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courtesy of Maynard Kaderlik, National Chair, Agent Orange & Toxic Exposures Committee, Vietnam Veterans of America
Contact your Senator NOW in
support of S.2921
the Veterans First Act
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VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
LEGISLATIVE ALERT
July 12, 2016
Your grassroots advocacy is
working - And we need your Help Again!
The legislative language of S.901, the Toxic Exposure Research Act of 2015, introduced by Senators Jerry Moran
(KS) and Richard Blumenthal (CT), has been included in S.2921, the Veterans First Act, under Title II, Subtitle I, “Research and Toxic Exposure.” S.2921
was introduced by Senators Johnny Isakson (GA), Chairman, and Richard
Blumenthal (CT), Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
VVA supports this legislation.
The bill has 44 cosponsors
On May 12, S.2921 was placed on
the Senate Legislative Calendar, under General Orders Calendar No. 467, for a
floor vote. However, if this bill does not move, our chances of getting the
Toxic Exposure Research Act and other veterans issues in the bill -- such as
expanding Caregivers benefits to Vietnam Veterans and providing leasing
authority for the West LA Veterans Affairs Campus to provide housing for
homeless veterans -- enacted into law in this, the second session of the
114th Congress, is less than hopeful.
We need your support to move this
bill to the Senate floor for a vote and passage.
VVA urges you to Take Action NOW
by entering your zip code and send the prepared letter requesting your U.S.
Senators contact Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and
Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada asking that S.2921, the
Veterans First Act, be moved to the floor of the Senate for vote and passage
before the scheduled summer recess.
Passage of the Toxic Exposure
Research Act into law is one of our most important efforts in ensuring that
future military service generations learn from our experience, and that our
offspring receive the respect and consideration for the sacrifices and pain
that they endure from illnesses associated with a parent's exposure to toxic
substances during service in the United States military.
Please, follow up on your letter
with a call or visit to their state office.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2016
URGENT ACTION NEEDED - Congress will recess on July 15 and we need you to Contact your Senator
Monday, July 11, 2016
Harris County Public Health Actually Tests Groundwater Wells Near the San Jacinto River Waste Pits and Finds Dioxin
Harris County Public Heath recently warned people
living near the San Jacinto River Waste Pit Superfund site to avoid
drinking tap water after dioxin, a known carcinogen, was detected in
groundwater wells near the Channelview site. Along the way, the county
became the first government agency to actually test the area groundwater
wells for dioxins.
The
moment was a small victory for Jackie Young, the head of San Jacinto
River Coalition, and a former resident of Highlands, the town where most
of the contaminated wells are located.
The San Jacinto River
Waste Pits have been nestled on the edge of the San Jacinto River for
decades, a forgotten remnant of the toxic sludge pumped out of a
Pasadena paper mill that was packed into barges, shipped downriver and
stored in pits dug on the lip of the river throughout the 1960s.
In
2005 state officials discovered – or maybe just finally noticed – the
pits. Then the federal Environmental Protection Agency followed up and
determined that tons of hazardous waste, including dioxin, a highly
potent known carcinogen that has also been tied to various health issues
and birth defects, had been slowly leaking out of the pits for years.
The EPA put caps on the toxic mess and proclaimed the 14-acre area a
Superfund site in 2008. EPA officials say there's no safe level of
exposure to these chemicals, which include a large amount of dioxins.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Upcoming Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings
We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:
July 9, 2016
Amarillo, Texas
Luther
"Buster" Newberry
July 21, 2016
Tucson, Arizona
VVA National Conference
Contact: Mokie Porter
August 6, 2016
Appleton, Wisconsin
Contact: Michael Demske
August 25, 2016
Long Beach, California
Contact: Max Stewart
August 27, 2016
St. Louis, Missouri
Contact: Bill Kiefer
September 18, 2016
Kenilworth, New Jersey
Michael Eckstein, Chair
September 19-23, 2016
Florida
Details Upcoming
If you missed our Agent Orange event, watch it online now
Streamed live on Jun 30, 2016
On
June 30 at the Kaiser Family Foundation's Barbara Jordan Conference
Center, ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot are pleased to host a
convening of Vietnam veterans and their children, medical experts,
attorneys and other guests to explore common health conditions in the
descendants of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange; the scant
research on those conditions; and, if there is a link to the toxic
herbicide, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ responsibility in caring
for impacted children and grandchildren of veterans. After the
discussion, Virginian-Pilot and ProPublica reporters will record
interviews with veterans and their children as part of their joint
investigation on the subject.
VA Officials Pledge New Studies into Effects of Agent Orange on Vets and Their Children
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its efforts to
determine how Vietnam veterans and their children have been affected by
exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.
The VA will conduct its
first nationwide survey of Vietnam veterans in more than three decades
and request an outside panel of experts to continue its work studying
the health effects of Agent Orange on veterans, their children and their
grandchildren. Both initiatives were discussed Thursday in Washington
at a forum hosted by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot on the possible multigenerational impacts of Agent Orange.
Vietnam
veterans have argued for years that their exposure to the toxic
herbicide has damaged their health as well as their children’s. From
1962 to 1971, some 2.6 million U.S. service members were potentially
exposed to Agent Orange, which contained a dangerous strand of the
chemical dioxin. While the VA has linked Agent Orange exposure to a host
of diseases in Vietnam vets, experts and veterans advocates have
criticized the lack of research into the effects on future generations.
“I
believe that these individuals deserve an answer,” Linda Spoonster
Schwartz, the VA’s assistant secretary for policy and planning, said in
response to a question about the lack of research. “I believe that we
need to at least ask the question. … This is the right thing to do.”
ProPublica
and The Pilot have been examining the effects of Agent Orange for the
past year and have heard from more than 5,500 veterans and their
families.
Thursday’s forum – titled “A Toxic Legacy: Has Agent Orange Hurt the
Children of Vietnam Vets?” – featured veterans advocates, researchers
and policymakers. It also provided a rare opportunity for frustrated
veterans to vent directly to high-ranking VA officials.
Veterans came from as far away as Mississippi and Pennsylvania to share their stories. Pilot photographer Stephen Katz told of his own health problems, which he believes may be linked to his father’s exposure to Agent Orange.
In
one emotional exchange, Reginald Russell Sr., an Army veteran from
Suffolk, rose from the audience and accused the VA of ignoring anecdotal
evidence that Agent Orange had harmed children of vets.
Russell’s
first son, born shortly after he returned from Vietnam in 1971, died
inexplicably at 9 months old. His youngest son, born a few years later
with a heart defect, died in 2012 at 32.
Russell held up a photo of a grave marker: “That’s my child,” he said, choking up.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial: Why are service-injured veterans getting the runaround?
The time has come. The Pentagon
and Department of Veterans Affairs must stop dragging their feet. They
must own up to the serious chemical and radioactive hazards that U.S.
service members were exposed to in the line of duty. It’s not as if the
health damage from such exposure expires once the mission is over.
As
Arla Harrell can attest, a lifetime of suffering can follow an
irresponsible sergeant’s or young lieutenant’s order to step forward and
serve as a test dummy for a chemical munition.
In Harrell’s case,
it was a mustard gas test conducted at Missouri’s Camp Crowder in the
1940s. Despite the best efforts of Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., to get
legislation passed to help make Harrell and other service members whole,
the Veterans Administration is fighting her.
There’s a troubling pattern here. For tens of thousands of Vietnam War veterans, not to mention scores who trained in Panama, Agent Orange
is the culprit for enduring problems caused by highly toxic dioxin. The
VA continues to drag its feet on Agent Orange exposure claims, veterans
say.
Thousands of veterans from the 1991 Persian Gulf
War suffered debilitating health effects believed to result from
chemical exposure in Kuwait and southern Iraq, and from reactions to
untested vaccines administered to protect them from potential exposure
to biological agents. The VA denied for years that Gulf War duty was the
culprit.
The New York Times
reported on June 20 that the Air Force doesn’t want to acknowledge
responsibility for radiation exposure from cleanup of a 1966 crash in
Spain of a B-52 bomber loaded with four nuclear bombs. The nuclear parts
of the bombs didn’t explode, but radioactive fallout spread across the
crash site.
Roughly 1,600 troops were ordered to the site
but given minimal, if any, protective gear. Some had to use their bare
hands to handle radioactive waste. The Air Force still won’t admit, 50
years later, that anyone was harmed in the Spain cleanup or a similar
one in 1968 after a bomber crash in Thule, Greenland.
Private-sector
employers must accept responsibility for dangers they expose their
employees to. A mining executive went to prison this year for safety
violations contributing to the deaths of 21 West Virginia miners in
2010.
The long succession of stories
about veterans sickened during military service, who are repeatedly
denied VA health care, strongly suggests the government views them as
disposable assets. It’s as if officials prefer that the veterans would
just die so their problems will go away.
Meanwhile, veterans and their families are left to grapple with medical debts often in the tens of thousands of dollars.
The
VA’s and Pentagon’s constant obfuscation, evasion and runarounds are no
way to treat those who selflessly answered their nation’s call to duty.
Americans owe it to our veterans to speak out.
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