Judge dismisses 2003 lawsuit over Dow dioxin contamination

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SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — Dow Chemical has prevailed in a long-running lawsuit by property owners over dioxin contamination along the Tittabawassee River.
TV station WJRT says the 2003 lawsuit was recently dismissed by a Saginaw County judge. Dow argued that the statute of limitations had long expired when the case was filed.

The company's legal position was strengthened in January. The Michigan Supreme Court said the clock began to run when damage occurred, not in 2002 when regulators publicly reported high levels of contamination in the river's flood plain.

WJRT says Dow has been cleaning up properties along the river by replacing contaminated soil. Property owners wanted to be compensated for lost land value and enjoyment of their property.

BURN PIT TESTIMONY

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Veterans hope burn pit bill will provide VA health care, disability benefits

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Veterans are praising new legislation that, if passed, will provide immediate VA health care and disability benefits to service members exposed to toxic fumes from burn pits.

Following several reports by 8 On Your Side on the burn pit issue, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R)-Florida announced he has introduced into Congress the "Protection for Veterans' Burn Pit Exposure Act of 2018."

"This will enable the veterans battling illness to immediately access VA medical care and disability benefits," Rep. Biliraksi stated in a Tarpon Springs news conference.

Lauren Price, a navy veteran, worked on the legislation with Mr. Bilirakis.

"It's the most important fight of my life," she said.

When Lauren Price went to war in Iraq in 2008, burn pits operated 24/7.

The military dumped any and all waste into pits, doused it with jet fuel, then ignited it.

Price remembers smoke, carrying toxic fumes and particulates, was everywhere.

"No matter what you did you couldn't hide from it," stated Price.

Christina Thundathil's duties in Iraq included burning human waste with jet fuel every day for 300 days.

"My lungs are moderately damaged," explained Thundathil.

Price and Thundathil now suffer chronic incurable bronchial and lung diseases.

"It was irrelevant where you were, when you were, if you were in the shower, there's an air conditioner running in the shower room, you were always breathing it," Price added.

The department of Defense and VA reject any connection between service members contracting rare and inexplicable diseases and open air burn pits.

Burn pits

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It has taken quite some time for the VA to recognize the adverse effects of exposure to Agent Orange. Now the VA is conducting studies to determine the health effects of exposure to the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The burn pits may very well become the new “Agent Orange” by taking some time to evaluate the veterans that served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the effects include heart and lung problems, cancer, digestive tract issues and many other health issues.

Iraq had at least three football-field size burn pits that burned continuously and caused the air quality to be very bad. Some of the people that worked near them developed a chronic cough that some service members called the “Iraqi Crud.”

The VA created the Institute of Medicine committee to study of health issues and the connection to burn pits. The IOM ultimately concluded that there is not enough evidence to prove toxic burn pit smoke harmed U.S. service members. However, the studies that the IOM relied on are arguably unreliable. The VA has been accused of stalling for time under the guise of scientific uncertainty. It is understandable that the VA has to have enough evidence of a nexus and new health issues.
MORE BURN PIT STORIES

https://www.thedailybeast.com/garbage-burn-pits-from-iraq-are-causing-lung-disease-in-vets

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Veterans-exposed-to-battlefield-burn-pits-press-13107491.php

http://kdhnews.com/military/could-firefighters-health-research-help-understand-burn-pits-risks/article_59c9bd94-92a4-11e8-96b3-fb8f78fb6b22.html

Tribes seek probe of dioxin in The Dalles

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Four Indian nations in the Columbia Basin are calling on the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to launch a "comprehensive investigation" into dioxin contamination at a Union Pacific-owned Superfund site in The Dalles, according to an article by Paul Koberstein and Jessica Applegate of the Portland environmental journal Cascadia Times.

Past studies showed that several species of Columbia River fish caught downstream from The Dalles were contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic chemical, according to the article. No one knows yet if the dioxin originated at the Union Pacific Superfund site.

But the four Indian nations, each with treaty rights to Columbia River fish, want to find out.

The reporters' article, Dioxin in The Dalles, is the fourth in a series on a site in the Columbia riverfront community long used to treat railroad ties with creosote. It was based on a review of 5,500 pages of documents released in May by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Germany Heat Wave Lowers Elbe and Other Rivers, Exposing Dangerous World War II Munitions

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An ongoing heat wave in Germany has lowered water levels on numerous rivers, including the Elbe River, where dangerous World War II munitions have been exposed.

Police are warning against touching grenades, mines and other possibly live explosives exposed in areas that were once battlegrounds in the eastern German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony during World War II, Deutsche-Welle reports.

Saxony-Anhalt police spokeswoman Grit Merker told the newspaper at least 22 grenades, mines and other explosives have been found so far this year.

Appeals court orders Trump administration to ban pesticide harmful to children's brains within 60 days

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A federal appeals court ordered the Trump administration Thursday to revoke approval for a widely used pesticide that studies show can harm the brains of children.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide initially developed as a nerve gas during World War II.

“This decision to tell the EPA to do the ban is a pretty bold move,” said Kristen Boyles, a staff attorney for Earthjustice, who represented environmental and farm worker groups in the case.

But she said it was justified by the science and the EPA’s continued foot-dragging.

The 2-1 decision stemmed from a 2007 petition by two environmental groups to prevent the chemical from being used on food.

The groups cited studies that found children and infants who had been exposed prenatally to low doses of chlorpyrifos suffer from reduced IQ, attention deficit disorders and delayed motor development that lasts into adulthood.

“The EPA failed to take any decisive action in response to the 2007 petition, notwithstanding that the EPA’s own internal studies continued to document serious safety risks associated with chlorpyrifos use, particularly for children,” New York District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who was filling in on the 9th Circuit, wrote for the panel.

The Obama administration proposed banning the pesticide’s use on food crops, but former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt reversed course last year and decided to retain the pesticide.

SHAME! - VA rips 'Blue Water' Agent Orange bill, urges Senate to sink it

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Department of Veterans Affairs officials say they strongly oppose passage of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act (HR 299), which would extend Agent Orange disability benefits and health care to between 70,000 and 90,000 veterans.

The legislation would give coverage to service members who served aboard ships in territorial waters off Vietnam during the war and today suffer ailments associated with herbicides sprayed across its jungles for years.

The Blue Water Navy bill passed the House unanimously in late June and seemed certain to fly through the Senate, given reports of close coordination on the bill between veterans’ affairs committees, and the House having negotiated a plan to pay for the benefits with major veteran service organizations.

On Wednesday, however, with Robert Wilkie installed two days earlier as VA secretary, his undersecretary for benefits, Paul R. Lawrence, delivered a blistering attack on the Blue Water Navy bill, and on a proposal to test providing routine dental care to veterans, during a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.

Lawrence testified that there’s still no credible scientific evidence to support extending Agent Orange-related benefits to shipboard personnel who never went ashore in Vietnam or patrolled its rivers. Without such evidence, he said, it would be wrong, and would create a disastrous precedent, to award VA benefits.

Senate: Pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, as passed in House Bill HR299.

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Some veterans got Agent Orange benefits, many more still waiting

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Navy veteran Lonnie Kilpatrick received a letter in April from the Department of Veterans Affairs, reversing its previous decision and approving Agent Orange benefits for him.

Kilpatrick was stationed on Guam during the Vietnam War, according to retired Marine Brian Moyer. Moyer is lead organizer for the Agent Orange Survivors of Guam,

Kilpatrick died a month after receiving the letter. He's one of only a dozen or so veterans who served on Guam and whose ailments were recognized by Veterans Affairs as being related to Agent Orange exposure.

Senate: Pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, as passed in House Bill HR299.

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Senate: Pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, as passed in House Bill HR299.

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WE THE PEOPLE ASK THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO 

CALL ON CONGRESS TO ACT ON AN ISSUE:

The United States government, through the Department of Veterans Affairs, has a DUTY to TREAT medical problems associated with military service; COMPENSATE veterans (or their families) for early death or disability associated with their service; and MONITOR and DOCUMENT the effects of government policy and MISTAKES that created a higher health risk. For 50 years, VA has FAILED to monitor and document the effects of Agent Orange on military members that served in the "Blue Water Navy" during Vietnam. Congress is attempting to "fix" this dereliction of duty - and VA Officials oppose the change. We the people support treatment and compensation for these medical issues; and believe monitoring and documenting these issues should be the responsibility of VA, not the individual veterans.

REFUSE - CONFUSE - DELAY -DENY - Veteran against veteran: A new battle on Capitol Hill pits Agent Orange funding against low-cost mortgages

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A new battle on Capitol Hill is pitting Vietnam veterans against more recent service members.

The Senate is currently considering the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018, a bill that would extend benefits to 90,000 vets who served in the Navy off the coast of Vietnam and say they were exposed to Agent Orange. The House of Representatives in June approved the bill 382-0.

But one of the ways it would pay for the bill, which the Veterans Administration estimates will cost $3.4 billion over the next five years, is by increasing fees on home loans guaranteed by the Veterans Administration – a benefit far more likely to be accessed by younger vets.

The home loan program is a point of pride among the VA. It is available to anyone who has served, and offers generous terms including no down payment requirements, and the ability to fold closing costs into the overall loan amount.

Veterans often don’t have much of a credit profile, since many spend their entire early adult life in service. Yet delinquency rates for the VA loans are much lower than any other category of mortgage. That’s not just because vets are more disciplined, but because VA underwriting considers how much money homeowners will have after paying the mortgage and other expenses, a more holistic approach than many other lenders take.

The VA declined to comment for this story, as did other housing market participants, even as they privately expressed dismay over the inter-generational feud and Congress’ inability to take care of American service members. At least one senator, North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, in a Wednesday hearing also said he was uncomfortable with that idea.

But as the National Association of Realtors said in a letter to two senators, “as a benefit, NAR believes that VA loan guarantee fees should be based on the risk of the loan made, and not the costs of other VA programs or benefits.”

DENY - DELAY - CONFUSE - REFUSE - VA: Science Doesn't Support Agent Orange Claims from 'Blue Water' Vets

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The Department of Veterans Affairs opposed a bill Wednesday that has overwhelming bipartisan support in the House and Senate to extend Agent Orange health care and disability benefits to "blue water" sailors who served offshore during the Vietnam War.

"The science is not there" to show that the freshwater systems of Navy ships were contaminated by dioxin from Agent Orange defoliants widely used in Vietnam, said Paul Lawrence, the undersecretary for benefits at the VA's Veterans Benefits Administration.

"It's difficult to hear from veterans who are ill" as they file claims, he said at a hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, but "there is no conclusive science" from a report by the Institute of Medicine to show a service connection.

Several senators from both sides of the aisle and representatives of veterans service organizations (VSOs) disputed Lawrence on the evidence for a service connection and urged passage of the bill, something the committee chairman, Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, has made a "top priority."

The House has already passed by a vote of 382-0 the bill, which would allow sailors who served offshore in Vietnam to claim care and benefits for so-called "presumptive" diseases from exposure to Agent Orange, including respiratory cancers, heart disease, Parkinson's and chloracne.

Those who served on the ground and on the rivers of Vietnam are already able to claim Agent Orange benefits, and "it doesn't make any sense" to exclude the blue water sailors, said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York.

"I think this is an injustice that we can and must rectify," she said.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that about 90,000 sailors could be covered by the bill, which would likely cost about $1.1 billion over 10 years.

Lawrence and Dr. Ralph Erickson, the VA's chief consultant for post-deployment health at the Veterans Health Administration, also expressed concerns about Congress' proposal to "offset" the cost of the bill, H.R 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018.

In the House version of the bill, the money would come from a small increase in payments from non-disabled veterans who use the VA's home loan program, about $2 per month.