PurpleheartOklahoma (scroll down)

Navy Ships and Agent Orange

Want to do your own research on Navy ships and Agent Orange? You can request from the National
Archives information from the series "Logbooks of the U.S. Navy Ships and Stations, 1941-1978"
(ARC Identifier 594258 / HMS Entry Number A1 118). In your request, please include the ship name
as well as the month and the year of the particular log you would like to request. Your request
should be sent to Archives II Reference Section, Textual Archives Services Division, 8601 Adelphi
Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001. Phone: 301/837-3510. Navy deck logs from 1980 and later are
still in the custody of the Navy, and requests can be sent to Naval Historical Center, Ships
History Branch, 805 Kidder Breese SE, Washington Navy</u> Yard, Washington, D.C.
20374-3643.

For more on military history, visit the Military.com History Center.
http://www.military.com/veterans-report/navy-ships-and-agent-orange?ESRC=vr.nl

VA Publishes The Retroactive Benefit Rules For Agent Orange Claims Required By The Nehmer Court Order
http://www.veteranprograms.com/id1748.html
Since 1991, the VA has been required to follow special retroactive benefit rules whenever it grants a disability compensation claim or a claim for death benefits under the VAs Agent Orange rules. These rules are very favorable to Vietnam veterans and survivors of Vietnam veterans and they are contained in an Order issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the Nehmer class action brought by lawyers from the National Veterans Legal Services Program.

The VA finally recognized that the retroactive benefit rules are complex and that VA regional offices and the Board of Veterans Appeals need more guidance on how to apply the rules. As a result, on August 25, 2003, the VA published detailed regulations that VA regional offices and the BVA must follow in deciding the effective date of benefits awarded under the VAs Agent Orange rules. (The effective date of an award controls the amount of retroactive benefits to which a Vietnam veteran or a survivor of a Vietnam veteran is entitled when the VA grants an Agent Orange claim).

The new regulations also explain that if the person to whom the retroactive benefits is owed (that is, the Vietnam veteran or the survivor of a Vietnam veteran who claimed death benefits) dies before the VA is ready to make the payment, the VA does not get to keep the money; instead, the VA must make the payment to the surviving spouse, surviving children, or surviving parent of the deceased individual, or, if no such surviving family member exists, to the individuals estate.
What follows are:

The new regulation which is 38 C.F.R. 3.816; and The VAs detailed explanation of the meaning of these rules, which the VA published on January 28, 2003, when it first proposed the new regulation.
THE NEW VA REGULATION -- 38 C.F.R. 3.816
3.816Awards under the Nehmer Court Orders for disability or death caused by a condition presumptively associated with herbicide exposure.

(a) Purpose. This section states effective-date rules required by orders of a United States district court in the class-action case of Nehmer v. United States Department of Veterans Affairs, No. CV-86-6160 TEH (N.D. Cal.).

(b) Definitions. For purposes of this section-

(1) Nehmer class member means:

(i) A Vietnam veteran who has a covered herbicide disease; or

(ii) A surviving spouse, child, or parent of a deceased Vietnam veteran who died from a covered herbicide disease.

(2) Covered herbicide disease means a disease for which the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has established a presumption of service connection before October 1, 2002 pursuant to the Agent Orange Act of 1991, Public Law 102-4, other than chloracne. Those diseases are:

(i) Type 2 Diabetes (Also known as type II diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetes).

(ii) Hodgkin's disease.

(iii) Multiple myeloma.

(iv) Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

(v) Acute and Subacute peripheral neuropathy.

(vi) Porphyria cutanea tarda.
See for rest of report.... http://www.veteranprograms.com/id1748.html

Vietnam Vets Exposed To Agent Orange Need Public Support To Gain Health Benefits
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9071878.htm

Navy vets who were exposed to Agent Orange could win back VA benefits with the publics support according to The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association.
Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) January 04, 2012
The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association (http://www.bluewaternavy.org) is seeking the publics help. This past September Senators Gillibrand and Graham introduced the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011 (AOEA). The bill was presented to restore VA benefits to approximately 250,000 Navy veterans who have been exposed to Agent Orange while serving in the Vietnam War. Currently, Navy veterans who served in Vietnam are unable to receive disability or health benefits for medical issues related to the effects of Agent Orange because of a technicality stemming from 2002.
Right now there is a Bill in the Senate, S-1629 (AOEA), and in the House, HR-3612, seeking to help Navy service members effected by Agent Orange gain benefits. However, the publics support is needed. According to Cancer.org, and even VA.gov/AgentOrange, the U.S. military sprayed an estimated twenty million gallons of herbicides in Vietnam to remove jungle foliage. Agent Orange is a toxic chemical with devastating effects and strong links to several forms of cancer and numerous neurological diseases.
Initially congress passed a law that required the VA to provide coverage to all Vietnam veterans who had illnesses directly related to Agent Orange exposure. In 2002 the VA, in what the The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association alleges as possible selective discrimination, decided to provide the health care and disability benefits only to boots on the ground service members. The Navy has been excluded ever since. Agent Orange has been verified, through various studies and reports, as a wide spreading chemical that was able to reach Navy ships through the air and waterborne distribution routes.
The bill presented by Senators Gillibrand and Graham would elucidate the existing laws. Blue Water veterans would be able to receive full coverage from the VA if they served twelve miles off of the Vietnam shore, says John Rossie, Executive Director of The Blue Water Navy Association. The problem is bills, like AOEA, have gone before congress before. It is crucially important that we have the public's support on this matter. It can literally mean the difference between life and death. Writing a letter, or making a call, to a member of congress to urge the passing of AOEA provides our veterans with the support they need to overturn this technicality and improve their quality of life. We need to provide the benefits due to those who became ill as a result of their service."
Over thirty Veterans Service Organizations support the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011 (AOEA). By not passing AOEA, a precedence could be set to selectively provide certain groups with injury related medical care while denying other groups without any financial, scientific or consistent reasoning. The Blue Water Navy Veterans Association has set up a website, http://bluewaternavy.org/, with downloadable letter templates, a documentation library, news of the day corner, editorial and opinions tab, and a specific F.A.Q. section to AOEA- otherwise known as S-1629 and HR-3612.
Members of the public are asked to show their support for service members by contacting their representatives about the issue at hand. Sharing this media release is the first step in getting the Blue Water Navy Veterans their much deserved benefits. Members of the media are encouraged to speak with John Rossie of The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association for more information on the challenges related to the newly introduced bill.
CONTACT:
Helene Vece, PRSA Member & CEO of JumpStart Ink
702-409-1282, Media Calls Only
or
John Rossie, Executive Director of The Blue Water Navy Association
303-762-9540

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Reference: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml

Dows plan to spray US with Agent Orange
http://www.prisonplanet.com/dows-deadly-harvest-the-return-of-agent-orange.html
Dows Deadly Harvest: The Return of Agent Orange
Sayer Ji
Activist Post
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Whether you are aware of it or not, your food, air and water are the battle ground upon which a titanic struggle between the multinational biotech corporations Monsanto and Dow AgroScience is now playing out. As a result, your health and environment (and that of all future generations) are at profound risk of irreparable harm.
Dow AgroSciences (a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals) recently announced their development of genetically-engineered corn, soybean, and cotton plants metabolically resistant to the herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), a major ingredient in Agent Orange. What this means for our future is that, if approved for use, vast regions of our country will soon be sprayed with a chemical that has been linked to over 400,000 birth defects in Vietnam.
How did we end up here?
History is repeating itself before our eyes. Dow Chemicals and Monsanto, joined at the karmic hip, both manufactured Agent Orange for use in Vietnam, and both are notorious for minimizing the adverse health effects associated with exposure to the agent. Neither corporation learned from its mistakes, largely because the US government underwrote the risk of using the chemical, and therefore shielded them from the bulk of the legal and financial fallout.
But this lack of culpability has now set up the conditions for a reliving of the horrors of systemic herbicide exposure, only this time on American soil, with Monsanto choosing glyphosate (also a birth-defect causing chemical), and Dow Chemical sticking with its old-time favorite.
The two corporations are now pitched in a heated battle for dominance, as Monsantos once-global hegemony over genetically engineered staple crops like soy and corn began to falter, in the following four ways:
1) Roundup resistance, which was bioengineered into food crops, began spreading to a number of other plants (weeds), rendering Roundup ineffective, or requiring much higher (and therefore toxic) quantities.
2) Insects began to develop resistance to Monsantos Bt gene, which was engineered into their plants as a natural insecticide, conferring theoretical resistance to Bt-sensitive pests.
3) Research on glyphosate, the major active ingredient in Roundup, which has been used at the rate of 80,000 tons in the US in 2007 alone, began to accumulate, linking it to dozens of serious adverse health effects.
4) Glyphosate was found to contaminate our air, food and groundwater.
Given these fatal flaws in Monsantos once impenetrable armor, Dow AgroScience is positioning its new GE plants as a next-generation solution to the problems of glyphosate and Bt resistance.
However, by engineering what amounts to Agent Orange-resistance into their new and improved crops, the potential environmental and health fallout to exposed areas is nothing less than horrific. Do we need to view pictures of the victims of Agent Orange to be reminded of how toxic the ingredients in this herbicide are? (Warning: the images are graphic).
Instead of learning from Monsantos colossal mistakes (which happens when you play geneticist-as-God and use a broad spectrum poison to kill all but your chosen plants) Dow AgroSciences solution is to multiply the problem by a factor of three, creating the first-ever, three-gene, herbicide-tolerant staple crops. What this means is that instead of using only one highly toxic herbicide (Roundup), three will be used simultaneously, further increasing the risk of serious exposures, and setting up the conditions for synergistic toxicities something that toxicological risk assessments on singular herbicide ingredients, which establish an acceptable level of harm, never account for.
While Dow AgroScience claims that 2,4 D resistance will not present the same problem that Roundup resistance did for Monsanto, the science to support these marketing claims is not on their side.
In a recent article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, researchers reviewed Dow Chemicals own published research on 2,4 D resistant crops, and found it highly misleading and inaccurate.
They noted:
In their recent article, we feel that Wright et al. (1) [Dow AgroSciences researcher] misrepresented the potential for 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)resistant weeds in 2,4-Dresistant cropping systems and exaggerated the sustainability of their approach to addressing glyphosate-resistant weed problems in agriculture.
They also noted:
We were surprised that Wright et al. (1) stated that only very few 2,4-Dresistant weed species have evolved without quoting a specific number. We checked the database that they used to support this claim (2) and were alarmed to learn that, globally, 28 species across 16 plant families have already evolved resistance to the synthetic auxin herbicides, the mode of action to which 2,4-D belongs. Of these, 16 are known to be resistant to 2,4-D specifically (for comparison, 21 species are resistant to glyphosate globally). Furthermore, the claim that 2,4-D resistance is unlikely to evolve because of the complex and essential functions that auxin plays in plants is unsubstantiated.
In a nutshell, 2,4 D and 2,4 D resistant crops are not a solution to the underlying problem of herbicide resistance in genetically engineered crops. In the same way that we have created the monster of antibiotic-resistance super-bugs like MRSA (methillicin-resistant staphylococcus aureus), continually developing more and more toxic chemicals to combat a problem that can not be solved with them, Nature will ultimately survive the man-made systems that seek to dominate her modes of production; the question is whether we will survive ourselves, if we continue down this path much longer.
We cannot end this article on a bad note, because there is quite a lot you can still do, before Dow Chemicals is allowed to follow through on its plan to supersede Monsantos global biotech hegemony over staple food crops, resulting in collateral herbicide exposures to millions.
ACTION ALERT: LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!
The US government has made available a petition, open to public commentary until Feb. 27th, 2012, which concerns Dow AgroSciences application for non-regulated status for its 2,4 D resistant corn. PLEASE voice your concerns today, and send a clear message that we will not accept further the wholesale deregulation of bioengineered foods and widespread application of dangerous systemic biocides (euphemistically and myopically called herbicides).

Congress to consider legislation that would increase list to include Blue Water Navy Vietnam vets.
By Craig Roberts - August 28, 2011

Very soon, says Louisiana attorney John Wells, a New York senator will be introducing a short and simple bill into Congress that could have a large and far-reaching effect on tens of thousands of Vietnam War veterans and their families. The proposed law would extend the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange to certain servicemembers who served aboard vessels at sea - the so-called Blue Water Navy - during the Vietnam War. As the law now stands, only troops who served ashore "in country" or aboard river boats in Vietnam are entitled to compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for a number of ailments, including cancer, linked to exposure to the toxic herbicide.

Wells, a retired Navy Commander, is the director of legal and legislative affairs for the Blue Water Vietnam Veterans Association. He spoke of the proposed legislation at a meeting of The American Legion's National Legislative Commission during the organization's 93rd annual National Convention in Minneapolis. Wells explained the bill - "The Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011" - by reciting the "elevator speech" he employs to educate members of Congress during his periodic trips to Washington.

"Our association is trying to extend the exposure presumption for Agent Orange from the current boots on the ground' to at least the territorial seas of the Republic of Vietnam," he said. "This would encompass the ships that were outside of the riverines but were actually very close to shore providing support to the troops ashore.
"What happened was that we would get a discharge of sediment that contained Agent Orange out into the South China Sea. (Ships there) would then bring the sediment into their distilling systems that changed salt water into potable water and the sailors would drink it. The Australians discovered back in 2002 that the Agent Orange in the salt water was actually co-distilled - not removed. So, these folks were drinking an enhanced Agent Orange cocktail, as it were. This was confirmed in an Institute of Medicine report that came out just this past May. The Institute of Medicine also found that there was a plausible pathway both by wind drift and by river discharges for Agent Orange to get into the South China Sea. As a result, we have a higher cancer incidence (among those ship's crew members theoretically exposed) than those troops who were ashore. The Australians, who have been paying Agent Orange-related benefits to their Blue Water Navy sailors for years, proved that in a study back in 2005."

Wells said he ends his short presentation with an appeal to his target member of Congress to support the bill. One who was impressed by his organization's argument was U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. She is expected to introduce "The Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011" shortly after Congress reconvenes in September. Wells said the bill has drawn bipartisan support from several co-sponsors.

Agent Orange the lingering legacy from the Vietnam War
VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA
Press Release August 10, 2011

U.S. Needs to Address Lingering Legacy of Agent Orange
As We Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

( Washington , D.C. ) On August 10, 1961, the U.S. Air Force began spraying chemical defoliants, dessicants, and herbicides over wide swaths of land in South Vietnam . This was done, first and foremost, to protect our troops to clear vegetation from the perimeter of fire bases and other outposts, to deny those we were fighting cover and concealment, and to deny food to our enemy, said John Rowan , National President of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). By the time we left Vietnam , some 19 million gallons of dioxin-containing Agent Orange had been sprayed.

Agent Orange did more than its job, however. It is now known to be associated with a variety of health conditions in those who served there as well as those who lived there, Rowan said.

This year we commence the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of America s involvement in Vietnam . We, at VVA, hope this will be more than a rehash of key events and battles in the war. We hope it will recognize that, as we remember the service and sacrifices of those who gave of themselves during the years of the war, we also need to focus attention and address the lingering legacy of the spraying of Agent Orange and other defoliants, Rowan said.

We believe that the saturation of Agent Orange is now affecting the health of the children and even the grandchildren of those who were there between 1961 and 1975. We will insist, loudly and clearly, that the Department of Veterans Affairs support research into the potential intergenerational effects of exposure to dioxin. And we will work to enact legislation that will establish centers where the progeny of Vietnam veterans who are afflicted with birth defects and learning disabilities that we believe are associated with the veterans exposure to dioxin can go for health assessments and treatment at no cost to the veteran and the family.

We, as a nation, need to accept our responsibility and address both the ecological destruction and the human agonies that resulted from our spraying of defoliants in southern Vietnam , Rowan said. Maybe then we can finally have some closure to our war.

Vietnam Veterans of America is the nations only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and our families. VVAs founding principle is, Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.

Agent Orange Studies VS Government malfeasance
A Veterans Herbicides (plural) Learning Experience
by Charles Kelley

I have given you readers, our government officials, and our media over the past decades the facts as I can find it on our herbicide issues with documented references. To include; what prestigious scientists, prestigious research groups, as well as government study scientists under oath in congressional testimony have concluded are sound scientific outcomes. We are still are being denied these outcomes even today and no hope of a day in an honest scientific court.

This learning experience and how we were denied (we already knew the why $$$$$$) for so long and still denied in many medical issues has culminated in the following learning experiences and logical conclusions in no order of precedence.

Congress even though they heard testimony of on going government study corruption and interference from the highest levels in the Executive Branch would do nothing to stop this corruption and failure to publish the facts as they were found. They did nothing then as well as now.

The above statement leading recently to Senator Coburn of Oklahoma and the thirty other senators who were doing nothing but as one writer concluded, selling snake oil on this issue were allowed to go to the senate floor and just spout off lies and misstated facts as if they knew what they were talking about citing no valid references; just cost saving propaganda at our expense. (See list below of these Senator snake oil salesmen. If one veteran, widow or friend of Veterans vote for any of these folks you deserve what you get.)

Also leading to a on purpose government information void to the point that our own doctors do not know how to treat us as toxic chemical victims. In fact, medical doctors, writing articles in the media regarding what they perceive is facts citing fraudulent government studies that were identified in the first learning statement. Example: Dr. Michelle Hecht of Atlanta cited the Ranch Hand Study in an article published by the Atlanta Journal and Constitution as being found as weak regarding diabetes citing what was found. When in fact if the Ranch Hand had published the reevaluated findings by Dr. Michalek the 12 year lead scientists for that study the association was found much stronger than previously thought after factoring out the fatal flaws in exposure assumptions and dose rate response mandated by the Executive Branch. To include other studies that found diabetes associated to four levels of dioxin with an odds ratio of 2.69 (1.09 - 6.67). Found dioxin associated to diabetes type II and exposure status at p = 0.033. Pretty significant findings if not for the government fraud in tax payer paid for studies that allow Dr. Hecht to cite these study facts that in any pharmaceutical trials would be useless and lawsuits would be in order if cited as fact.

Congress itself identified collusion and corruption by the Executive Branch in the Center for Disease Control (CDC) so-called study and did nothing then; as well as now.

While there are some expert scientists with integrity within the governments own federal agencies their lessons learned from the past with experts with the same integrity are: if they do speak out nothing will change within the government and they will do nothing but sacrifice their own careers to no avail. Scientific integrity and intellectual freedom means nothing to our Government and those we have elected.

Civil service employees within the Regional Offices were allowed to shred evidence, change time stamps, and even rewrite concluding medical evidence statements with no legal ramifications as to these purposeful fraudulent actions against the Veteran or their widow. The civil service union representative with no apology before Congress for these actions suggested these civil service employees just needed more training. I would suggest that if they did not recognize they were doing wrong they probably should qualify for Social Security Disability for the mentally handicapped since their IQ might not approach that of an earthworm; with the earthworm having much more integrity. Instead of handcuffs, government amnesty was in order for these criminals and their VA managers.

Congress somehow recognizes the Veteran Service Organizations as the only legal spokesmens for the entire Veteran segment of society. These organization that you pay to represent you in this trumped up cordial system will not demand the facts be brought out, demand justice, fight the study corruption (as previously stated in statements our congress already knows), nor go to the media and demand they print the real facts of government collusion against the nations best and finest citizens. Citizens that others pay to do and experience despicable and horrible conditions and situations because they will not do it themselves. Then allow the government to deny justice to those they paid to serve in their stead. Yet, if the same thing where to happen to them and their segment of society they would be the first to cry foul and go to a real court. Unfortunately for those that serve their courts are what ever the Executive Branch deems appropriate in Executive Branch Courts which clearly violates the separation of powers.

From the above statement even the Supreme Court has lost its identity in the separation of powers by allowing the Feres Doctrine to be implemented which allows Veteran abuse by the Executive Branch and its federal agencies. While originally a single point issue; our government including the VA has taken this way above its original intent while Congress does nothing to stop it.

When the government is at fault politics and science unfortunately do not mix well (like oil and water). The Institute of Medicine (IOM), our congressional appointed scientific jury, with close government Department of Defense (DOD) ties, has been less than candid in this issue. In fact; misstated facts of actually what was published, in spite of the government redaction, were used to deny issues such as thyroid issues. Many other issues remain unchallenged regarding the IOM as to their scientific candor and truth as to scientific levels that can presently be achieved.

Vets used Agent Orange in Korea
Jul. 28, 2011, Stargazette, by Roger Neumann

The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam is well-documented, as are its
long-lasting effects on the health of many Americans who served there.
But now comes disturbing news that Agent Orange also was used in South
Korea in the 1960s and '70s.

My old paper, Stars and Stripes, reported this week that two Army
veterans asked South Korean lawmakers to pressure the U.S. to admit it
extensively used Agent Orange in that country. The deadly defoliant has
been linked to birth defects and a long list of serious and even
life-threatening illnesses.

Steve House , one of the vets, told National Assembly members and
reporters in Seoul that he and other soldiers buried hundreds of
barrels of Agent Orange at Camp Carroll in South Korea in 1978. He said
he's now dying from illnesses that are known to be caused by Agent
Orange.

"I'm running out of time," the paper quoted him as telling the
lawmakers. "It's up to you to take it the rest of the way so we can get
some answers for the Korean people and the Americans who were exposed
to this stuff."

On Wednesday, House visited the camp with officials of both countries
and pointed out the area where he said the barrels were buried.

Phil Steward, who was an officer in Korea, testified that his men
routinely sprayed Agent Orange and other herbicides on and around their
bases: Camp
Peterson and Camp Ethan Allen, where he was stationed in 1968 and '69.

The U.S. military claims Agent Orange was used only at the
Demilitarized Zone and was handled only by South Korean troops, but
Steward said it was sprayed "through a wide, wide area of South Korea."

Steward said the U.S. won't admit to that because the potential cost of
medical and disability payments to veterans who were exposed would be
"astronomical."

No action was taken after the vets testified, but one Assembly member
called for a joint U.S.-Korea investigation into the issue.
http://www.stargazette.com/article/20110728/NEWS01/107280375/Roger-Vets-used-Agent-Orange-Kor

.

Senator Murray Chair Senate Veterans Affairs Committee speak out in opposition of Agent Orange amendment
U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs
7/20/2011
Senator Murray Helps Defeat Amendment that Would Have Blocked Compensation for Agent Orange Exposure
( Washington , D.C. ) Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, helped defeat an amendment that would have created a nearly impossible standard that must be met before VA can establish a presumption of service connection based on exposure to Agent Orange. In a speech before the vote, Senator Murray described the amendment as another hurdle Vietnam veterans would have to overcome in their 40 year struggle for compensation. The amendment, which Murray led the fight against on the floor of the U.S. Senate, ultimately failed to be included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill when Murray successfully asked that the amendment be tabled and prevailed by a vote of 69-30.

These veterans have been waiting, and getting sicker, and dying for 40 years or more. How much longer do we think they should wait? The time for waiting is over, said Senator Murray on the Senate Floor before the vote. Vietnam veterans have paid enough for that war. They should not end up paying for our debt. It is us who owe them a debt.

Read the full text of the speech below:

Mr. President, I rise to oppose the amendment that has been offered by the Senator from Oklahoma that would undo decades of policy on how we treat veterans suffering from diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure.
And that violates the promise we have made to a generation of veterans.

Mr. President, the legacy of Agent Orange exposure among Vietnam veterans is one of tragedy, roadblocks, neglect, pain, and then more roadblocks.

Its the legacy of our military spraying millions of gallons of poisonous herbicide indiscriminately, without thought of consequences, and without any repercussions.

At the time of the Vietnam War and for far too long after it - the U.S. government neglected to track Agent Orange exposures.

Then in the decades following the war our government stonewalled veterans who developed horrible ailments of all kinds from those exposures.

And to further compound the problem, for decades our government also failed to fund any research on Agent Orange and other toxins that Vietnam veterans were exposed to.

These mistakes, these decades of neglect, have a cost.
Its a cost to veterans and their loved ones, a cost to the government that sent them to war, and a cost to all of us as Americans.

And its a cost that, even in difficult budget times, even with our back against the wall, we cant walk away from.

Now Mr. President, Im not here to question any Senators commitment to our veterans.

But what I am here to question is the standard by which this amendment says they should be treated.

This amendment says we should change the standard by which we have judged Agent Orange cases for two decades.

Currently Vietnam veterans are presumed to be service-connected when the VA Secretary determines that a positive association exists between exposure to Agent Orange and a certain disease.

One of the reasons that Congress chose this mechanism is because it was impossible for these veterans to prove that their exposure to Agent Orange caused their cancers or other diseases.

These veterans were exposed decades ago.

They do not know where they were exposed, or how much they inhaled.

However, under the Senator from Oklahoma s amendment, Vietnam veterans would be asked to prove the impossible.

Theyd be asked to prove that they would never have gotten cancer, or heart disease, or any other disease or condition, if not
for Agent Orange.

Vietnam veterans who have diabetes, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and blood borne diseases would be denied care and benefits under this amendment.

And not only would this be a new hurdle Vietnam veterans could never overcome - It would change the rules midstream.

It would treat Vietnam veterans whose diseases have already been presumptively service-connected different than those whose diseases have not yet been positively associated with Agent Orange exposure.

Now Mr. President, I wont deny that compensation for exposures is a difficult issue and one that we continually have to look at.

Weve grappled with this issue in relation to Vietnam veterans and exposure to Agent Orange.

And today we continue to deal with this issue as Iraq and Afghanistan veterans come home with illnesses potentially associated with their exposure to toxins released from burn pits and other environmental exposures.

But ultimately, you have to look at the facts with reason and compassion, and weigh the years of our militarys failure to track exposures, the inevitable existence of uncertainty, and the word of our veterans.

And that is exactly what we have to do here.

On the one hand, we have thousands of veterans who have come forward and believe their cancers and ailments were caused by an exposure to a known killer.

You have studies that show veterans exposed to Agent Orange are more likely to have heart disease, cancer, and other conditions

You have the Institute of Medicine that has recommended giving veterans the benefit of the doubt.

And you have the Secretary of Veterans Affairs who has decided that we must move forward to provide compensation to presumptively service-connected veterans exposed to Agent Orange for cancer and heart disease.

On the other hand - you may have a compelling fiscal case.

But the Senator from Oklahoma hasnt presented one shred of evidence that Agent Orange does not cause heart disease, cancer, or any condition.

What has been presented is an amendment that asks veterans to wait until there is more scientific evidence.

Well, Mr. President, these veterans have been waiting for 40 years or more.

How much longer should they wait?

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs decided that the time for waiting was over.

I ask that we respect and support this decision.

And that we also remember that - even in the midst of this whirlwind debt and deficit debate - we have made a promise to our veterans.

One that doesnt go away.

Mr. President , Vietnam veterans have paid enough for that war.

They should not end up paying for our debt.

It is us who owe them a debt.

Thank you.

Agent Orange Liason VN Vets Wives News Release 24May2011

The tracking of cancer in the aging population of Vietnam Veterans exposed to dioxin has been neglected. With pancreatic and brain cancer rates 5 to 7 times higher than the civilian populations and lung cancer twice the rate in veterans that served in country according to the mortality study issued by The Department of Veterans Affairs Canberra Nov. 1997. The VA and statistical communities do not track or have registries specific to the veteran population. In fact the VA is not required to report cancer to the National Cancer Institutes Surveillance Epidemiology End Result or SEER, the nations statistical tracking program for cancer. Delayed or under reporting of cancer by the VA makes it difficult to know the accurate rate and type of cancer occurring in the Vietnam veteran population, a population that was exposed to the deadly toxic Agent Orange between 1962 through 1975. When cancer is reported by the VA to central registries the cancer at times has been found to be miscoded. The reason for withholding this critical information according to the VA is due to concerns of privacy. This under reporting and miscoding results in our nations veterans not getting the service connected benefits rightfully due to them when they are diagnosed with cancer caused by exposure to Agent Orange. An easy and inexpensive way to track cancer in veterans is through social security numbers.
The Institute of Medicine provides information and advice concerning health and science policy for the VA routinely uses studies from The Veterans Affairs Canberra in its Agent Orange report. In an email I received form Aaron Schneiderman director of the VAs epidemiology department the VA is not tracking the rate of brain cancer in Vietnam Veterans. The widows and families of www.vietnamveteranwives.org are asking the Veterans Affairs to track and report all cancers to the SEER and to service connect all cancers that are a result of Agent Orange exposure.
Eileen Whitacre
Agent Orange Liaison
www.vietnamveteranwives.org

New Agent Orange study on progeny
This is important. The National Institute of Environmental Health
Science (NIEHS) has a voting for project ideas. One of the projects
proposed is to look at the effects of dioxins (Agent Orange) on the
children and grandchildren of Vietnam Veterans.

Go to the link and register, and vote "I Agree" . Registration is
simple. Just click the "register" at the very top right of the page
and give your email address. After registering find the "I Agree"
and click it. Each family member can vote under their own email
address.

For the next person to vote.. Log out the one who just voted, click
register to register the next person and that person can vote "I
Agree". Repeat the process for each person in the family who wants to
vote. This is a Vietnam Veterans issue no reason we should not be in
first place in the voting.

Here is the link. Do this for our kids and grandkids. I ask for you
help on this please.

http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/dtd/Children-s-Centers-To-Study-Prenatal-Effects-of-Dioxins/126596-12617

Report Details Agent Orange Use at Fort Detrick
Originally published February 23, 2011
By Megan Eckstein
News-Post Staff

Randy White speaks to the media Tuesday at the Weinberg Center for the Arts.
Fort Detrick has released a preliminary archive search report on its past Agent Orange use as the Kristen Renee Foundation began to ramp up its efforts to prove that the Army post caused a cancer cluster in Frederick. According to the report, which was posted online Tuesday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found that Fort Detrick tested an estimated 16.82 pounds of Agent Orange and similar defoliants between 1944 and 1951.
In a news release, Fort Detrick noted that the amount tested was relatively small. "During 1969 alone, the national average for use of the exact same chemical was roughly 1.12 pounds per acre, which equates to more than 8.9 million pounds used nationwide to include farm, lawn care, right of way, private property, aquatic area applications," the news release states. "There is no difference in the compounds used by the military during this time and those that were commercially available."
Fort Detrick's preliminary report is based on annual special reports, which chronicle scientific research. The archived records show that the Chemical Warfare Service at Fort Detrick in 1944 gave the Plant Research Branch "the mission of developing chemical agents to destroy or reduce the value of crops." This mission led to the creation of a number of chemicals in the Agent Orange family.
According to the preliminary report, records show that researchers tested these chemicals in fields between 1944 and 1951. Tests were done in plots of 6 by 18 feet; the chemicals were applied with hand-held sprayers. Light metal frames with wind-resistant cloth were placed between each plot to keep the chemicals from spreading and ruining the experiments -- which also means the chemicals didn't blow far off Army grounds, the report states.
The report also notes two more experiments -- one that tested chemicals from a truck-mounted spray tower and the other that tested herbicides' movement through the soil. 2

Greenhouse tests of Agent Orange between August 1961 and June 1963 -- which the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has acknowledged as a cause of health problems for veterans who served at Fort Detrick at the time and for which it is currently paying disability claims -- are outlined in a classified report, the preliminary report says, so details about those tests have not yet been made available to the Corps of Engineers.
Fort Detrick announced the 17-pound figure in November but was met with criticism from the Kristen Renee Foundation and its supporters, who didn't believe the Army would acknowledge the full extent of the problem. A National Academy of Sciences panel is set to review data suggesting that the Agent Orange tests from decades ago have not led to a cancer cluster, but Kristen Renee Foundation founder Randy White said during a Tuesday news conference that he had no confidence the NAS panel would get to the bottom of the problem.
"I believe the Department of Defense is worse than the Mafia," he said, explaining that the military wasn't likely to allow access to all its documents related to Agent Orange testing.
White's news conference Tuesday was the beginning of a weeklong push to bring new attention to his fight against Fort Detrick. Today, the foundation will join with Vietnam War veterans to protest before the Fort Detrick Restoration Advisory Board meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Hampton Inn on Opossumtown Pike in Frederick.
On Thursday, White is scheduled to testify before the state Senate Finance Committee in Annapolis and to ask for money for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to conduct a more thorough cancer cluster investigation.
A bill being considered, Senate Bill 574, would mandate "the Biennial Cancer Study conducted by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to measure possible environmental causes of targeted and non-targeted cancers, including specified chemical agents and toxins." The bill does not mention Frederick or Fort Detrick, but White said he believed the funding would help his cause.
At the news conference, White also offered updates on his private research into cancer cases near Fort Detrick. He said he had handed out 30,000 surveys for residents to detail their families' cancer history. The forms are being returned at a rate of about 20 a day, he said, and he hopes to have collected 1,200 by next month.
White also discussed blood tests he paid to have done on several local residents with cancer. He said researchers found dioxin in the blood samples, and that dioxin was a "very close" match to the dioxin in soil samples taken near Fort Detrick. White would not elaborate further. He declined to say how many blood samples were taken and from whom, and he would not clarify from where the soil samples were taken.
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyid=117158

Agent Orange was not linked to the illnesses being reported by service members.
During the early stages of the Viet Nam War, a mixture of herbicides shipped and stored in 50-gallon drums, marked with an orange band, became known as Agent Orange. The products were mixed with kerosene or diesel fuel and sprayed by aircraft, vehicle, and hand spray units. By the time the war was over, an estimated nineteen-million gallons of Agent Orange herbicides had been used.
In the early 1960s, Agent Orange was described in a number of government publications as a harmless herbicide used for defoliating dense jungle growth, making it easier to find the enemy. At the same time, Senator Barry Goldwater was urging the use of nuclear weapons to clear the jungles. Agent Orange seemed to the safer option.
By the late 1960s, a debate began on the safety of Agent Orange herbicides; and if they were as safe as government officials were claiming. Aerial spray missions using Agent Orange herbicides in Viet Nam ceased in 1971, but research and debate on the long term health impacts continued throughout the next three decades.
During the 70s, the possible health risks associated with exposure to Agent Orange herbicides began to be realized. When an Arizona farmer reported the death of goats from spraying 2,4,5-T, (a component of Agent Orange) on his fields, the possible became more real. At the same time, users of similar herbicides in the U.S. were beginning to report respiratory ailments, swelling feet, chest pains and weight loss. Public health studies were also reporting a higher than expected rate of miscarriages in women living near areas where similar products had been used.
As soldiers who had been exposed to Agent Orange returned from Vietnam and began to report health problems ranging from skin and liver diseases to cancers of the lungs and stomach and even to birth defects the concerns for the health implications of Agent Orange began to grow. For a number of years, the U.S. Government continued to insist that exposure to Agent Orange was not linked to the illnesses being reported by service members.
By 1983, the results of several studies demonstrated a link between exposure to dioxin, a component of Agent Orange, and soft tissue sarcoma and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. In 1985, the herbicide was banned for use in the U.S. by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In 1991, the U.S. Congress passed the Agent Orange Act, requiring the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to evaluate the health effects of Agent Orange exposure. In 1993, a sixteen-member panel of scientific and medical experts that had been convened by the NAS reported that possible health effects from exposure to Agent Orange included, soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkins lymphoma, Hodgkins disease, and chloracne (a rash of skin lesions on the face, neck, and back).
This September, Agent Orange was in the news again. Dr. Linda Birnbaum, Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), testified at a hearing on VA Disability and Compensation that exposure to dioxin in Agent Orange is linked to ischemic heart disease. Dr. Birnbaum stated Exposure to Agent Orange is associated with alterations in the vascular structure, gene expression, and several other diseases and conditions related to ischemic heart disease. It can be expected that as Viet Nam War veterans continue to age, that other long term health effects from exposure to what was once considered a harmless herbicide used for defoliating dense jungle growth will be in the news again.


Read more: http://healthmad.com/health/agent-orange-in-the-news-again/#ixzz174KVGQSV

Read more: http://healthmad.com/health/agent-orange-in-the-news-again/#ixzz174JgztKP
http://healthmad.com/health/agent-orange-in-the-news-again/

Door Opens to Health Claims Tied to Agent Orange

By JAMES DAO

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/
us/politics/13vets.html?_r=1

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/nf09/nfoct09/nf101309-5.htm

Under rules to be proposed this week, the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinsons disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia to the growing list of illnesses presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, the toxic defoliant used widely in Vietnam.

The proposal will make it substantially easier for thousands of veterans to claim that those ailments were the direct result of their service in Vietnam, thereby smoothing the way for them to receive monthly disability checks and health care services from the department.

The new policy will apply to some 2.1 million veterans who set foot in Vietnam during the war, including those who came after the military stopped using Agent Orange in 1970. It will not apply to sailors on deep-water ships, though the department plans to study the effects of Agent Orange on the Navy.

The shift underscores efforts by the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric Shinseki, a retired Army chief of staff and a Vietnam veteran himself, to reduce obstacles to sick or disabled veterans receiving benefits. The department has come under sharp criticism from Congress and veterans groups for long delays in processing disability claims.

Since my confirmation as secretary, Ive often asked why, 40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, were still trying to determine the health consequences to our veterans who served in the combat theater, Mr. Shinseki said in a statement. Veterans who endure a host of health problems deserve timely decisions.

The veterans department already recognizes more than a dozen conditions as being presumptively connected to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam, including Hodgkins disease, prostate cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

But for diseases not on that list, veterans are required to provide evidence directly relating their service in Vietnam to their illness, a requirement that often leads to application rejections and prolonged appeals.

Veterans department officials estimate that about 200,000 veterans might seek benefits under the proposed change in policy. But they said they could not estimate the cost of the change until the policy underwent public review and was published in final form, which could take several months.

Mr. Shinsekis decision is a victory for groups like Vietnam Veterans of America, which has been pushing the department to add Parkinsons disease, ischemic heart conditions and hypertension to the list of diseases presumptively linked to Agent Orange.

But the new policy is also likely to prompt debate over how much responsibility the federal government should take in compensating and caring for aging veterans who are exhibiting a growing list of physical and psychological problems.

The most common of the three illnesses, ischemic heart disease, restricts blood flow to the heart, causing irregular heartbeats and deterioration of the heart muscle.

Parkinsons disease is associated with a loss of cells that secrete dopamine, a brain chemical essential for normal movement. Patients develop tremors, rigid posture, impaired balance and an inability to initiate movement.

Hairy-cell leukemia, a rarer condition, is a slow-growing cancer in which the bone marrow produces too many infection-fighting cells, lymphocytes, that crowd out healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.

Agent Orange, named after the color-coded band on storage drums, was the most common herbicide used in Vietnam to clear jungle canopy and destroy crops. It contained one of the most toxic forms of dioxin, which has since been linked to some cancers.

Aides said Mr. Shinsekis decision was influenced by a report released in July from the Institute of Medicine that found limited or suggestive evidence of an association between exposure to herbicides and an increased chance of Parkinsons disease and ischemic heart disease in Vietnam veterans. The report also found sufficient evidence, a stronger category, of an association between herbicides and hairy-cell leukemia.

The report, written by a 14-member panel appointed by the institute, was based on a review of scientific literature. The institute is required by Congress to monitor the health effects of herbicides used in Vietnam and produce updates every two years.

In its report, the panel warned that there was a paucity of epidemiological data about Vietnam veterans. As a result, the panel said, its findings did not represent a firm conclusion about herbicides and Parkinsons and herbicides and ischemic heart disease. It said it could not estimate the chances of veterans developing either disease.

Despite those caveats, the Institute of Medicine report has been cited by veterans advocates as providing sufficient evidence to justify a rule change. Under laws governing Agent Orange policies for veterans, the department cannot make benefits decisions based on cost, only on the scientific evidence. Aides to Mr. Shinseki said the Institute of Medicine report provided that evidence.

Some doctors and researchers say the expansion of Agent Orange benefits has been based on weak or inconclusive science, given the lack of studies on Vietnam veterans. Those skeptics argue that diseases like prostate cancer or Type-2 diabetes are just as likely the result of aging, lifestyle or genetic predisposition as exposure to Agent Orange.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Agent Orange, presumptive

• Acute and Subacute Transient Peripheral Neuropathy AL Amyloidosis
• Chloracne
• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
• Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2)
• Hairy Cell Leukemia
• Hodgkin's Disease
• Ischemic Heart Disease
• Multiple Myeloma
• Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
• Parkinson's Disease
• Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
• Prostate Cancer
• Respiratory Cancers
• Soft Tissue Sarcoma (other than Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma, or Mesothelioma)