage everyone to spread the word on this also. To find out more about it you can refer to an article done on War In Terror News last year at This link:
http://waronterrornews.typepad.com/home/2008/11/patches-walk-for-vietnam-veterans-of-agent-orange--.html
This is a very brief history about Stephen's father who died from A/O related illnesses:
In his ten months his Ranch Hand Aircraft were hit 500 times by ground fire. Eleven Airman and nineteen officers being supervised by Major. Hay-Chapamn were awarded 10 Purple Hearts, 12 Distinguished Flying Crosses and 12 Commendation Medals. While flying Patches he took the most hits and always came back unharmed.
He also initiated action in conjunction with the Vietnamese to airlift tons of foodstuffs and clothing for the orphanages located in remote areas of Vietnam .
He turned over the Command to Major. Russell Mahoney. He was instrumental in many ways on how the eventually conducted the sorties by reducing the hit ratios.
He retired after 27 years in Oct 1970,while the going was good and fought to the last day trying to get a 100% disability due to Agent Orange. He did get it just before he passed away from diabetes in what was a lengthy process of amputations starting with a toe and eventually loosing both legs."""
Hugz & Prayers to all,
Shelia & Henry Snyder
ArmrdAngel@aol.com
Please Join Us For The 2nd Annual Veterans Day Agent Orange Balloon Release!
Agent Orange Victims & Widows Support Network
Home Of The Agent Orange Quilt Of Tears
http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/
Sacrifice is meaningless without remembrance
We now have T-shirts & decals for any that may be interested Check it out! Click Here
http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/Bracelets.html">
Friday, October 2, 2009
Step forward for Agent Orange clean-up effort in Vietnam
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091001/hl_afp/vietnamusmilitaryhealthagentorange_20091001161332
AFP/File
Thu Oct 1, 12:08 pm ET
HANOI (AFP) – Efforts to clean up contamination from the wartime herbicide Agent Orange in Vietnam took a step forward Thursday when the United States awarded a contract to prepare for dioxin containment.
The US said the 1.69-million-dollar project will involve building a secure landfill site to hold contaminated soil and sediment at Danang airport.
Working with the government of Vietnam, the US expects the project to be finished within a year, a US embassy press release said.
During the Vietnam War, US forces stored Agent Orange at Danang and other bases where it was loaded onto airplanes for defoliation missions.
Jungle areas that were sprayed do not have high levels of dioxin today, Thomas Boivin, president of Canadian environmental specialists Hatfield Consultants, has said.
But US and Vietnamese officials have identified the old US bases in Danang, Bien Hoa -- near the former Saigon -- and Phu Cat as significant "hotspots" where spillage, washing of aircraft and loading of the herbicides contributed to contamination.
At Danang airport now, dioxin levels are still 300-400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, Boivin said.
Other donors are also assisting but the US is focusing its help on the Danang site, at Vietnam's request.
"With this award, the US government has committed more than two-thirds of the six million dollars of Congressional funding it has received for Agent Orange/dioxin environmental remediation and health activities," the US statement said.
Full-scale decontamination could take years.
The affected area is under Vietnamese military control and is separate from the passenger terminal in Vietnam's fourth-largest city, which authorities want to promote as a tourist destination.
AFP/File
Thu Oct 1, 12:08 pm ET
HANOI (AFP) – Efforts to clean up contamination from the wartime herbicide Agent Orange in Vietnam took a step forward Thursday when the United States awarded a contract to prepare for dioxin containment.
The US said the 1.69-million-dollar project will involve building a secure landfill site to hold contaminated soil and sediment at Danang airport.
Working with the government of Vietnam, the US expects the project to be finished within a year, a US embassy press release said.
During the Vietnam War, US forces stored Agent Orange at Danang and other bases where it was loaded onto airplanes for defoliation missions.
Jungle areas that were sprayed do not have high levels of dioxin today, Thomas Boivin, president of Canadian environmental specialists Hatfield Consultants, has said.
But US and Vietnamese officials have identified the old US bases in Danang, Bien Hoa -- near the former Saigon -- and Phu Cat as significant "hotspots" where spillage, washing of aircraft and loading of the herbicides contributed to contamination.
At Danang airport now, dioxin levels are still 300-400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, Boivin said.
Other donors are also assisting but the US is focusing its help on the Danang site, at Vietnam's request.
"With this award, the US government has committed more than two-thirds of the six million dollars of Congressional funding it has received for Agent Orange/dioxin environmental remediation and health activities," the US statement said.
Full-scale decontamination could take years.
The affected area is under Vietnamese military control and is separate from the passenger terminal in Vietnam's fourth-largest city, which authorities want to promote as a tourist destination.
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