VA Data Show Disparities In Veteran Benefits Spending

http://www.npr.org/2015/01/13/376134776/va-data-show-disparities-in-veteran-benefits-spending
NPR — along with seven public radio stations around the country — is chronicling the lives of America's troops where they live. We're calling the project "Back at Base." This is the first of a three-part series about veteran benefits (Part 2 / Part 3).
If you're a veteran and rely on benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, where you live may have an effect on whether you receive the benefits you've earned.
NPR, together with member stations WBUR, Lakeshore Public Radio and KUOW, looked at data from 3,000 counties nationwide, and found there's a huge variation in coverage from state to state — and even within a state — on how much the VA spends per veteran.
We also found there's no obvious pattern. And there's no strong association between spending per Veterans' benefits cover a wide range, including health care, monthly disability checks, home loans, life insurance, and education through the GI bill, among others.
Among the states, West Virginia and Arkansas had the highest per-veteran spending in 2013 — just over $7,600. Indiana, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania had the lowest — less than $5,000. Nationally, the average is just over $6,000. That's after filtering out things like costs to build and operate VA facilities.
When looking specifically at health benefit spending, calculating the amount of spending per "patient" — with a patient being a veteran who gets health benefits — there's a wide variation that doesn't fit discernible patterns.
For example, spending is nearly $30,000 per patient in San Francisco, and less than $7,000 per patient in Lubbock, Texas. Nationally, the average is just under $10,000. In places where more veterans are enrolled in VA health benefit plans, spending per veteran did tend to be higher.
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Monsanto; Unethical and Fallacious

http://thepublicslate.com/2015/01/monsanto-unethical-and-fallacious/
People all over the world know the company name ‘Monsanto;’ and it’s not for good reasons. It would be great if Monsanto made products improved the quality of life.

They could be involved in Alzheimer’s research to find a cure for a horrible disease. It could be a lot of things; it could enrich the lives of humans. Unfortunately it is none of those. Monsanto is a chemical company and it produces products which are harmful and even deadly. Claims by Monsanto that their chemicals are safe and improve lives are fallacious, and their business practices are unethical.
Monsanto and Dow Chemical developed an herbicide called ‘Agent Orange’ during the Vietnam War. Its purpose was to defoliate areas of the jungle, and expose North Vietnam positions. It was used during ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ from 1962 to 1971. Monsanto claimed the chemical components were safe and would not cause harm to human beings.
After soldiers began returning from the war, health problems such as several types of cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and birth defects were attributed to the Dioxin in Agent Orange.
The C-123 aircraft which were used to deliver Agent Orange were decommissioned in 1972. They were used in the United States for medical evacuations and cargo missions. About 1500 Air Force reservists flew the aircraft between 1972 and 1982. The planes had never been decontaminated or examined for residual Agent Orange and dioxin. Many of those pilots began experiencing symptoms similar to those of returning combat forces.
In 1991 the Agent Orange Act was passed by Congress. This act paved the way for those who served in Vietnam to seek medical attention directly related to Agent Orange. The Air Force reservists who flew those aircraft inside the United States from 1972 to 1982 are not eligible under the act. It only applies to those who served in Vietnam from January 9, 1962, to May 7, 1975.
Subsequent tests on the aircraft showed traces of the dioxin, but because the strength of the chemical erodes over time, the residue is not potent enough to be harmful. All but one of the planes was infected. It is questionable that the Air Force reservists will be compensated.
Monsanto’s latest questionable product is Genetically Modified Organisms. GMO’s and food developed using GMO material have been banned in the European Union, Australia, and Japan.

GMO’s were developed to endure the pesticide Roundup, also produced by Monsanto. Crops grown with the use of GMO’s are labeled ‘Roundup Ready.’These seeds comprise 70 to 90 percent of all corn and soy bean crops.
Because Roundup is easy and inexpensive to use, farmers saturated their fields with the pesticide to kill weeds which inhibited the growth of their crops. The weeds became immune to the product and grew stronger and more resistant. What developed was bad news for consumers. Vastly larger amounts of herbicide are needed to kill the weeds; large amounts of residue remain on the crops sent to market.
GMO’s have been linked to illness, both life-threatening and chronic; they are harmful to animals; they are environmentally dangerous, especially to sources of drinking water. They are easily spread by wind and rain. They cannot be washed off of food located in the market place.
As with all food substances, the FDA required testing of GMO products. The testing was done by the Agro-giant itself. It was determined that the process was safe.

Twenty nine states are considering labels informing consumers that what they are eating was made from GMO produced crops. Corporate farms denounce the possibility of such a law, claiming that the FDA deemed GMO produced products were safe. Advocates for the labels state that it is not a safety issue; consumers simply have the right to know what is contained in the food they eat.

Study: Agent Orange may have affected Air Force workers after Vietnam

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-agent-orange-planes-20150109-story.html

Two dozen U.S. Air Force planes used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War remained contaminated with the herbicide at levels that likely posed a health risk to some personnel who flew on them in the decade after the conflict, according to a new report.
The report could open the way to medical care and disability pay for hundreds of reservists who worked on the C-123 planes until 1982 and later developed certain medical conditions.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has denied nearly all their claims for compensation, arguing that any chemical residues in the planes had solidified and therefore were unlikely to pose a threat.
The VA commissioned the Institute of Medicine to review the scientific evidence in hopes of resolving the dispute.

The experts cited studies showing that dioxin — the toxic component of Agent Orange — does not simply remain on surfaces but instead slowly turns into a gas that can attach to dust particles and be redeposited.

"It is semi-volatile, and it will move around the cabin of the plane," said Linda McCauley, dean of the nursing school at Emory University and a member of the committee that produced the report.
Swabs taken from the interiors of some planes between 1979 and 2009 showed levels of dioxin that exceeded international safety guidelines for workers in enclosed settings, according to the report.
The levels would have been at least that high when the reservists were using them.
After the war, the planes were reassigned to reserve units for medical and cargo transport and training exercises. Between 1,500 and 2,100 reservists flew on them over the next decade, until the planes were retired, destroyed or sold overseas.

Records of work schedules have not been found, making it impossible for the experts to estimate the frequency of exposure or who might be at the greatest risk.
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Report: C-123 fliers exposed to Agent Orange

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/01/09/veterans-exposed-to-agent-orange/21458539/
Air Force Reserve members who flew C-123 aircraft after they were used for spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic herbicide and may be at risk for developing related diseases, according to a federal study released Friday.
An Institute of Medicine scientific panel comprised of public health experts stated "with confidence" that some of the 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force Reserve personnel who flew on C-123s after the war were exposed to chemical levels that exceed health guidelines for workers.

Subsequently, they may face increased risk for developing illnesses associated with exposure to the components of Agent Orange, according to the study.
The findings — from a group led by Harvard Public Health expert Robert Herrick — are a hard-fought victory for a small group of former service members who have lobbied for years to be included among those presumed to be exposed to Agent Orange as a result of their military service.
Led by retired Air Force Maj. Wes Carter, the members of the C-123 Veterans Association have pushed the Veterans Affairs Department to recognize illnesses they've developed and say are related to exposure.
But VA consistently has maintained that trace amounts of dioxin on the metal surfaces in the aircraft, which were stripped of their spraying apparatus after the war, would not pose a threat to troops because it is not "biologically available for skin absorption or inhalation."
The VA's stand, according to the department's C-123 exposure website is that "although residual TCDD — the toxic substance in Agent Orange — may be detected in C-123 aircraft by sophisticated laboratory techniques many years after its use, the [VA] concluded that the existing scientific studies and reports support a low probability that TCDD was biologically available in these aircraft. Therefore, the potential for exposure to TCDD from flying or working in contaminated C-123 aircraft years after the Vietnam War is unlikely to have occurred at levels that could affect health."
But according to Carter and the Vietnam Veterans of America, at least 10 C-123 crewmen who flew in the aircraft after the war have died of cancers commonly linked to Agent Orange.
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VA admits Agent Orange residue may have affected health of Air Force reservists

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/01/agent-orange-residue-may-have-affected.html
Air Force reservists based in the U.S. who worked after the Vietnam War in C-123

aircraft that sprayed Agent Orange during the war could have experienced adverse health effects from exposure to the herbicide, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The reservists who served in the contaminated C-123s experienced some degree of exposure to the toxic chemical component of Agent Orange known as TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), and it is plausible, in some cases, that the reservists exceeded TCDD exposure guidelines for workers in enclosed settings. After their use in Vietnam, 24 C-123 aircraft were added to the fleets of four U.S. Air Force reserve units for use in military airlifts and medical and cargo transport. From 1972 to 1982, approximately 1,500 to 2,100 U.S. Air Force Reserve personnel trained and worked aboard these C-123 aircraft. After becoming aware that these aircraft had previously sprayed Agent Orange, some Air Force Reservists applied to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for compensatory coverage under the Agent Orange Act of 1991 (AO Act), which provides health care and disability coverage for health conditions that have been deemed presumptively service-related and due to herbicide exposure during the Vietnam War.
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The National Academies - Release - "Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft"

http://www.fednews.com/calendarEvent.php?cType=TW&eventdate=2015-01-08&eventid=583994

01/08/15
14:00:00

The National Academies - Release

Subject: The National Academies holds an embargoed release, beginning at 2 p.m., of a report from the Institute of Medicine titled "Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft." The report examines whether there is an excess risk of adverse health effects among those reservists who flew or maintained aircraft which sprayed herbicides after the Vietnam War.

Contact: 202-334-2138, news@nas.edu 

Ísafjörður Mayor Rejects Liability for Dioxin Pollution

http://www.icelandreview.com/news/2015/01/07/isafjordur-mayor-rejects-liability-dioxin-pollution

Mayor of Ísafjörður Gísli Halldór Halldórsson has said that the town will not accept liability relating to the dioxin pollution in Engidalur valley near Ísafjörður, the West Fjords, from the incinerator Funi despite the fact that the municipality will participate in compensating farmers in the area for damages.
“This might sound strange but I have never seen liable documents which show that dioxin pollution in meat from Engidalur was over the limit. For this precise reason, the town of Ísafjörður has never accepted responsibility for the damage that occurred,” he told Fréttablaðið.
Gísli referred to a Danish report which found that the levels of dioxin in the meat produced by farmers in Engidalur were below the maximum limit. The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) banned the sale of meat from the area and recalled meat exported to Europe.
A report from MAST stated that dioxin in meat from the area had measured above the maximum safety limit in December 2010. Dioxin levels in milk had also previously been found to be above the limit. Gísli says it would be interesting to see the initial report from MAST with information about  chemical levels in the food products.
Farmer at Efri-Engidalur, Steingrímur Jónsson, was forced to slaughter his entire livestock herds, 80 sheep and 19 cattle, in 2011 after it was discovered that they had been subjected to dioxin pollution. Two hundred sheep from other farms in the valley were also put down. The incinerator was closed in 2010.
Experimental pasturing conducted by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) to test the content of dioxin in the grass concluded in January 2012 that the area was fit for farming again. However, it was advised that farm products, especially those from cattle and horses, be monitored to begin with.
The municipality approved the counter offer by farmer Kristján Ólafsson for damages that he suffered while an agreement is yet to be reached with Steingrímur Guðmundsson. Gísli told Fréttablaðið yesterday that the city council is still waiting on a response from him to its offer.

Helping Beneficiaries Stricken with Spina Bifida

http://www.va.gov/HEALTH/NewsFeatures/2015/January/Helping-Beneficiaries-Stricken-with-Spina-Bifida.asp

When Evelyna Castro sees herself in a wheelchair she doesn’t think of herself as disabled. Instead, she has turned her disability into something positive.

Born with spina bifida, a debilitating spinal disorder that happens when a baby is in the womb and the spinal column doesn’t close all the way, Evelyna, 33, has refused to let her condition stand in her way. In fact, she was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Washington of 2014; her platform was Acceptance through Diversity. “Don’t let society or circumstances dictate your life,” says the Washington state resident and native of California.

In Colorado, Dick and Cindy Koons care for their daughter, also stricken with spina bifida and wheelchair bound.

What they and others like them share in common is the VA Spina Bifida Health Care Benefits Program, a federal program that covers health care considered medically necessary and appropriate for people with spina bifida (excluding spina bifida occulta). It is managed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Chief Business Office Purchased Care group in Denver, Colo. The beneficiaries are the birth children of Vietnam Veterans, and the children of certain Veterans who had served in Korea along the Demilitarized Zone, who have been diagnosed with the disorder as a result of the Veteran’s exposure to Agent Orange.

For Evelyna, a make-up artist, the program has been a godsend. “I can’t thank the VA enough, which has never refused me a thing,” she said. “Every five years I get a new wheelchair, among other services, and I can’t tell you how much that helps. Knowing they have my back relieves a lot of stress from my family and allows me to focus on my work.”

When Evelyna Castro sees herself in a wheelchair she doesn’t think of herself as disabled. Instead, she has turned her disability into something positive.
Born with spina bifida, a debilitating spinal disorder that happens when a baby is in the womb and the spinal column doesn’t close all the way, Evelyna, 33, has refused to let her condition stand in her way. In fact, she was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Washington of 2014; her platform was Acceptance through Diversity. “Don’t let society or circumstances dictate your life,” says the Washington state resident and native of California.
In Colorado, Dick and Cindy Koons care for their daughter, also stricken with spina bifida and wheelchair bound.
What they and others like them share in common is the VA Spina Bifida Health Care Benefits Program, a federal program that covers health care considered medically necessary and appropriate for people with spina bifida (excluding spina bifida occulta). It is managed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Chief Business Office Purchased Care group in Denver, Colo. The beneficiaries are the birth children of Vietnam Veterans, and the children of certain Veterans who had served in Korea along the Demilitarized Zone, who have been diagnosed with the disorder as a result of the Veteran’s exposure to Agent Orange.
For Evelyna, a make-up artist, the program has been a godsend. “I can’t thank the VA enough, which has never refused me a thing,” she said. “Every five years I get a new wheelchair, among other services, and I can’t tell you how much that helps. Knowing they have my back relieves a lot of stress from my family and allows me to focus on my work.”
- See more at: http://www.va.gov/HEALTH/NewsFeatures/2015/January/Helping-Beneficiaries-Stricken-with-Spina-Bifida.asp#sthash.ixL9g8t1.dpuf

When Evelyna Castro sees herself in a wheelchair she doesn’t think of herself as disabled. Instead, she has turned her disability into something positive.
Born with spina bifida, a debilitating spinal disorder that happens when a baby is in the womb and the spinal column doesn’t close all the way, Evelyna, 33, has refused to let her condition stand in her way. In fact, she was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Washington of 2014; her platform was Acceptance through Diversity. “Don’t let society or circumstances dictate your life,” says the Washington state resident and native of California.
In Colorado, Dick and Cindy Koons care for their daughter, also stricken with spina bifida and wheelchair bound.
- See more at: http://www.va.gov/HEALTH/NewsFeatures/2015/January/Helping-Beneficiaries-Stricken-with-Spina-Bifida.asp#sthash.ixL9g8t1.dpuf

When Evelyna Castro sees herself in a wheelchair she doesn’t think of herself as disabled. Instead, she has turned her disability into something positive.
Born with spina bifida, a debilitating spinal disorder that happens when a baby is in the womb and the spinal column doesn’t close all the way, Evelyna, 33, has refused to let her condition stand in her way. In fact, she was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Washington of 2014; her platform was Acceptance through Diversity. “Don’t let society or circumstances dictate your life,” says the Washington state resident and native of California.
In Colorado, Dick and Cindy Koons care for their daughter, also stricken with spina bifida and wheelchair bound.
What they and others like them share in common is the VA Spina Bifida Health Care Benefits Program, a federal program that covers health care considered medically necessary and appropriate for people with spina bifida (excluding spina bifida occulta). It is managed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Chief Business Office Purchased Care group in Denver, Colo. The beneficiaries are the birth children of Vietnam Veterans, and the children of certain Veterans who had served in Korea along the Demilitarized Zone, who have been diagnosed with the disorder as a result of the Veteran’s exposure to Agent Orange.
For Evelyna, a make-up artist, the program has been a godsend. “I can’t thank the VA enough, which has never refused me a thing,” she said. “Every five years I get a new wheelchair, among other services, and I can’t tell you how much that helps. Knowing they have my back relieves a lot of stress from my family and allows me to focus on my work.”
- See more at: http://www.va.gov/HEALTH/NewsFeatures/2015/January/Helping-Beneficiaries-Stricken-with-Spina-Bifida.asp#sthash.ixL9g8t1.dpuf

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Vietnam's Southern Province To Build 100 Houses For AO Victims

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v7/wn/newsworld.php?id=1098447
CA MAU, Jan 6 (Bernama) - Vietnam's southern Ca Mau province will build 100 homes for Agent Orange (AO) victims this year. Under a programme launched by the Association of Agent Orange Victims, each house will be built at 15 million dong (about US$700), Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. Association president Tran Thanh Phong said the organisation will raise cash from local governments and call on local residents to donate land. "We hoped the cause receives support from businesses and philanthropists too," Phong said. Phong said the biggest challenge faced by the association is those in need of homes could reach thousands. The programme was launched in early 2014 and has to date built 35 houses.

We are slowly poisoning ourselves with backyard burnings

http://www.kentucky.com/2015/01/06/3627556_we-are-slowly-poisoning-ourselves.html?rh=1
Does anyone remember Times Beach?

Times Beach, Mo., a community of about 2,000 near St. Louis, was evacuated by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1983 after it was determined that waste industrial oil sprayed on the town's dirt roads (to suppress dust) contained dioxin, a dangerous carcinogen that bioaccumulates in the human body.
Dioxin is perhaps best known from its presence in Agent Orange, the deadly defoliant used during the Vietnam War. Dioxin causes birth defects, suppresses the immune system and is toxic at very low levels of exposure.
Dioxin is an unwanted byproduct of industrial processes such as bleaching paper, the manufacture of herbicides, metal smelting and the incineration of materials containing chlorine, such as the common plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride).
Coming shortly after the discovery of toxic wastes buried beneath Love Canal, in New York, the Times Beach disaster fueled public concern about toxic waste.
Passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Superfund law for toxic cleanups now holds industry accountable for "cradle to grave" handling of the toxic substances they generate.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2015/01/06/3627556_we-are-slowly-poisoning-ourselves.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

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MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting schedule January 24 - March 7
 

January 24, 2015

Martinsburg, West Virginia

10 am-3 pm

National Guard Armory

2096 Kelly Island Road

Martinsburg, West Virginia 25405

Contact Sonya Brown: 304-620-8310

February 28, 2015

Tucson, Arizona

9:00am-12 pm noon

VFW Post 549 

8424 E. Old Spanish Trail

Tucson, AZ  85710

For more information check:
http://www.tucsonnamvets.org/ 

March 1, 2015

Pennsylvania Berks County/Reading                                 

VVA Chapter 131

More Details Upcoming

Contact: Steven Bennett: 610-370-7495

Dale Derr, County of Berks Vets office: 610-378-5601

March 7, 2015

Davenport, Iowa

Time to be updated

Rogalski Center

St. Ambrose University Campus

518 W Locust St, Room 211

Davenport, IA 52803

(Lombard Street. Proceed to an alleyway for Visitor Parking Lot 7)

Contact: Greg Pauline

563-650-3055

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The Lingering Story of Agent Orange

http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2015/January%202015/The-Lingering-Story-of-Agent-Orange.aspx

The assumption in the 1960s was that the use of herbicides in Vietnam did not pose a significant danger.

The UC-123K tactical transport known as “Patches” got its name the hard way. The aircraft was held together nose to tail with repairs to the battle damage inflicted by almost 600 hits from enemy ground gunners in Vietnam.

When its flying days were over, Patches was retired to the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, as a memorial to the airmen who flew the dangerous “Ranch Hand” missions from 1962 to 1970.

Ranch Hand used herbicides to defoliate the vegetation in Vietnam, where the jungle provided concealment and cover for Viet Cong insurgents. It began as a peripheral notion in 1961 on a White House list of “techniques and gadgets” that might be tried in lieu of all-out combat and expanded from there.

At its peak in 1969, Ranch Hand employed only 25 spray planes, but the results and consequences went far beyond anything the White House ever imagined. Local commanders and ground forces swore by Ranch Hand, which stripped bare the enemy ambushes and hiding places. It was part of a broader operation named “Trail Dust,” which included spraying from backpacks, trucks, and riverboats, but the main operation was Ranch Hand.

The propeller-driven C-123 had long since been declared obsolescent but it found new purpose in Vietnam. In 1968, auxiliary jet engines were mounted under the wings, making takeoffs less hazardous for the heavily loaded Ranch Hand aircraft. The enhanced model was designated UC-123K.

The spraying was done from treetop level and was especially risky with the original equipment, which dispensed no more than one-and-a-half gallons of herbicide per acre, half the amount necessary for defoliation. Before the Ranch Hand crews got better sprayers that pumped three gallons an acre, they had to fly a second mission against each target. The ground gunners knew this and were waiting for them. With the improved system it took four minutes to empty the 1,000-gallon tank and cover an area 16 kilometers (10 miles) long and 80 meters (260 feet) wide.

About 10 percent of the Ranch Hand sorties destroyed crops supporting the Viet Cong—a priority for the South Vietnamese government—but the vast majority of them were flown to expose the enemy’s strongholds and travel routes. Even critics of the program concede that this saved many thousands of American and allied lives.

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