Agent Orange Legacy is advocating for services, support and rights of the Children of Vietnam Veterans exposed to Agent Orange and their families.
In Quang Tri, the participants presented 120 scholarships to poor students and AO victims.The Source
Image compliments of Danielle Reyes, Co-founder AO Legacy,The event was in response to an appeal by the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) for Vietnamese and international friends around the world to help AO victims in Vietnam.
"If you put a label on genetically engineered food you might as well put a skull and crossbones on it." - Norman Braksick, president of Asgrow Seed Co., a subsidiary of Monsanto, quoted in the Kansas City Star, March 7, 1994
Even without a PhD, consumers understand you don't want your food safety or environmental sustainability decisions to be made by out-of-control chemical companies like Monsanto, Dow, or DuPont - the same people who brought you toxic pesticides and industrial chemicals, Agent Orange, carcinogenic food additives, PCBs, and now global warming.Industry leaders are definitely aware of the fact that every poll over the last 20 years has shown that 85-95% of American consumers want mandatory labels on genetically engineered foods.
“The flag is a representation and reminder of men who gave the ultimate sacrifice but their remains have not been returned to America. It is a reminder of the POWs who endured torture, isolation, lack of medical care, and starvation as captives of the enemy. If the thief considered removal of the flag a prank, it is not a matter taken lightly by veterans – it is a slap in the face of all veterans who honorably served in defense of our country.It also shows a lack of respect for other people’s property and is a deliberate attempt to cause grief to others.”
Callahan explains the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding the use of telemedicine to reach veterans nearer to where they live.
Image compliments Jennifer 'Emery' Bakken,None of them fully understood the nature of the testing.RESEARCH:
“We did not realize how dangerous it was. We weren’t told a thing,” said Stair.
Some in the group have suffered with various cancers or other conditions.
In general, the members are disappointed with the treatment they have received from Veteran’s Affairs since they were discharged.
During the 42 months studied, there were 101 medical errors and 136 close calls, out of more than half a million procedures.
Researchers believe that similar DNA changes in boys or men exposed regularly to passive smoke could lead to reproductive problems such as infertility or a higher risk of fathering children with congenital defects.
"Our data suggests that paternal exposure to second-hand smoke may have reproductive consequences that go beyond the passive smoker," the researchers write in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They say their work on laboratory mice provides "compelling evidence" to support the argument that passive smoking should be regarded as a potential mutation-causing behaviour in human sperm cells.
It is meant to stand as a tribute to soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice because of exposure to “Agent Orange.”“The effects of this exposure have now been linked to spinal bifida in our children,” says Tom Ryan, 1st Air Calvary Division, member of the VVA Chapter 623. “It is our belief that more links have yet to be identified and it will continue with our grandchildren and who knows after that.”
The monument is a duplicate of the marble used for the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. One of the inscriptions reads “They gave their tomorrows for your todays.”
'In Memory Plaque' (is on the ground) Washington D.C.
Image compliments Danielle Reyes, co-founder AO Legacy,“This wasn’t (done by) the American people, you know,” the Phoenix-area resident and father of two said. “Nobody I know would do something like this intentionally.”
"However, the ill-advised and serious attempt in the Senate last week to curtail benefits to Vietnam veterans who are ill as a result of exposure to Agent Orange should have convinced all of us that veterans' benefits are in jeopardy. (John Rowan, VVA National President)
"We want to make it clear," Rowan said, "that VVA will oppose any proposal that cuts benefits to veterans, our dependents, or our survivors. These benefits are earned, earned by service, earned by sacrifice, earned by blood spilled from WWII through the current conflicts. Similarly, we will oppose any cuts to already inadequate compensation for active-duty service members and their families, who continue to sacrifice so much."
We need to remember that the worst burdens of these wars have fallen on veterans and their families.Returning veterans have higher rates of suicide and mental illness, increased drug and alcohol dependence and higher rates of violence. Those high-risk behaviors have resulted in elevated numbers of car crashes and drug overdoses, elevated levels of homelessness and divorce.
The toll of these wars in terms of human and economic costs will continue for decades, so it’s imperative to remember that caring for our nation’s sick and disabled veterans and their families is a sacred obligation — one promised to them when they volunteered their service, not merely a line item in the federal budget.As Congress and the president continue to debate a deficit and debt compromise, it’s essential they remember that the resources to meet the needs of our veterans must be sustained and guaranteed.
Tom Macarthur - artist - visit Tom's store:"I think the way the VA is looking at us (is) they're just waiting for us to die off so they don't have to pay us," he said.
In recent years, Australia and New Zealand have begun to provide benefits for the Agent Orange-related claims of their blue water veterans.
Image compliments of Rich Preston, Vietnam veteran"Had I known 42 years ago how dangerous these chemicals were and what they were going to do to me, my men and citizens and villagers around the area," House said, "I'm afraid I would have refused the order to spray them."
Tom Macarthur - artist - visit Tom's store:Another, vital missing element is for a knowledgeable insider to come forth and, like Admiral Zumwalt did on Agent Orange, bang some bureaucratic heads together until they do right the job of protecting the public from dioxin and other toxic substances, and helping the injured.
"If they [Westboro Baptist Church] get too loud, fire up a couple of motorcycles. Shuts them right down."
Average American life expectancy is now dropping because of this disease complex. Even children are being recommended for gastric bypass.
For the first time in 200 years, children now have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, primarily due to obesity and diabetes. Every year, the world produces six billion pounds of BPA alone and it is detectable in 93 percent of Americans.The Source
If you're a former Marine or civilian worker who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune between 1972 and 1985 and you get a health survey in the mail from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, please fill it out.
"There's no guarantee that when we finish these studies that set government benefits will accrue to you," he said. "If we see associations that are strong enough, historically, the government has looked at that and provided medical services to those affected, but there's no guarantee."
The Source
Conclusions: BPA and DEHP exposures were substantially reduced when participants' diets were restricted to food with limited packaging.
Vietnam and Australia will broaden cooperative activities to support Agent Orange/dioxin (AO) victims, disadvantaged families and needy children in Vietnam.
"It’s still unfinished business, because even though it’s been taken down, the people who read it still don’t know they were misinformed," he said.
The results of that study were quickly called into doubt by former base residents and experts who said the research did not give proper weight to the presence of the known carcinogen benzene or analyze proper concentrations of the chemicals in the water.
Both phthalates and Bisphenol A (BPA), for example, were excluded from the start of the pilot program, despite evidence that phthalates can cause cancer, interfere with development, and impair the male reproductive system, and that BPA disrupts the endocrine system and can harm the developing brain, among other hazards.The VCCEP also failed because the project established guidelines for voluntary submission of the data, but never laid out firm deadlines. Only a fraction of the companies that agreed to come forward with their test data actually ever complied, the IG said.
“This kind of voluntarism isn’t going to work,” said Zoeller. “We need to have regulatory legislation, like Toxic Substances Control Act reform, that really puts EPA in the position of regulating."
Dicamba is a truly nasty poison—it makes the Pesticide Action Network's "bad actor" list, and is classified as a "developmental or reproductive toxin.
The main excuse has been the lack of scientific clarity about the connection between Agent Orange and human health. While it is true that questions remain about the health effects of Agent Orange, it is likely that they would have been resolved by now if a long-term epidemiological study had been launched at the end of the military war in 1975.Consequently, no one – and least of all the United States – is entitled to complain about the lack of indisputable scientific evidence for postulated links between dioxin and various medical conditions, including birth defects.
Even concussions seem to raise the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or other dementia later in life, researchers found.
Weeds in cotton fields have gotten so tenacious — some with stems 4 inches around — that farmers are paying itinerant crews to chop them down by hand.
This will mean that certain diseases would no longer be covered if you can’t prove that your illness was directly caused by Agent Orange and could not have been caused by another source. This would effectively undermine the expansion that the VA did for diabetes, certain cancers and ischemic heart disease.
Time for everyone to contact your US Senator, urging a "NO" vote on this damaging and totally unnecessary amendment that is intended to not only reverse the recent additions of diabetes, ischemic heart disease and certain cancers; but, also to undermine and/or "gut" P. L. 102 -4, which too many of us fought a ten plus year battle getting enacted by Congress and signed by Bush the First in February 1991.
"You almost have to know someone to get a decent appointment schedule," concurred William Mitiu, a veteran who served our country 24 years and has suffered from suicidal thoughts.
Destruction of the environment is no small crime, and Agent Orange is no small culpritA July 8 post by Stephen Messenger on the Food Freedom blog, titled “Monsanto’s Agent Orange being used to clear Brazil’s rainforest,” has given rise to hundreds of comments in just a few days.
Monsanto, Dow and other Agent Orange producers made an enormous profit selling poison to the US army. They must give back the money to this wounded country.The Source
“What we’re trying to do is assess whether or not exposures are happening to people in the Triangle Lake/Highway 36 area,” she said.
The inquiry by state and federal officials came about after testing by a respected researcher earlier this year found traces of herbicides that are commonly used to kill weeds in forest clearcuts in the urine of more than 30 people in the Highway 36 corridor.Some of those tested a second time, following aerial spraying of herbicides in April, showed even more herbicides than had been found in the initial tests.
In humans, some research suggests a link to prostate and breast cancer and infant mortality. Some evidence suggests that 2,4-D can cause cancer.
'The Warrior' - this is my rendition of my deceased husband's crazed PTSD face“We’re taught how to be soldiers, not civilians,” he said, and “once we’re put out, we’re hung out to dry.”
“How do you define timely [treatment] for a veteran with a gun in his mouth?” Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) asked William Schoenhard, the deputy undersecretary for health operations and management at the VA.
