Report: US should pay for cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/293538
A private bi-national group that consists of citizens, policy makers and scientists came up with a ten-year, $300 million clean-up plan for 14 of Vietnam 's Agent Orange hot spots.

The Aspen Institute announced the adoption of the plan Wednesday in a press release, and now the blue-ribbon group, as the private group calls itself, is lobbying the United States government to act on the plan.

IPS reported that panel co-chair Walter Isaacson said "We are talking about something that is a major legacy of the Vietnam War and a major irritant in this important relationship. The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up." While it is spelled out in the plan that the United States should foot most of the $300 million in clean-up costs, the panel is pushing for collaboration between "other governments, foundations, businesses, and nonprofits."

During the Vietnam war, the US sprayed 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides containing dioxin said the Institute. It is believed that three to five million Vietnamese people were directly and indirectly exposed to Agent Orange both during and after the war and another 2.8 million US military personnel were exposed during the war. Vietnam and the United States have only resumed diplomatic relations 15 years ago. The war has been over for 35 years.

The Aspen Institute said it was time to set aside arguments over who is responsible for Vietnam 's Agent Orange problem saying "Questions of responsibility, awareness and data reliability have for too long generated bitter controversy and stalled remedial action."


MORE:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/293538

What is the Aspen Institute? http://www.aspeninstitute.org/about

They Killed Me in Vietnam and I Didn't Even Know It

http://www.countryjoe.com/jukebox.htm

Click on the Agent Orange box and listen




With thanks to Country Joe McDonald for his permission to post the Agent Orange Song

UN in Agent Orange cleanup

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_546705.html
HANOI - THE United Nations on Monday announced a US$5 million (S$6.9 million) project to clean up wartime contamination in Vietnam from Agent Orange sprayed by the US military, but said much more money was needed.

The project by the UN development agency will focus on contamination at the airport in Bien Hoa, which the UN's resident coordinator, John Hendra, said was the worst-affected site.

Experts have also identified two other former US air bases, at Danang and Phu Cat, as key 'hotspots' of dioxin contamination. Dioxin was a component of Agent Orange and other herbicides stored at the bases. US aircraft sprayed the chemicals to strip trees of their foliage during the Vietnam War, depriving communist Viet Cong forces of cover and food.

Vietnam blames dioxin for a spate of birth deformities, and it has been linked to cancer. 'The concentration of dioxin in the three main hotspots is much higher than nationally and internationally agreed standards,' the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a statement. 'Without action, the hotspots will continue to contaminate the wider environment and pose a serious health risk to people living and working nearby,' it said.

Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will carry out the project, funded by UNDP along with the Global Environment Facility, an independent financial organisation. 'The project will use internationally proven techniques to treat and rehabilitate the dioxin hotspots,' the UNDP statement said, adding that 'significantly more funds will be needed for the full remediation of all dioxin hotspots in Vietnam.'
A Vietnamese official said last year that the government had already spent five million dollars to build a landfill for contaminants at Bien Hoa, which is located near the fast-developing southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City. Decontaminating all three former bases could cost about US$60 million or more, the official said. Since 2007, the US Congress has appropriated US$9 million to help in the clean-up in Vietnam. At Vietnam's request, the United States is focusing its help on the Danang site, where operations are expected to begin next year. -- AP

Low approval rate for vets' chemical tests claims

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-06-19-776198950_x.htm
By Erica Werner, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department has granted only 6 percent of health claims filed by veterans of secret Cold War chemical and germ warfare tests conducted by the Pentagon, according to figures obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Veterans advocates called the number appallingly low.

By comparison, about 88 percent of processed claims from Gulf War vets were granted as of last year, according to VA documents. More than 90 percent of processed claims from Iraq and Afghanistan vets were granted as of earlier this year.

In a statement the VA said it was "incorrect" to make such comparisons because of the unique circumstances of different groups of veterans.

The VA noted that most of the veterans of the chemical and germ tests ended their service more than three decades ago and a study by the advisory Institute of Medicine -- dismissed by veterans as shoddily done -- found no clear connection between the tests and the cancer, respiratory illnesses and other problems the veterans are now having.

MORE: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-06-19-776198950_x.htm

Report on Agent Orange in Vietnam

http://wwww.c-spanvideo.org/program/294086-6
Report on Agent Orange in Vietnam
Jun 16, 2010
C-SPAN | Washington Journal
Walter Isaacson talked about a report on the impact of Agent Orange and dioxin contamination in Vietnam. The report also contains recommendations for cleaning up contaminated hot spots. The report suggests that 35 years after the Vietnam War ended, some 3 million Vietnamese have health effects stemming from agent orange use and that some 150,000 .. Read More
Walter Isaacson talked about a report on the impact of Agent Orange and dioxin contamination in Vietnam. The report also contains recommendations for cleaning up contaminated hot spots. The report suggests that 35 years after the Vietnam War ended, some 3 million Vietnamese have health effects stemming from agent orange use and that some 150,000 children have birth defects as a result of the contamination. Mr. Isaacson responded to telephone calls and electronic communications as well.
MORE: http://wwww.c-spanvideo.org/program/294086-6

Strengthening Ties Between The U.S. And Vietnam

The United States and Vietnam are moving forward on defense cooperation and addressing issues from past conflicts.
http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Sstrengthening-The-Ties-Between-96487944.html
The United States and Vietnam are moving forward on defense cooperation and addressing issues from past conflicts, following a day of talks in Hanoi recently. Coming on the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries, the discussions marked the third in a series of annual meetings aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.

The leader of the U.S. delegation, Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro, said the two sides discussed the regional and global security situation and nonproliferation, as well as bolstering cooperation in maritime security, search and rescue, ship visits, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and transnational crime. The participants also conferred about future Vietnamese participation in United Nations peacekeeping missions. The Vietnamese government first expressed interest in participating in U.N. peacekeeping operations back in 2007, saying it would do so when conditions are appropriate. We look forward to welcoming Vietnam's participation in such efforts.

The two sides addressed efforts to remove unexploded bombs and landmines from past conflicts and to account for missing personnel on both sides. The U.S. has allocated $3.5 million to assist Vietnam this year in addressing explosive remnants of war. The talks also addressed efforts to continue dealing with contamination from dioxin, caused by the U.S. use of the defoliant Agent Orange. To date, some $9 million has been provided to fund the ongoing remediation program and to support disabled Vietnamese.

MORE: http://www1.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Sstrengthening-The-Ties-Between-96487944.html

The Petrosky's

http://vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Petrosky122209.pdf

Pete Petrosky and his wife had planned on having a large family. They talked about it before getting married. At least five kids, they agreed, a house full of kids. They stopped after two daughters.
“I was not going to bring anyone else into this world,” Pete said. “We wanted to have a large family. But after those two kids came, I said something’s wrong. There’s either something wrong with me or something wrong with you [his wife], because we have no history of anything like this in either of our families.”
Those “two kids” who came were his daughters, Lisa and Kimberly. Lisa was born with some kind of “soft tissue” growth covering the roof of her mouth. He remembers trying to get more information from doctors, but it never went beyond “a soft tissue growth.” Whatever it was, it did not belong there.
Kimberly, his second daughter, was born with a cleft lip that would evolve into even more serious health issues and a long history of surgeries. At one point in her young life, she nearly died and would have done so had not the Petroskys rushed her to an emergency room.
Pete believes he knows what caused the birth defects—Agent Orange, and it has shadowed him since his time in Vietnam.

READ MORE: http://vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/Petrosky122209.pdf

The Petrosky’s story is brought to you by
Chapter 176, Centralia, Illinois.

Schedule for Rating Disabilities; Evaluation of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html
Veterans Affairs Department
PROPOSED RULES
Schedule for Rating Disabilities; Evaluation of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ,
35711–35712 [2010–15169] [TEXT] [PDF]
AGENCY: Department of Veterans Affairs.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
SUMMARY: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proposes to amend its schedule for Rating Disabilities by revising the evaluation criterion for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to provide a 100-percent evaluation for any veteran with service-connected ALS. This change is necessary to adequately compensate veterans who suffer from this progressive, untreatable, and fatal disease.
This change is intended to provide a total disability rating for any veteran with service-connected ALS.

YOU MUST SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE AT: http://www.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/fr-cont.html

VVA says Tell Your Agent Orange Stories and take Grassroots ACTION

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/22/vva-says-tell-your-agent-orange-stories-and-take-grassroots-action/
As I finished up writing my last article on questions surrounding Agent Orange Outside of Boots On the Ground Vietnam, Rainbow Colored Chemical Agents on GUAM? http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/22/rainbow-colored-chemical-agents-on-guam/, an old article written by Mokie Porter (mporter@vva.org) of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA)(www.vva.org) came to mind, and I dug it out of my stack of The VVA Veteran magazines.

Way back in the Oct/November 2009 time frame (that’s about seven months ago) Mokie raised several issues that are now beginning to bite VSOs in the butt.

His focus was on how the Ford Foundation was funding a study into how Agent Orange and related chemical poisons used in our Herbicide Warfare operations against Vietnam has been killing and maiming the Vietnamese from the time we began using chemical Herbicides as a weapon of warfare.

Mokie drew attention to how the focus of the funding for this effort excluded Vietnam Veterans and their families. As I understand it, VVA had no problem with any study to correct a wrong done the people of Vietnam, but heck it was wartime after all. The problem was the exclusion of U.S. troops who fought there.

However, more important rather than piss and moan about Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange getting any media coverage, Mokie proposed positive steps and solutions that Veterans needed to heed in order to get their stories and VOICE heard. That was seven months ago, old news?

WE DON’T THINK SO!

What exactly did Mokie say seven months ago that applies today?

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News Network

Don’t Wait For An Army to Die

MORE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/06/22/vva-says-tell-your-agent-orange-stories-and-take-grassroots-action/

VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water

http://www.standard.net/topics/health/2010/06/18/va-quietly-giving-benefits-marines-exposed-toxic-water

WASHINGTON — Former Marine Corps Cpl. Peter Devereaux was told about a year ago that he had just two or three years to live.

More than 12 months later, at 48, he still isn't ready to concede that the cancer that's wasting his innards is going to kill him. He swallows his pills and suffers the pain and each afternoon he greets his 12-year-old daughter, Jackie, as she steps off her school bus in North Andover, Mass.

The U.S. Department of the Navy says that more research is needed to connect ailments suffered by Marines such as Devereaux who served at Camp Lejeune and their families who lived there to decades of water contamination at the 156,000-acre base in eastern North Carolina. Meanwhile, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly begun awarding benefits to a few Marines who were based at Lejeune.

"Right now, I would venture to say that any Camp Lejeune veteran who files a claim now is presumed to have been exposed to the contaminated drinking water," Brad Flohr, the assistant director for policy, compensation and pension service at the VA, told a meeting of affected Marines and family members in April.

It's estimated that as many as 1 million people were exposed to the water from the 1950s to the 1980s. The water was laced with trichloroethylene, known as TCE; tetrachloroethylene, known as PCE; benzene and other volatile organic chemicals.

More: http://www.standard.net/topics/health/2010/06/18/va-quietly-giving-benefits-marines-exposed-toxic-water

Vietnam vets worry about lasting impact of Agent Orange

By Nancy Remsen, Free Press Staff Writer • Sunday, June 20, 2010

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100620/NEWS02/100619007/Vietnam-vets-worry-about-lasting-impact-of-Agent-Orange

MONTPELIER — William J. Whitney of Northfield did two tours of duty in Vietnam four decades ago, but until recently he didn’t think that Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military, might affect not only his health, but that of his children and grandchildren.

“I’m scared and I have a right to be,” Whitney testified Saturday before a small audience of other Vietnam veterans, their families, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and representatives of Vermont’s other members of Congress. “I went and served my country not knowing what my government was doing to us guys. They poisoned us.”

Other Vietnam veterans also came to the microphone, their voices full of emotion as they told of mysterious illnesses that have plagued their children and grandchildren.
http://www.vpr.net/news_detail/88303/
More: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100620/NEWS02/100619007/Vietnam-vets-worry-about-lasting-impact-of-Agent-Orange

Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting in Centralia, Illinois
War doesn’t end when the peace treaty is signed
Effects of Agent Orange on vets may linger long after war in Vietnam
By Judith Joy
Sentinel Feature Editor
http://www.morningsentinel.com/
CENTRALIA — “We have got to tell people that we will not be quiet any more,” Sandie Wilson told a group of veterans gathered at the American Legion on Wednesday to hear about the effects of Agent Orange on veterans of the Vietnam War.
“We want grant money to look into the effects of Agent Orange, not just on veterans, but on their families,” added Wilson, who served in Vietnam as a nurse in 1968 and ‘69. “We have been talking about Agent Orange for 30 years now,” Wilson added, “but very little has been done by the government for the children and grandchildren of veterans.”
Of the 3.5 million men and women who served in Vietnam , Wilson said that only 850,000 were still alive. “Seventy-five percent are dead before their time — that’s something I cannot tolerate. It’s time to take action.”
Agent Orange is a powerful herbicide, which is a combination of 2, 4-D and 2, 4, 5-T, that was sprayed by the military to defoliate trees concealing enemy forces. For humans, however, the greatest danger was from dioxin, a contaminant that occurred during the herbicide’s manufacture. Levels of dioxin in Agent Orange ranged from less than .05 parts per million to almost 50 ppm, according to a publication issued by the Vietnam Veterans of America or VVA.
“We talk about Agent Orange, but it’s actually all the chemicals that soldiers were exposed to,” explained Mokie Porter , who represents the VVA in Washington . Five companies, including DOW Chemical, Monsanto, Diamond Shamrock and DuPont, were involved in making Agent Orange. However, Porter explained, DOW has often been singled out because it used an accelerated technique that employed higher temperatures that allegedly produced greater quantities of the contaminant dioxin.
Exposure to dioxin may result in a variety of illnesses including: the onset of Type II diabetes, neuropathy or tingling in the extremities, Hodgkins Disease, Chloracne, non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Parkinson’s Disease, and many different types of cancers. All of the above are illnesses recognized by the Veteran’s Administration (VA) as related to exposure to Agent Orange.
In addition, exposure to Agent Orange may also affect the genetic makeup of the person exposed and cause Spina bifida in his or her offspring. Whether Agent Orange is directly responsible for other genetic diseases is a matter of some dispute. The NIH [National Institute of Health] says there’s no evidence that dioxin causes mutations on the parental side,” admitted Wilson .
“We believe it was a combination of chemicals that were sprayed on us,” she added, “the NIH is only looking at dioxin in Agent Orange.” During her time in Vietnam , Wilson said she saw no mosquitoes because the military sprayed the insecticide Malathion every 9 to 11 days at a rate 40 times the recommended dose.
Wilson, who has no children of her own, said that exposure to Agent Orange, as well as other chemicals, is believed to be related to cancer, asthma, learning disabilities and other problems in the children of veterans. Wilson, who was a pediatric nurse at Fort Campbell , Ky. , said that one-third of all deliveries were by C-section and a number of children born there had abnormalities so serious they were sent to Vanderbilt Hospital .
Edith Rose, who lives in Saline, Mich. , related the story of the premature birth of her first child, when she was 39 years old, and married to a Vietnam vet. At birth, her son weighed only 1 1/2 pounds and, had he lived, would have been deaf, blind and profoundly retarded.
“My husband did not want me to see my child,” Rose told the audience. Rose, who is a Catholic and has raised 28 foster children, said that taking the baby off life support was the hardest decision she ever made in her life. “Agent Orange is killing our children and our grandchildren,” she remarked, “the longer we let this go on, the more generations will be affected.”
Mokie Porter said that she had attended a meeting sponsored by the Ford Foundation in which she learned that the foundation was providing funds to take care of Vietnamese victims of the war, but not Americans. “We should take care of our own,” Porter asserted, “there are a lot of sick kids out there and time is getting short.”
Presently, however, Spina bifida is the only birth defect recognized by the VA. “We have said for years that kids have cardiac problems, club feet and other disabilities,” said Wilson , “not just Spina bifida.” Dioxin, she explained, “mimics the hormones and the body doesn’t know the difference.”
Wilson is hopeful that the government will establish a center for the study of birth defects and other problems related to exposure of Agent Orange. Also needed is a place where children with such problems could come for evaluation and possible genetic testing.
“I’m asking them to pay for the problems they caused,” said Wilson . “War doesn’t end when the peace treaty’s signed. If they can pay for all these wars, they can pay for what we need.”
Following the formal presentation, a number of veterans in the audience described their physical problems and those of their children and grandchildren. Anyone requiring assistance regarding possible VA claims, can call Wayne Sensel, service representative for the Vietnam Veterans of America, at 618-367-2753.

Private panel to push $300 million cleanup of Agent Orange sites

Places contaminated by herbicide linked to illnesses in Vietnam and U.S. to be targeted in 10-year effort

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-nw-agent-orange-plan-20100616,0,6421387.story
By Jason Grotto, Tribune reporter

June 16, 2010
A prominent panel of private citizens, scientists and policymakers from the U.S. and Vietnam is set to unveil a plan Wednesday aimed at turning the page on a 40-year-old controversy over the health and environmental impact of Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.

The 10-year, $300 million plan calls for cleaning up more than two dozen sites scattered throughout South Vietnam that remain contaminated by dioxin-tainted herbicides once stored at former U.S. military installations. It also would expand health care and other services for people suffering from disabilities and other ailments linked to dioxin.

Building on recent scientific studies and small-scale efforts at cooperation between the two governments, the plan seeks greater financial and technical support from the U.S. government as well as private foundations and humanitarian groups. While many private groups have signed on to the plan, its drafters are hoping the federal government will shoulder the bulk of the costs.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-nw-agent-orange-plan-20100616,0,6421387.story

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/16/world/main6587798.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.3