Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance

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Agent Orange, Vietnam Veterans, Monsanto, GMO News – November & December 2012

On December 26, 2012 By Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance

What is A.O.F.D, Agent Orange Food Disorder, and how many …

Agent Orange Food Disorder, AOFD, is an ongoing mutation of cells from …. suffering birth defects as terrible as those found in the Agent Orange contaminated …

‘Legacies of War’

Coeur d’Alene Press Dewey Parker worked on a flight line inspecting airplanes that sprayed the Agent Orange herbicide during the Vietnam War. Today, the Air Force veteran who …

Agent Orange, United States Military Veterans, And Myelodysplastic …

The MDS Beacon I often see Vietnam-era military veterans in my clinic who have been diagnosed with MDS, and they always ask me, “Could Agent Orange exposure have …

What Are GMO? What Is A GMO? What Foods Are Genetically Modified …

OpEdNews … PCB’s & Agent Orange), Dow (Agent Orange and Agent Blue – Arsenic), Bayer (CCD – Colony Collapse Disorder of Bees), BASF (GMO Potatoes), DuPont

AO Victims Grateful to British PM

Salem-News.Com … of Agent Orange, was asked by the Viet Nam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) to present the gifts in person. The gifts comprised a selection of beautiful hand-embroidered linen and colourful hand-painted pictures made by….

Ten Top Reasons Why Food with GMO Ingredients Should Be So Labeled

Meridian Magazine In the past, Monsanto also assured us of the public safety of DDT and Agent Orange as household items, both of which were produced by Monsanto with devastating results. 7. GMO labeling has nothing to do with excessive government intervention and …

@DA NANG: Perception gap over Agent Orange is déjà vu after Fukushima

Asahi Shimbun Highly toxic dioxin, the main ingredient in Agent Orange, continues to be detected … is a Vietnam War veteran, and her mother was born with birth defects.

The pesticides you eat

Salt Lake Tribune Their answer to a failing Roundup system is now “Agent Orange Corn.” The corporate sales pitch is that GMOs increase crop yields and so are needed to feed …

A daughter faces demons of father’s war
CNN
“Yeah, because they’ve seen bad things,” Caitlin said. Christal had spoken with other grown children of Vietnam veterans. But this was the first time she saw herself in a child. Christal contained herself in front of Caitlin. But when she and her mom …

Tribute to Vietnam fallen helps keep Dad in her life
Tribune-Review
Rihn, a respiratory therapist, and about 70 other children of veterans went to Vietnam in 2003 to retrace the footsteps of their fathers. She and her husband, John, and their daughters, Megan, 20, and Alyssa, 17, make several trips a year to Washington …

Fifty years later, US, Vietnam deal with Agent Orange
USA TODAY
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently ruled that numerous ailments are presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange among the Vietnam veterans who have them. The ruling meant these veterans would qualify for certain benefits that had been …

Living With MDS: Why Did I Get Cancer?
The MDS Beacon
Dr. Steensma’s recent column about Agent Orange reminded me of the many months (or was it years?) I spent kicking myself over every poor decision I had ever made about my health. It also caused me to re-visit having lived near a dioxin superfund …

Agent Orange leaves lingering, costly aftermath
Reading Eagle
Some were casualties of Agent Orange. “A lot of them that were there had limbs … Tumors, rashes, miscarriages and birth defects were reported in the years …

Deadly rainbow: Veterans suffer from Agent Orange exposure
Montgomery Advertiser
The main dioxin in Agent Orange, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or TCDD, is one of the most toxic. During the 1970s, veterans returning from Vietnam …

Air Force Vietnam veteran wants other vets to learn about Agent Orange Registry
ABC Action News
It did, it floored me,” recalled Bob Wood. When Wood suffered a heart attack two years ago, doctors at the Haley VA Hospital told him his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam contributed to his heart disease. “This is unbelievable,” Wood thought at the…

A Battle Unending: The Vietnam War and Agent Orange
the Diplomat
By Simon Roughneen While the Vietnam War ended decades ago, its effects continue to linger on.Agent Orange haunts the lives of the people it has touched.

Monsanto and Genetically Engineered Food: Playing Roulette With …
Truth-Out
Is Monsanto the most pernicious global corporation when it comes to GMOs, … They lied to us about the safety of PCB’s, DDT and Agent Orange, …

Sister of Agent Orange victim says battle for recognition far from over
GlobalNews.ca
Bertrand was one of about 30 people who got compensation from the federal government after it overturned a decision to deny claims for people diagnosed with Agent Orange-related illnesses past a June 30, 2011 deadline. Timeline: The fight for Agent …

WMU professor’s book analyzes effects of Agent Orange
Western Herald
Ed Martini, Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently published Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty, a book that better explains the chemical used during the Vietnam War.

Dioxin, TCE Drums, U-235 and El Toro’s Panhandle
Salem-News.Com
We do know that one El Toro Marine who never served in Vietnam died from Agent Orange exposure, Dr. Chuck Bennett over 12 years ago cited two Orange County experts who examined soil samples from the panhandle and found weapons grade U-235 …

Vietnam Veterans Memorial 30 years later | Invisible Children Blog
Three decades ago, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC was officially dedicated on Nov. 13th 1982. Consisting of two reflective walls that span …

Veterans Corner: Vietnam service ‘presumptive’ disability benefits
Hanford Sentinel
Certain conditions are also recognized for the children of Vietnam veterans. Covered birth defects include a wide range conditions. Eighteen defects are specifically included and others not specifically excluded are covered. Vietnam veterans who served…
****COVVHA HAS RESPONDED TO THE ABOVE ARTICLE****

THE INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THE ARTICLE IS MISLEADING AND INCORRECT

“VA does this because of the unique circumstances of their military service. If one of these conditions is diagnosed in a veteran, VA presumes that the circumstances of his/her service caused the condition and disability compensation can be awarded.”

Let’s start with using the term, Agent Orange Dioxin. This is the “unique circumstance” our military members were exposed to, by their own government.

I think it’s totally disrespectful to not mention what the disability compensation is connected to.

The government used a chemical herbicide nicknamed Agent Orange (due to the orange stripe on the barrel). They used 22 million gallons on Southeast Asia to kill the vegetation, and deny the enemy cover. This chemical was also used along the Korean DMZ. Our government told our military was safe. What our troops were unaware of is that it contained Dioxin the most poisonous chemical known to man. Well, they found out, alright. Years later, our Vietnam Veterans began becoming seriously ill. Many died young, many young men acquired “old man” diseases with no prior family history all while our government denied their poison had any role in harming them.

The government waited till 1991 to help our veterans, prior to that they were called crazy or faking. The process has been so slow to help our Vietnam Veterans that even after they started to “Presume” a few illnesses, many Vets succumb to their illnesses leaving their families with only more questions and no support. There are claims dating back to the early 1980’s for Ischemic Heart disease (Added only to the presumptive list in 2010) still in appeal. This is not an easy process no matter what you may be led to believe. It is a tragedy.

Secondly, this article is disseminating incorrect information about the Children of Vietnam Veterans. After coming home from war, Veterans tried to move on with their lives and start their families. They soon discovered their children were being born with horrifying deformities, cleft Palate, Club foot, hip dysplasia, rare disorders, and strange illnesses. Our Government again turned it’s back.

“Certain conditions are also recognized for the children of Vietnam veterans. Covered birth defects include a wide range conditions. Eighteen defects are specifically included and others not specifically excluded are covered”

“Vietnam veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam between Jan. 9, 1962 and May 7, 1975, and later contracted any of these conditions, or have children with birth defects, should apply for disability compensation benefits.”

This is very frustrating especially if this is supposed to be by someone knowledgeable in this field. There are not 18+ birth defects covered in the children of Male Vietnam Veterans. There is only one Spina Bifida. From the VA website:

Children who have spina bifida (except spina bifida occulta) and meet the following requirements may be eligible for VA compensation, health care, and vocational training:

Are biological children of Veterans who served:Were conceived after the date on which the Veteran first entered Vietnam or the Korean demilitarized zone during the qualifying service period
- In Vietnam during the period from January 9, 1962 through May 7, 1975, or
- In or near the Korean demilitarized zone between September 1, 1967 and August 31, 1971 and were exposed to herbicides. Veterans who served in a unit in or near the Korean demilitarized zone anytime between April 1, 1968 and August 31, 1971 are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides.
If you are the child of a Male Vietnam Veteran you are NOT eligible for compensation unless you have Spina Bifida (NOT OCCULTA- the most common form)

There is no help for the thousands and thousands of children of male Vietnam Veterans that are suffering from congenital deformities, Cancers, Autoimmune Diseases, Reproductive Problems and other rare illnesses. There were 2.8 million people that served in Vietnam. Six to eight thousand of them were women.

The eighteen, plus birth defects you talk about in this article are only covered in the children of WOMEN Vietnam Veterans NOT in the children of Male Vietnam Veterans even though the children of Male veterans suffer greatly with the same illnesses!

Anyone else who have the birth defects listed whose mother was not a Vietnam Veteran WILL BE DENIED.

Covered birth defects include, but are not limited to, the following conditions: NOT COVERED IN THE CHILDREN OF MALE VIETNAM VETERANS!!!!!!!!!!

Achondroplasia
Cleft lip and cleft palate
Congenital heart disease
Congenital talipes equinovarus (clubfoot)
Esophageal and intestinal atresia
Hallerman-Streiff syndrome
Hip dysplasia
Hirschprung’s disease (congenital megacolon)
Hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis
Hypospadias
Imperforate anus
Neural tube defects
Poland syndrome
Pyloric stenosis
Syndactyly (fused digits)
Tracheoesophageal fistula
Undescended testicle
Williams syndrome

If you are confused over what is or isn’t covered for the Children of Vietnam Veterans feel free to email us at COVVHA@gmail.com

Medical History Should Include Military History, Doctor Says
New York Times (blog)
So he was surprised to learn not long ago — from reading a newspaper article — that at least one of those ailments, ischemic heart disease, has been linked to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange, which was used widely in Vietnam. It dawned on him …

Over 200000 veterans exposed to Dioxin
VietNamNet Bridge
VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam currently has more than 200000 veterans exposed to Agent Orange/Dioxin and infected with some diseases identified by the US …

Agent Orange remains big health concern
Herald Palladium (subscription)
JOSEPH – A vestige of the Vietnam War is present front and center at the Berrien County Veterans Service Office. Dozens of veterans of the war, which ended in 1975, call or visit to get help in filing claims for illnesses and conditions attributed to …

Monsanto On Verge of $40 Million GMO Bailout in Europe: Report
DeathRattleSports.com
Monsanto GMO Bailout in Europe A Sign of Things to Come? … a company that moved from producing Agent Orange during the Vietnam War to using their …

Conditions recognized as related to exposure to Agent Orange
Journal Times
The following presumptive conditions are recognized by the Veterans Affairs as related to Agent Orange exposure for veterans who served in county in Vietnam during Jan. 9, 1962, through May 7, 1975. • AL Amyloidosis — A rare disease caused when an …

Vietnamese still fighting for recognition of Agent Orange impact
Toronto Star
They are, she believes, victims of the Agent Orange dumped on Vietnam’s … found “compelling evidence” linking a rise in birth defects and miscarriages in …

A toxic disaster
The Korea Herald
Authorities estimate that 4.8 million were exposed to Agent Orange dioxin in … causing men exposed to Agent Orange to father children with birth defects.

Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance | AGENT ORANGE
Memories of the Vietnam War are dimming, but veterans and Vietnamese nationals who were exposed to Agent Orange and other dioxin-laced defoliants are …

West Virginia Monsanto Trial Long story of Monsanto and Dioxin Continues

On January 21, 2012 By Children Of Vietnam Veterans Health Alliance

Jury selection began last week, after another mediation effort failed. Once a jury is picked and trial begins, jurors will be asked to award thousands of current and former residents medical monitoring to allow early detection of diseases potentially linked to dioxin exposure. Several years ago, we published a lengthy Sunday story that explains in much more detail the allegations in the lawsuit (subscription required) about how Monsanto polluted the town.

An early sign of dioxin’s effects came in March 1949. A massive explosion rocked the Nitro plant when a pressure valve blew on a 2,4,5-T cooking container. More than 220 workers got sick. Years later, more than 170 workers sued Monsanto, alleging dioxin exposure at the plant had made them ill. Cases involving seven of the workers went to trial in federal court in 1984.

After an 11-month trial, a jury awarded one of the workers, John Hein, $200,000 for bladder cancer he contracted because of exposure at the plant to another chemical, or PAB. Jurors found that dioxin had made the other workers sick and that Monsanto had not acted diligently in seeking to determine the possible impact of exposure on worker health.

Five of the plaintiffs in the 1984 dioxin lawsuit against Monsanto Co. in Nitro stand outside the courtroom. Left to right: John Hein, James Ray Boggess, June Martin, Gene Thomas and Charles Farley. Each man sued Monsanto for $4 million each, alleging that exposure to chemicals at the Nitro plant threatened their lives. After an 11-month trial, jurors awarded $200,000 to Hein, but ruled against the other workers. Gazette file photo.

More importantly, the story explains that rulings by two different circuit judges have left a key part of the case out of the trial, As the trial begins in a major toxic pollution lawsuit against Monsanto Co., jurors won’t be allowed to tackle a key issue: Should the company pay to clean up dioxin it allegedly spewed across the city of Nitro?

Experts won’t testify about the need for property remediation. Lawyers won’t argue about the issue. Jurors won’t be asked to force Monsanto to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars such a project could cost. Judges O.C. Spaulding and Derek Swope issued rulings in July and November that threw out that part of the case. As a result, Putnam County jurors will decide only if current and former Nitro residents should receive medical monitoring to detect diseases potentially caused by exposure to
Monsanto’s dioxin. They won’t be able to do anything to clean up homes and businesses, ending the toxic exposure.

Lawyers for thousands of residents and property owners in the class-action suit appealed the decisions by Spaulding and Swope. They say the rulings left a huge gap in their efforts to deal with the legacy of Monsanto’s chemical-making operations.
“The current presence of dioxin contamination in the class area is a public-health hazard,” the lawyers argued in court documents.
“It makes little sense to initiate a medical monitoring program for a population without first eliminating that population’s exposure to the toxin at issue.”

The West Virginia Supreme Court isn’t likely to even begin considering the appeal until April. By the time a decision is made, the trial on the medical monitoring question will probably be over. The situation has left insiders and observers scratching their heads, as lawyers for Monsanto and Nitro residents prepare to head into one of the biggest civil trials in the Kanawha Valley in years.

“It doesn’t make any sense from the standpoint of the impact on the community,” said longtime Nitro lawyer Harvey Peyton.

Interestingly, Monsanto lawyer Charlie Love last week wrote a letter to the state Supreme Court, asking that Justice Robin Davis not participate in any consideration of the residents’ appeal: In this class action case, we believe that Justice Davis is subject to a disqualifying interest because her husband, Scott Segal, is an active and priminent practitioner in class action and mass tort litigation in West Virginia … Mr. Segal is arguablyl the foremost class action litigator representing plaintiffs in this state, and most defense counsel familiar with this area of practice would almost certainly include him among West Virginia’s top three to five plaintiff lawyers in this specialty. Now, Segal is not involved in the Monsanto case, but Love argues the outcome of the appeal could be so broad as to impact the cases Segal does handle. In fact, Love appears to be asking Justice Davis to recuse herself from all class-action appeals:
While we have deep respect for Justice Davis and Mr. Segal, we respectfully believe that the interests of due process and confidence in our judiciary would be best served if Justice Davis chose to disqualify herself in decisions involving contested class action issues, especially those that involve high-stakes toxic tort and/or medical monitoring claims.

Supreme Court Clerk Rory Perry responded on Friday with a letter telling Love: The basis for possible disqualification asserted in your letter is novel, not routine, and your detailed, three-page letter contains legal arguments that are better suited for consideration in the context of a proper motion for disqualification. Love’s letter and Perry’s response here posted below…Meanwhile, readers who are interested in the ongoing Monsanto case might want to go back and read some of the out-of-town media coverage the issue has generated in recent years. In one story, published in April 2010, U.S. News and World Report said:

For the better part of 30 years, Nitro has been grappling with the legacy of dioxin. The plant is long gone, leaving a vacant lot, part gravel and part pavement, with weeds—weeds, of all things—growing here and there in the cracks. In one direction, an old water tower, once white but now covered with rust, watches over the town; in the other direction, the long smokestacks of the John E. Amos Coal Plant in the neighboring town of Poca rise in the distance.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been in and out of Nitro for nearly half a century. In the mid-1980s, under EPA orders, Monsanto investigated part of the site and, after finding soil contaminated with dioxin, removed about 500 gallons of soil, the EPA says. More than a decade later, investigators turned to the water. The state and the EPA found that two rivers and one creek were contaminated. They homed in on a 14-mile stretch of the Kanawha near the old site. Starting in 2004, Monsanto began testing fish, such as bass and catfish and other bottom feeders, in the river and sampling the water and the sediment of the riverbed. Monsanto sent the results to the EPA last year. Now the agency has to decide what to do.

It is not just that site. There’s an old landfill of the type Woodall described, where Monsanto and other local businesses dumped waste, on Heizer Creek about a mile northeast of Poca, where he lives. The company stopped using that particular site in 1960, a year before Woodall started working. The EPA investigated in the 1980s and found contamination. Monsanto tried to clean it up. In 1998, the EPA came back, sampled again, and found more dioxin. According to the EPA, the cleanup is ongoing. Altogether, this town and the surrounding area have four active cleanup sites—three from Monsanto, the other from a company called Fike Chemical.

As hard as it is to clean up soil, at least there’s a chance. With people, there’s no such possibility. In 1991, Woodall retired after 30 years of service, and Monsanto gave him a plaque with a photo of the site in a wooden frame. After the herbicide job, he had worked at the site as an insulator and machinist. The workers were a family.

About a year after he retired, Woodall developed colon cancer. Maybe dioxin had something to do with it; maybe it didn’t. But thousands of Nitro residents or former residents are part of a class action lawsuit that alleges the company polluted the town with dioxin. Woodall, having worked at the plant and lived in Nitro, is a class member of the suit. Another 161 lawsuits from residents claim dioxin has caused their cancers. Monsanto says the cases lack merit. “We will defend ourselves vigorously,” says spokesman Bob Pierce.

And in a 2008 article for Vanity Fair, legendary investigator reporters Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele wrote: As for the Nitro plant’s waste, some was burned in incinerators, some dumped in landfills or storm drains, some allowed to run into streams. As Stuart Calwell, a lawyer who has represented both workers and residents in Nitro, put it,
“Dioxin went wherever the product went, down the sewer, shipped in bags, and when the waste was burned, out in the air.”

In 1981 several former Nitro employees filed lawsuits in federal court, charging that Monsanto had knowingly exposed them to chemicals that caused long-term health problems, including cancer and heart disease. They alleged that Monsanto knew that many chemicals used at Nitro were potentially harmful, but had kept that information from them. On the eve of a trial, in 1988, Monsanto agreed to settle most of the cases by making a single lump payment of $1.5 million. Monsanto also agreed to drop its claim to collect $305,000 in court costs from six retired Monsanto workers who had unsuccessfully charged in another lawsuit that Monsanto had recklessly exposed them to dioxin. Monsanto had attached liens to the retirees’ homes to guarantee collection of the debt.

Monsanto stopped producing dioxin in Nitro in 1969, but the toxic chemical can still be found well beyond the Nitro plant site. Repeated studies have found elevated levels of dioxin in nearby rivers, streams, and fish. Residents have sued to seek damages from Monsanto and Solutia. Earlier this year, a West Virginia judge merged those lawsuits into a class-action suit. A Monsanto spokesman said, “We believe the allegations are without merit and we’ll defend ourselves vigorously.” The suit will no doubt take years to play out. Time is one thing that Monsanto always has, and that the plaintiffs usually don’t. Read More…