http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=426809
There were a lot of
young veterans with missing limbs at the 1982 national gathering of the
Vietnam Veterans of America in Washington.
At first, Ken Wunder figured they were all casualties of enemy fire.
He was wrong. Some were casualties of Agent Orange.
"A lot of them that were there had limbs missing from cancer caused by
Agent Orange," said Wunder, an Army veteran who attended as a
representative of the then-new Berks County Vietnam Veterans of America
Chapter 131.
The U.S. sprayed millions of gallons of chemical herbicides in Vietnam
and other combat-related areas during the war to remove foliage that
might hide enemy soldiers.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Agent Orange - named
for the orange identifying stripe on its 55-gallon storage drums - was
the most widely used substance.
It was sprayed from 1962 to 1971 during "Operation Ranch Hand." Ever
since then, it has been a major health issue for veterans, their spouses
and even their children.
READ MORE: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=426809
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
The many faces of Agent Orange
http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/the-many-faces-of-agent-orange/article_0a787f2c-2b09-11e2-9406-001a4bcf887a.html
Steve Dudich was a fresh-faced teenager not far removed from East High School in Akron, Ohio, when he had his first experience with Agent Orange.
Dudich’s parents allowed him to join the U.S. Marine Corps when he was only 17, and after boot camp in South Carolina he found himself in the first of two tours of duty in Hue, Vietnam, near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the north and south.
It was 1962 and it was Dudich’s job to call in map coordinates for Naval artillery strikes.
“Going into Agent Orange was like it had a musty smell to it. It was a reddish-brown-colored fog that would be in the air,” said Dudich, who served much of his first tour with troops of the Republic of Vietnam. “We were in combat and I ran through a bamboo thicket. It kind of gave me hundreds of little injections with (Agent Orange). Within five minutes I looked like I had been burned by acid. I didn’t know what to do. I tore my clothes off and fought in my skivvies. I got hit with a huge dose on that occasion.”
That was the first of too many encounters with the toxic herbicide over the following four years. He said soldiers would eat food from the jungle or local hamlets that had been contaminated. They would drink the water and bunk down in the foliage that had been sprayed. The chemical exposure along with post traumatic stress disorder has left Dudich permanently disabled.
The 66-year-old Arroyo Grande resident has suffered from polycythemia, a rare blood disease that increases the number of red blood cells, and he has had superventricular tachycardia, a condition where his heartbeat increases to dangerous levels — 250 beats per minute, Dudich said.
“The last time, I thought ‘I’ve just had enough of this.’ I thought I would just go guard the gates up in heaven,” he said. “To die isn't a bad thing. I've had all of these health problems. I was just tired out. I'd had enough.”
READ MORE: http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/the-many-faces-of-agent-orange/article_0a787f2c-2b09-11e2-9406-001a4bcf887a.html
Steve Dudich was a fresh-faced teenager not far removed from East High School in Akron, Ohio, when he had his first experience with Agent Orange.
Dudich’s parents allowed him to join the U.S. Marine Corps when he was only 17, and after boot camp in South Carolina he found himself in the first of two tours of duty in Hue, Vietnam, near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the north and south.
It was 1962 and it was Dudich’s job to call in map coordinates for Naval artillery strikes.
“Going into Agent Orange was like it had a musty smell to it. It was a reddish-brown-colored fog that would be in the air,” said Dudich, who served much of his first tour with troops of the Republic of Vietnam. “We were in combat and I ran through a bamboo thicket. It kind of gave me hundreds of little injections with (Agent Orange). Within five minutes I looked like I had been burned by acid. I didn’t know what to do. I tore my clothes off and fought in my skivvies. I got hit with a huge dose on that occasion.”
That was the first of too many encounters with the toxic herbicide over the following four years. He said soldiers would eat food from the jungle or local hamlets that had been contaminated. They would drink the water and bunk down in the foliage that had been sprayed. The chemical exposure along with post traumatic stress disorder has left Dudich permanently disabled.
The 66-year-old Arroyo Grande resident has suffered from polycythemia, a rare blood disease that increases the number of red blood cells, and he has had superventricular tachycardia, a condition where his heartbeat increases to dangerous levels — 250 beats per minute, Dudich said.
“The last time, I thought ‘I’ve just had enough of this.’ I thought I would just go guard the gates up in heaven,” he said. “To die isn't a bad thing. I've had all of these health problems. I was just tired out. I'd had enough.”
READ MORE: http://santamariatimes.com/news/local/the-many-faces-of-agent-orange/article_0a787f2c-2b09-11e2-9406-001a4bcf887a.html
Friday, November 9, 2012
Accuracy Falls by Wayside as VA Rushes to Clear Vast Backlog
VA claims are slowed by errors in as many as one in every three cases, reports Aaron Glantz of the Center for Investigative Reporting.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/09/accuracy-falls-by-wayside-as-va-rushes-to-clear-vast-backlog.html
U.S. Navy cook Hosea Roundtree
watched the 1983 shelling of Beirut from the deck of a ship, feelings of
helplessness washing over him as people perished onshore. That memory
haunted him, resurrected in flashbacks eight years later after a tour in
the Gulf during Operation Desert Storm.
But
when Roundtree’s claim for disability compensation crossed Jamie Fox’s
desk at the Department of Veterans Affairs more than two decades later,
it was slated for denial on the grounds that he had never seen combat.
Fox, herself a Navy veteran, tried to straighten things out—and for
that, she lost her job.
A
lawsuit filed by the former VA disability claims representative
provides a rare glimpse into what veterans’ advocates call systemic
problems in how the agency handles compensation claims filed by
Americans wounded physically or mentally in the line of duty.
A
Center for Investigative Reporting review of the VA’s performance data
reveals chronic errors—committed in up to one in three cases—and an
emphasis on speed over accuracy that clogs the VA system with appeals,
increasing delays for all veterans.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
Because Every Birth Defect Has a Cause
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Sunday, November 4, 2012
‘No on 37’ ads won’t dissuade voters
http://napavalleyregister.com/news/opinion/mailbag/no-on-ads-won-t-dissuade-voters/article_1888c66c-24a1-11e2-a4ef-0019bb2963f4.html
Are we going to allow the two largest contributors to the “No
on 37” campaign, Monsanto and Dupont — who told us Agent Orange and DDT
are safe — to convince us that we don’t have a right to know what
they’re doing to our food?
Ten days of incessant discredited lies have taken their effect, but in the end Californians will not be fooled by these tactics.
The paramount question that every voter must ask themselves before voting is this: Whose side are you on?
Do you trust your family’s health to Monsanto, DuPont and Dow Chemical? (SEE post, Monday, October 29, 2012 Monsanto named in 50 cancer lawsuits) Or, are you better served trusting the Consumers Union, Pesticide Action Network and the American Public Health Association?
Similarly, when it comes to the enormous increase in pesticide use that the genetic engineering of our food has led to, do you trust the health of our natural environment with the pesticide industry and the “No on 37” campaign its bankrolling, or nonprofit supporters of Prop 37 like the Sierra Club, the California League of Conservation Voters and the Environ-mental Working Group?
If voters discard the “No on 37” campaign’s deceptive and debunked television ads polluting our airwaves (bankrolled by the world’s most powerful pesticide corporations), and instead trust their instincts and consult the facts, we’re confident Californians will demand the right to know what is in our food and vote “yes” on Proposition 37.
Paul Ryan / Napa
Ten days of incessant discredited lies have taken their effect, but in the end Californians will not be fooled by these tactics.
The paramount question that every voter must ask themselves before voting is this: Whose side are you on?
Do you trust your family’s health to Monsanto, DuPont and Dow Chemical? (SEE post, Monday, October 29, 2012 Monsanto named in 50 cancer lawsuits) Or, are you better served trusting the Consumers Union, Pesticide Action Network and the American Public Health Association?
Similarly, when it comes to the enormous increase in pesticide use that the genetic engineering of our food has led to, do you trust the health of our natural environment with the pesticide industry and the “No on 37” campaign its bankrolling, or nonprofit supporters of Prop 37 like the Sierra Club, the California League of Conservation Voters and the Environ-mental Working Group?
If voters discard the “No on 37” campaign’s deceptive and debunked television ads polluting our airwaves (bankrolled by the world’s most powerful pesticide corporations), and instead trust their instincts and consult the facts, we’re confident Californians will demand the right to know what is in our food and vote “yes” on Proposition 37.
Paul Ryan / Napa
Wildwood Subdivisions Near Superfund Site Cleared for Public Safety by EPA Officials
http://eureka-wildwood.patch.com/articles/wildwood-subdivisions-near-superfund-site-cleared-for-public-safety-by-epa-officials
Still dealing with dioxin issues 15 years post-cleanup but with new test results: Environmental Protection Agency's Region 7 team inform Wildwood residents most of contaminated area is safe for living and future building.
For the last five years, concerned Wildwood residents, city staffers, council members, government officials, consultants, lawyers, a judge and a particular home developer have been trying to determine just how far-reaching the devastating effects of a dioxin-laced Superfund site in Wildwood may extend to land that immediately adjoins the contaminated homestead of infamous waste hauler Russell Bliss. Home builder Wesley Byrne is particularly focused on environmental issues related to the controversial land, because he and Wildwood city representatives have been locked in a lawsuit since 2007 that prevents him from building a new subdivision on the 18.3 acres he owns there.
READ MORE: http://eureka-wildwood.patch.com/articles/wildwood-subdivisions-near-superfund-site-cleared-for-public-safety-by-epa-officials
Still dealing with dioxin issues 15 years post-cleanup but with new test results: Environmental Protection Agency's Region 7 team inform Wildwood residents most of contaminated area is safe for living and future building.
For the last five years, concerned Wildwood residents, city staffers, council members, government officials, consultants, lawyers, a judge and a particular home developer have been trying to determine just how far-reaching the devastating effects of a dioxin-laced Superfund site in Wildwood may extend to land that immediately adjoins the contaminated homestead of infamous waste hauler Russell Bliss. Home builder Wesley Byrne is particularly focused on environmental issues related to the controversial land, because he and Wildwood city representatives have been locked in a lawsuit since 2007 that prevents him from building a new subdivision on the 18.3 acres he owns there.
READ MORE: http://eureka-wildwood.patch.com/articles/wildwood-subdivisions-near-superfund-site-cleared-for-public-safety-by-epa-officials
DA NANG: Perception gap over Agent Orange is déjà vu after Fukushima
http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/column/AJ201211010017
Today, Da Nang, a central Vietnamese port city of 890,000 people, is famed for its graceful coastline and is a popular destination for huge crowds of tourists.
During the Vietnam War, however, the city hosted the largest base used by the U.S. Air Force, where huge amounts of the Agent Orange chemical defoliant were manufactured and stored. Highly toxic dioxin, the main ingredient in Agent Orange, continues to be detected in high concentrations in the surrounding soil.
A welfare center for Agent Orange survivors is located in a rural, mountainous area about a 45-minute drive from downtown Da Nang. It educates children with inborn auditory, mental and other disabilities in reading and writing and offers them simple forms of rehabilitation.
Some children take the bus, driven by center staff, for more than an hour to attend the center because no regular school is willing to accept them. The legacy of the war is vivid, and the children are bearing the burden.
The children greeted me with slightly shyish smiles when I visited the center. Some of them made funny gestures in posing for the camera, whereas others, interested in a smartphone, tried to sweep their fingers across the screen.
READ MORE: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/column/AJ201211010017
Today, Da Nang, a central Vietnamese port city of 890,000 people, is famed for its graceful coastline and is a popular destination for huge crowds of tourists.
During the Vietnam War, however, the city hosted the largest base used by the U.S. Air Force, where huge amounts of the Agent Orange chemical defoliant were manufactured and stored. Highly toxic dioxin, the main ingredient in Agent Orange, continues to be detected in high concentrations in the surrounding soil.
A welfare center for Agent Orange survivors is located in a rural, mountainous area about a 45-minute drive from downtown Da Nang. It educates children with inborn auditory, mental and other disabilities in reading and writing and offers them simple forms of rehabilitation.
Some children take the bus, driven by center staff, for more than an hour to attend the center because no regular school is willing to accept them. The legacy of the war is vivid, and the children are bearing the burden.
The children greeted me with slightly shyish smiles when I visited the center. Some of them made funny gestures in posing for the camera, whereas others, interested in a smartphone, tried to sweep their fingers across the screen.
READ MORE: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/column/AJ201211010017
Local Fishermen Fear Toxic Waste in San Jacinto River
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4948554/local-fishermen-fear-toxic-waste.html
HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Alarmed by continued fishing near toxic waste pits leaking into the San Jacinto River, leaders of the Houston-area Vietnamese-American fishing community are taking the alleged polluters to court.
The 200 fishermen pursuing civil litigation in state district court in Houston say four companies allegedly responsible for the submerged, riverside waste disposal ponds near Interstate 10 and the San Jacinto River should pay for medical monitoring of people exposed to the waste and other damages.
The waste ponds opened in 1965 at the Pasadena, Texas paper mill site allegedly failed to contain and continue to leak dioxin, a toxic byproduct of paper mill production. The chemical is linked to serious skin disease, liver damage, and glucose metabolism and hormonal risks.
Texas State Agencies indicate that fish and shellfish tissue samples from the San Jacinto River and other areas contain unusually high dioxin concentrations and issued a consumption advisory for crab and all species of fish from the area of the river near the site.
READ MORE: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4948554/local-fishermen-fear-toxic-waste.html
HOUSTON, Oct. 30, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Alarmed by continued fishing near toxic waste pits leaking into the San Jacinto River, leaders of the Houston-area Vietnamese-American fishing community are taking the alleged polluters to court.
The 200 fishermen pursuing civil litigation in state district court in Houston say four companies allegedly responsible for the submerged, riverside waste disposal ponds near Interstate 10 and the San Jacinto River should pay for medical monitoring of people exposed to the waste and other damages.
The waste ponds opened in 1965 at the Pasadena, Texas paper mill site allegedly failed to contain and continue to leak dioxin, a toxic byproduct of paper mill production. The chemical is linked to serious skin disease, liver damage, and glucose metabolism and hormonal risks.
Texas State Agencies indicate that fish and shellfish tissue samples from the San Jacinto River and other areas contain unusually high dioxin concentrations and issued a consumption advisory for crab and all species of fish from the area of the river near the site.
READ MORE: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/10/30/4948554/local-fishermen-fear-toxic-waste.html
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