Toxic Hitchhikers - Parasites from War Zones

http://vvaveteran.org/34-2/34-2_parasites.html

The parasites and diseases of Southeast Asia—most of which are unknown to American physicians—have long worried Vietnam Veterans of America. VVA first expressed concern in 1981, led by Lynda Van Devanter. VVA continued pushing the VA on this issue. Then, in 1999, George Duggins, who served as president from 1997-2001, worked with Bob Maras, who chaired the Veterans Affairs Committee, to convince the VA Undersecretary for Health to incorporate these concerns into a curriculum on parasites and diseases of Southeast Asia as part of the VA’s Veterans Health Initiative. In this article, health writer Claudia Gary examines the dangers to which American men and women serving in Indochina and the Middle East may have been unwittingly exposed.

Veterans of all wars must contend with exotic parasites. These insidious stowaways find human hosts through soil, water, food, or airborne “vectors”—insects such as mosquitoes and sand flies. Although the parasites may be hidden, they can be detected. In some cases, once they are, a cure can be quick and uncomplicated. In other cases, treatment takes time. In still others, the years without detection can create a tragedy.
Parasitic infections are one focus of Tropical Medicine (also called Travel Medicine), an Infectious Disease subspecialty with a history intertwined with war and colonization. Some of these infections—such as leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminth infections—are termed “neglected tropical diseases.”
Dr. Daniel S. Caplivski, director of the Travel Medicine program at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, explained that the “neglected” status of many parasitic infections is largely a result of history and economics. “There was a certain amount of investment in treatment and cures when British colonials were getting sick,” Caplivski said. “That’s where Tropical Medicine was born, and that’s where a lot of our knowledge came from. Over the last one hundred years we’ve had limited advances in research and treatment.”
Two of the most devastating and lasting parasitic infections Vietnam veterans have suffered are those caused by mosquito-borne filarial worms and by foodborne liver flukes (Opisthorchis viverrini). Lymphatic filariasis, while generally not fatal, can be disfiguring and debilitating. Liver fluke infection, on the other hand, can go virtually undetected for decades and then cause a deadly cancer, cholangiocarcinoma.
READ MORE: http://vvaveteran.org/34-2/34-2_parasites.html

EPA Proposes Plan to Remove Toxic Sediment from the Passaic River; Largest Cleanup in EPA History Will Protect People’s Health and Create Jobs

http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6427a6b7538955c585257359003f0230/cf9f96c6f99f225b85257cb700635826!OpenDocument
(New York, N.Y.) In an historic action that will protect people’s health and the environment, and benefit riverfront communities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today proposed a plan to remove 4.3 million cubic yards of highly contaminated sediment from the lower eight miles of the Passaic River in New Jersey. The sediment in the Passaic River is severely contaminated with dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals, pesticides and other contaminants from more than a century of industrial activity. The lower eight miles of the Passaic is the most heavily contaminated section of the river. Ninety percent of the volume of contaminated sediments in the lower Passaic are in the lower eight miles of the river.
The EPA is proposing bank-to-bank dredging – one of the largest volumes ever to be dredged under the EPA’s Superfund program – followed by capping of the river bottom.
The proposed plan is based on an extensive seven-year study of the lower eight miles of the river, known as a focused feasibility study, and was developed in consultation with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and with outreach to representatives of the many communities along the lower Passaic River. The study examined the contamination and analyzed options for reducing the risks that the contaminants in this segment of the river pose to people’s health and the environment. The EPA will accept public comments on its proposed plan from April 21 to June 20.
READ MORE: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6427a6b7538955c585257359003f0230/cf9f96c6f99f225b85257cb700635826!OpenDocument

US$270 million needed to detoxify Bien Hoa airport

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/99826/us-270-million-needed-to-detoxify-bien-hoa-airport.html

Mr. Le Ke Son holds the lengthy title of Director of the Office of the National Steering Committee on Dealing with the Consequences of Toxic Chemicals Used by the U.S. in the Vietnam War. He says Vietnam has three principal dioxin hot spots - Phu Cat Airport in Binh Dinh Province, Da Nang Airport and Bien Hoa Airport.
Dioxin contamination at the Da Nang airport is currently being treated with thermal absorption technology from the U.S. This project is expected to be completed in 2016. The Bien Hoa and Phu Cat airports are still in the process of selecting the appropriate technology.
Bien Hoa Airport is the most heavily dioxin polluted. This was the location where the herbicide was stored and pumped into planes during the campaigns known as Ranch Hand (1961-1971) and Pacer Ivy (1971-1972). The volume of contaminated soil and sediment here is about 240,000 cubic meters, three times that of Da Nang Airport, and over 30 times more than what Phu Cat Airport has.
Mr. Son says Bien Hoa Airport is testing a technology known as MCD. After trials, the Steering Committee and experts will select the appropriate technology. The Steering Committee is coordinating with the Ministry of Defense and foreign experts to develop the plan to treat dioxin at the airport.

Students connect with Vietnam

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/04/14/students-connect-vietnam/7682619/
Travis Atwater and Jaime Morrill grew up in Irondequoit and are graduating this spring with social work degrees from The College at Brockport.
But their college experience has taken a global turn, with both of them completing their schooling this semester more than 8,300 miles away in Da Nang, Vietnam, as participants in the Brockport Vietnam Program.
The program — established 15 years ago — is unusual in several respects. It is known as the oldest program connecting a college in the United States with Vietnam. And unlike most college study abroad programs, Brockport's program actually has the students work with local population.
In Vietnam, this takes on added importance because of the legacy of bloodshed left by the Vietnam War.
Both Atwater, 28, and Morrill, 23, are too young to have a memory of this war that engulfed Vietnam and divided the American public over the U.S.'s military involvement in this Southeast Asian nation.
The scars of war, however, became readily apparent when, as part of their fieldwork, they conducted their first home visit.
Bedridden was a frail 25-year-old man whose father, according to Atwater, had been exposed to Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant — linked to birth defects, cancer and various disabilities — that was widely sprayed by U.S military aircraft to destroy the jungle foliage that opposition forces used for cover.
"He was like a vegetable on a bed," said Morrill during a recent long-distance interview via Skype with her and Atwater.
READ MORE: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2014/04/14/students-connect-vietnam/7682619/

‘Poison Spring:’ decades of lax enforcement by the EPA

http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2023340701_poisonspringxml.html
Many Americans are probably only remotely aware they might have been made vulnerable to a decades-long saturation of their environment by a showering of toxic chemicals on their food crops, with little apparent protection by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Former EPA staffer E.G. Vallianatos, with environmental writer McKay Jenkins, reveals the politics that have delivered us to this place.
Having spent most of his 25-year career (1979-2004) in the EPA’s Office of Pesticides Programs, Vallianatos saw firsthand not only the science that found toxicity in the pesticides Big Agriculture has been applying to crops, but how those discoveries played out within a highly politicized EPA over five presidential administrations.
Vallianatos (the book is written in his first-person voice) cites the case of Cate Jenkins, an EPA scientist who in the early 1990s blew the whistle on what she considered to be Monsanto’s fraudulent claim that exposure to dioxin — “the most toxic chemical ever known to man,” according to the EPA, and a substance Monsanto used in making a wood preservative — did not cause cancer in workers.
The EPA, according to Vallianatos, had relied on Monsanto’s own dioxin studies to determine dioxin’s danger to the community, and Jenkins claimed Monsanto had falsified its results by, among other things, excluding workers with cancer from its studies.
READ MORE: http://seattletimes.com/html/books/2023340701_poisonspringxml.html

It's time to make S.1602 happen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PVtsF4o-3Q&feature=youtu.be

Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2013

It's time to make S.1602 happen

FORWARD TO A FRIEND  TAKE ACTION - CONTACT YOUR SENATOR! VISIT CAPWIZ

Introduced in Senate (10/29/2013)

Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2013 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to: (1) select a medical center in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to serve as the national center for the diagnosis, treatment, and

research of health conditions of descendents (i.e., a biological child, grandchild, or great-grandchild) of individuals exposed to toxic substances while serving as members of the Armed Forces that are related to that exposure; (2) establish an advisory board to advise the center to determine which health conditions result from exposure to toxic substances and to study and evaluate cases of exposure of current and former members of the Armed Forces to toxic substances; and (3) establish an Office of Extramural Research to conduct research on wounds, illnesses, injuries, and other conditions suffered by active members of

the Armed Forces resulting from exposure to toxic substances and to assist the Advisory Board in considering claims of exposure to toxic substances.
Extends eligibility for medical care and caregiver assistance to descendents of a veteran who was exposed to toxic substances while serving as a member of the Armed Forces if: (1) the descendent has a health condition resulting from exposure to toxic substances and is homebound due to such condition, and (2) the veteran has or had the same health condition.

Authorizes the Secretary of Defense (DOD) to declassify documents (other than documents that would materially and immediately threaten national security) related to any known incident in which not less than 100 member of the Armed Forces were exposed to a toxic substance that resulted in at least one case of disability.
Directs the VA Secretary, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the DOD Secretary to jointly conduct a national outreach and education campaign directed at members of the Armed Forces, veterans, and their family members to communicate information on incidents of exposure to toxic substances, health conditions resulting form such exposure, and the potential long-term effects of such exposure.

 Support S.1602, the Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2013

TAKE ACTION - CONTACT YOUR SENATOR! VISIT CAPWIZ

Keeping veterans in the know about effects of Agent Orange

http://www.macombdaily.com/opinion/20140411/keeping-veterans-in-the-know-about-effects-of-agent-orange

By Linda May , For The Macomb Daily

Keith King and his daughter Amy Applewhite testified before the U.S. Senate committee in Washington, D.C. on Thursday in favor of the Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act of 2013.

S.1602, introduced by Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal, deals with toxic substances used in times of war, and it offers scientific research into the effects of chemicals.
“Because of our ongoing struggle with the unfortunate legacy of Agent Orange, and because of our empathy for veterans of other conflicts, including the first Gulf War, with their still-undefined Gulf War illnesses, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where exposure to fumes from burn pits will be their unwanted legacy, we will pull out all stops to work to ensure passage of S. 1602, and see that companion legislation is introduced in the House,” said John Rowan, Vietnam Veterans of America president.
VVA holds town hall meetings on the effects of chemicals, particularly the herbicide called Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans. King is president of the Veterans Support Foundation that supports the VVA’s service officer program via annual grants. Applewhite, 40, lives in Sterling Heights. They have spoken at many town halls.
“We were asked to come to Washington and testify because we’ve been going around telling our story that makes grown men cry,” King said.
READ MORE: http://www.macombdaily.com/opinion/20140411/keeping-veterans-in-the-know-about-effects-of-agent-orange

Judge’s Surprise Ruling On Veteran’s Exposure to Toxic Chemicals On U.S. Military Base Called “Turning Point”

http://www.ibtimes.com/judges-surprise-ruling-veterans-exposure-toxic-chemicals-us-military-base-called-turning-1569225

For the past decade, U.S. Army veteran Steve House has been on a mission. Riding the highways of America from Oregon to Virginia on his Harley, he has visited dozens of fellow vets and medical and military experts to hear their stories and collect information to bolster his claim that he is entitled to disability payments after being exposed to toxic chemicals during his service in the late 1970s. 

House, 56, a burly, deep-voiced man with a long beard and ponytail who was stationed at Camp Carroll in South Korea, suffers from diabetes, liver disease, glaucoma, neuropathy and other illnesses. He has been locked in a bitter, protracted battle with the Department of Veterans Affairs over his claim that his illnesses are linked to his work burying 250 barrels of Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant, in 1978 -- three years after the last Marines left Vietnam.
House has doggedly pursued any information that might help get his claim approved and prove to VA that he’s not fabricating his exposure. His claim was repeatedly denied by the VA until last week, when a judge with VA’s Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) acknowledged that House’s suffering resulted from chemical exposure at Camp Carroll, though it stopped short of naming Agent Orange.
“I was determined to show that I was telling the truth about why I’m so sick,” House said. “I gave up countless hours of my life, including years of my vacation time that I should have spent with my family, digging for facts. I have a very understanding wife. I had to do what I had to do.”

The VA portrayed the ruling as a single administrative finding that applies to this one man. But House and others who have long alleged a government cover-up regarding Agent Orange and other toxic chemicals say it is an acknowledgement of the malevolent consequences of veterans’ exposure to those chemicals, even if, at this stage, it is unclear how the ruling will affect cases that are specifically about Agent Orange.
Rick Weidman, executive director of government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), called the judge’s decision on House’s claim historic. “It’s a precedent, a real turning point that we haven’t had before,” Weidman said. “Despite the fact that VA is still not saying that Agent Orange was buried there, virtually no one to date has gotten recognition for exposure to toxic chemicals, Agent Orange or otherwise, outside of the war zone. VA finally admits they sprayed Agent Orange along the DMZ [in Korea], but as far as toxins harming veterans at any other location, they very rarely admit it.”
“I won,” House said flatly. “It’s good news and I’m grateful. But I have mixed emotions about it. I feel kind of numb. My fight isn’t over. There are a lot of my buddies out there who were also at Camp Carroll who are sick now and that I hope to help.”READ MORE: http://www.ibtimes.com/judges-surprise-ruling-veterans-exposure-toxic-chemicals-us-military-base-called-turning-1569225

Faces of Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

April 19, 2014

Bay City, Michigan

VVA Chapter 494, 1 pm

Bay County Community Center

800 John F. Kennedy RD

Bay City, MI 48706

Contact: Ray Essenmacher

(989) 327-4264 

April 25, 2014

Indianapolis, IN

Vietnam Veterans of America Indiana State Council, 7 pm

9450 E 59th Street

Indianapolis, IN 46216-1057

For more information: Contact Pat Bessigano

PatBessig@aol.com

                                                                                 

April 26th 2014

Northville, Michigan

9am-3:30 pm

Northville High School

Northville, MI

Contact: Dennis Whaling 734-846-8798

April 29th 2014

Smyrna, Tennessee

6PM - 9PM

Parkway Baptist Church

1715 Lee Victory Parkway

Smyrna, Tennessee

Contact: Barry Rice barryrice.tsc@gmail.com

Path cleared for Monsanto medical monitoring

http://wvgazette.com/article/20140407/GZ01/140409417/1101

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal of the landmark settlement reached between Nitro residents and the former Monsanto chemical plant, clearing the way for a medical monitoring program to start.
In Monday’s order, justices said they would not review an appeal of the $93 million deal reached in the lawsuit, which means thousands of Nitro-area residents are close to receiving medical monitoring and having their property cleaned up.
“There’s been an almost two-year delay for no good reason,” said Stuart Calwell, who represents the class of plaintiffs.
In November, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld approval of the settlement. The court voted 4-1 to affirm a January ruling in which Circuit Judge Derek Swope approved the class-action settlement aimed at resolving longstanding allegations that Monsanto contaminated Nitro with toxic pollution from the production of the defoliant Agent Orange. Justice Brent Benjamin dissented.
For more than 50 years, the Monsanto plant churned out herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of Agent Orange, a defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War, created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis and other infertility problems, and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even a small exposure can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://wvgazette.com/article/20140407/GZ01/140409417/1101#sthash.Ummewh2h.dpuf

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal of the landmark settlement reached between Nitro residents and the former Monsanto chemical plant, clearing the way for a medical monitoring program to start.
In Monday’s order, justices said they would not review an appeal of the $93 million deal reached in the lawsuit, which means thousands of Nitro-area residents are close to receiving medical monitoring and having their property cleaned up.
“There’s been an almost two-year delay for no good reason,” said Stuart Calwell, who represents the class of plaintiffs.
In November, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld approval of the settlement. The court voted 4-1 to affirm a January ruling in which Circuit Judge Derek Swope approved the class-action settlement aimed at resolving longstanding allegations that Monsanto contaminated Nitro with toxic pollution from the production of the defoliant Agent Orange. Justice Brent Benjamin dissented.
For more than 50 years, the Monsanto plant churned out herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of Agent Orange, a defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War, created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis and other infertility problems, and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even a small exposure can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://wvgazette.com/article/20140407/GZ01/140409417/1101#sthash.Ummewh2h.dpuf

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal of the landmark settlement reached between Nitro residents and the former Monsanto chemical plant, clearing the way for a medical monitoring program to start.

In Monday’s order, justices said they would not review an appeal of the $93 million deal reached in the lawsuit, which means thousands of Nitro-area residents are close to receiving medical monitoring and having their property cleaned up.

“There’s been an almost two-year delay for no good reason,” said Stuart Calwell, who represents the class of plaintiffs.

In November, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld approval of the settlement. The court voted 4-1 to affirm a January ruling in which Circuit Judge Derek Swope approved the class-action settlement aimed at resolving longstanding allegations that Monsanto contaminated Nitro with toxic pollution from the production of the defoliant Agent Orange. Justice Brent Benjamin dissented.

For more than 50 years, the Monsanto plant churned out herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of Agent Orange, a defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War, created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.

Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis and other infertility problems, and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even a small exposure can accumulate to dangerous levels.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal of the landmark settlement reached between Nitro residents and the former Monsanto chemical plant, clearing the way for a medical monitoring program to start.
In Monday’s order, justices said they would not review an appeal of the $93 million deal reached in the lawsuit, which means thousands of Nitro-area residents are close to receiving medical monitoring and having their property cleaned up.
“There’s been an almost two-year delay for no good reason,” said Stuart Calwell, who represents the class of plaintiffs.
In November, the West Virginia Supreme Court upheld approval of the settlement. The court voted 4-1 to affirm a January ruling in which Circuit Judge Derek Swope approved the class-action settlement aimed at resolving longstanding allegations that Monsanto contaminated Nitro with toxic pollution from the production of the defoliant Agent Orange. Justice Brent Benjamin dissented.
For more than 50 years, the Monsanto plant churned out herbicides, rubber products and other chemicals. The plant’s production of Agent Orange, a defoliant deployed widely in the Vietnam War, created dioxin as a toxic chemical byproduct.
Dioxin has been linked to cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, endometriosis and other infertility problems, and suppressed immune functions. The chemical builds up in tissue over time, meaning that even a small exposure can accumulate to dangerous levels.
- See more at: http://wvgazette.com/article/20140407/GZ01/140409417/1101#sthash.Ummewh2h.dpuf

READ MORE: http://wvgazette.com/article/20140407/GZ01/140409417/1101

Press Advisory: S.1602, The Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act

http://news.gnom.es/pr/press-advisory-s-1602-the-toxic-exposure-research-and-military-family-support-act

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2014 /NEWS.GNOM.ES/ — Vietnam Veterans of America to hold Agent Orange Briefing on Thursday, April 10, 2014.

WHERE: 334 Cannon House Office Building

WHEN: Thursday,  April 10, 2014
9:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M.

WHY: To discuss the realities of suspected intergenerational health effects of veterans’ exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin and other toxic chemicals.

WHAT: Highlights of this event will include 9:40 A.M.:  Agent Orange Video Presentation

9:50 A.M.:  Panel Discussion with 3 Vietnam Vets & Their Daughters
10:45 A.M.: Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), sponsor of S.1602, the Toxic Exposure Research and Military Family Support Act.

Vietnam Veterans of America (www.vva.org) is the nation’s only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA’s founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

SOURCE Vietnam Veterans of America

Tell the USDA to Stop Dow Chemical's "Agent Orange" Crops