Agent Orange Legacy changes name in fight to bring families together whose children are affected by the veterans exposure to toxic military exposures

Legacy of Our Veterans Military Exposures (LOVME) was built on the experiences of a widow of a Vietnam veteran exposed to Agent Orange and their daughter. Their daughter, Dee Reyes, has been ill all of her life due to her father’s exposure while serving in the ‘brown water’ Navy from 1966 – 1969.

Sharon L. Perry and her daughter, Dee Reyes founded Agent Orange Legacy in 2007. After years of researching Agent Orange, Sharon and her daughter, Dee, learned Agent Orange was just one of a multitude of military exposures affecting our veterans and their families.

This understanding was the foundation for expanding their existing efforts.

Today our troops are exposed to an onslaught of harmful toxins at a magnitude never before seen. We have learned from the Vietnam war that harmful toxins such as TCDD (Agent Orange) will not only affect the veteran it will also affect the veterans’ descendants for seven (7) generations.

The DOD has been irresponsible and reckless in the disposal of harmful toxins. The problem is so immense that the EPA listed 130 military installations as Superfund sites. Our veterans, left in the dark, about the chemicals many have been exposed to and their health effects. During the Cold War Era our veterans, many without their knowledge, were exposed to chemical and biological warfare materials such as nerve agents, blister agents, hallucinogens and biological agent testing.

Americans are also affected by these U.S. military installations added to the Superfund site, by the manufacture and testing of war time weapons such as Agent Orange along with other biological and chemical warfare agents. We are all affected when war time technology is transferred to the commercial sector. Nuclear power plants and Genetically Modified crops resistant to Roundup (a herbicide) are a couple of examples of war time technology being transferred commercially.

Not only are our veterans and their offspring being poisoned so are all Americans. We have an epidemic of cancers, autoimmune diseases, learning disabilities in our children such as Autism (1 in 160) and ADHD, food sensitivities and food intolerance to food additives such as gluten and soy.

As Americans we need to reassess how our way of life affects the world we live in. We can no longer afford to be wasteful and turn the other cheek. There are many changes we can make in order to insure our children’s future.

LOVME asks all Americans to begin this journey and help us to protect our veteran’s children because protecting our veterans’ children will also protect your children.

You can visit our website at this link>>>http://lovme.org/

Agent Orange impact focus of town meeting

"As a wife, mother and grandmother, Agent Orange dioxins have touched my life in an awful way"” she said.

Her husband, who was in the infantry in Vietnam and lost his leg due to a combat injury, now has prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. Her daughter has a severe learning disability, her son is suffering from a rare heart condition and her granddaughter had a severe birth defect.

It was through talks with other Vietnam vets’ wives that she began to hear that their families had similar problems, ranging from autism, severe learning disabilities and psychological problems to miscarriages, premature births and birth defects.

She urged Vietnam vets to get enrolled with the VA, do the Agent Orange screening registry, request their service record, collect copies of their family’s medical records and begin to put in medical claims for themselves and family members with an accredited service officer.

Continue Learning>>>http://helenair.com/news/local/agent-orange-impact-focus-of-town-meeting/article_a5f177ce-bd4d-11e3-8275-001a4bcf887a.html

Agent Orange/Dioxin and Other Toxic Exposures Committee: Committee Report BY HERB WORTHINGTON, CHAIR

2013 was a record year for educating the public and veterans about Agent Orange, the other rainbow agents, burn pits, and depleted uranium use by the government both domestically and overseas.

More than twenty-one town hall meetings have been held, with attendance ranging from one hundred to almost five hundred people. At each meeting Agent Orange folders are distributed that contain information on how to run a town hall meeting, copies of individual stories (The Faces of Agent Orange), a copy of the Agent Orange Self-Help Guide, a report from our Communications Department, a report on the impact of Agent Orange on U.S. veterans after forty years, the Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee position paper on birth defects, a report on male mediated studies, a list of all ships recognized as exposed to Agent Orange, an information paper from the Department of Defense on herbicide tests and storage outside of Vietnam, and a report on proposed legislation for veterans'families for research and treatment.

The committee continues to work with the National Birth Defect Registry and has adopted two resolutions. The first deals with the C-123 Pilots and Aircrew Association and the second with the Blue Water Navy Association. We continue to advocate for Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange in locations other than Vietnam—Thailand, Laos, Okinawa, the Philippines, Johnston Island, Korea, Cambodia, Guam, and many military installations within the United States. We have reached outside of the VVA and AVVA membership and have held town hall meetings in conjunction with other organizations. All have been very successful, and we have noticed an increase in local membership once a town hall meeting is completed.

Scheduling town hall meetings for 2014 has begun. May and much of June already are booked. States that have scheduled meetings so far this year: Florida, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan, Nevada, Alabama, and Maine.

We are endorsing Sen. Richard Blumenthal's (D-Conn.) legislation, S.1602, which calls for all veterans exposed to toxic substances to be diagnosed and treated, along with their progeny. We will host a meeting on the Hill on April 10 with as many members of Congress as possible to introduce and urge passage of S.1602. Attending this briefing will be VVA Board members, state council presidents, AVVA members, and children of veterans who have been exposed to Agent Orange.

In 2013 we printed some thirty thousand self-help guides and distributed them nationwide for free. This year it is estimated that we will need forty-five thousand booklets due to the high demand from veterans and their families. Our Agent Orange webpage—along with our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and other social media—has grown greatly. We continue to fight for new conditions to be listed on the presumptive list recognizing the harm caused by our exposure to Agent Orange and the other rainbow agents. Recently the Institute of Medicine reported that there has been no difference in the reaction since 2010 for Agent Orange-related strokes. We will be pushing for this condition to be listed as a presumptive, along with skin cancer.

SOURCE>>>http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/

Multiple Toxins From GMOs Detected In Maternal and Fetal Blood: What Does This Mean For Your Baby?

"By slipping it into our food without our knowledge, without any indication that there are genetically modified organisms in our food, we are now unwittingly part of a massive experiment. The FDA has said that genetically modified organisms are not much different from regular food, so they’ll be treated the same way. The problem is, geneticists follow the inheritance of genes, what biotechnology allows us to do is to take this organism, and move in horizontally into a totally unrelated species. switching genes from one to the other without regard for the biological constraints. It’s very very bad science, we assume that the principals governing the inheritance of genes vertically, applies when you move genes laterally or horizontally. There’s absolutely no reason to make that conclusion"– David Suzuki (5)

Continue Learning:  http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/27/multiple-toxins-from-gmos-detected-in-maternal-and-fetal-blood-what-does-this-mean-for-your-baby/

Chronic Multisystem Illness in Gulf War Veterans

More than 2 decades have passed since the 1990-1991 conflict in the Persian Gulf. During the intervening years, many Gulf War veterans have experienced various unexplained symptoms that many associate with service in the gulf region, but no specific exposure has been definitively associated with symptoms. Numerous researchers have described the pattern of signs and symptoms found in deployed Gulf War veterans and noted that they report unexplained symptoms at higher rates than nondeployed veterans or veterans deployed elsewhere during the same period. Gulf War veterans have consistently shown a higher level of morbidity than the nondeployed, in some cases with severe and debilitating consequences. However, efforts to define a unique illness or syndrome in Gulf War veterans have failed, as have attempts to develop a uniformly accepted case definition.

Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Gulf War Veterans is a comprehensive review of the available scientific and medical literature regarding symptoms for chronic multisymptom illness (CMI) among the 1991 Gulf War Veterans. This report evaluates and summarizes the literature in an effort to identify appropriate terminology to use in referring to CMI in Gulf War Veterans. While the report does not recommend one specific case definition over another, Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Gulf War Veterans does recommend the consideration of two case definitions on the basis of their concordance with the evidence and their ability to identify specific symptoms commonly reported by Gulf War veterans. This report recommends that the Department of Veterans Affairs use the term Gulf War illness rather than CMI. The report recommends that that the Department of Veterans Affairs, to the extent possible, systematically assess existing data to identify additional features of Gulf War illness, such as onset, duration, severity, frequency of symptoms, and exclusionary criteria to produce a more robust case definition.

Continue Learning:  http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=18623&utm_medium=etmail&utm_source=The+National+Academies+Press&utm_campaign=NAP+mail+new+2014.03.18&utm_content&utm_term

In Vietnam, Agent Orange still makes its deadly presence felt

There’s an air of torment about Cong Nguyen. The 16-year-old is among four siblings, two of whom suffer the same regular attacks of heat that mean they can never stray far from a water tank. To make matters worse, he has never been able to grow teeth or a full crop of hair; instead, clusters of wispy, thin strands sit above sunken eyes.  “Some kids avoid me and laugh at me,” he says from the home he shares with his brothers and parents in Bien Hoa, just outside Ho Chi Minh City.

His mother thinks she knows the cause of his problems. As a teenager in the mid-1970s she would collect wood in a field with her father in southern Vietnam. The two would spend all day among the foliage, cutting down small trees, scavenging in thickets for branches that they would then carry back to their village in the evening.

Continue Learning:  http://www.ucanews.com/news/in-vietnam-agent-orange-still-makes-its-deadly-presence-felt/70511

Unfinished business

Millions of service members were exposed to Agent Orange, and a growing body of research points to its link with many health problems. Veterans deserve stronger support and more assurance their government won’t shirk its responsibilities to support veterans and their families still dealing with this toxic legacy of war. These veterans have suffered enough in body as well as spirit. They shouldn’t have to refight the Agent Orange battle on behalf of their children or their children’s children.

Continue Learning:  http://www.salisburypost.com/article/20140226/SP05/140229774/1012/unfinished-business

A daughter faces demons of father's war

Delmer Presley, Christal Presley's father, was drafted before his 19th birthday and served a year in Vietnam.

"Thirty Days With My Father" is a gritty memoir written by a woman haunted by what some psychologists describe as second-generation post-traumatic stress disorder.

The trauma began in Vietnam, affected Delmer and then Christal, says psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, a trauma expert who served on the committee that defined PTSD in the post-Vietnam era.

Christal, he says, suffered profound injury. And it stayed with her.

Continue Learning:  http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/04/us/veteran-daughter-ptsd/index.html

Derrick Adams: Doctor finds another possible deadly health problem associated with Agent Orange

Affected veterans struggled through three decades of insulting legal shenanigans by the manufacturers and governmental agencies before Congress recognized their plight. Denying the irreparable health consequences for decades the government finally in 1991 recognized a list of aliments that would qualify for compensation. Skin cancer was not among them.

This new study was led by Dr. Mark Clemens of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and it analyzed medical records from the Veterans Affairs Hospital of Washington, D.C. The findings suggest that veterans exposed to Agent Orange, and the contaminant dioxin, have twice the rate of suffering invasive skin cancers. These cancers include basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. So far no evidence of increased prevalence of melanoma has been proven.

The risk of skin cancer jumped to 73 percent to those veterans who actively sprayed Agent Orange. Not surprisingly, lighter skin types and those with lighter eyes demonstrated greater statistical risk. There exists a dreaded dioxin-spawned skin condition called chloracne; and these afflicted veterans show an 80 percent incident of invasive skin cancer in the study.

Continue Learning:  http://www.redding.com/news/2014/mar/15/derrick-adams-doctor-finds-another-possible-with/

Agent Orange talk prompts memories, emotion

"Men, and women, hang in there," he said. "Let's not go down like this. I'm 64 years old. I want to keep fighting for you, and for this country, and for my family.
"And, I love you."

The audience broke out into applause for the man, who looked old beyond his years, wearing his Vietnam veterans cap, head bowed.

Continue Learning:  http://hdnews.net/news/orange031614

Roundup Weedkiller Found In 75% of Air and Rain Samples, Gov. Study Finds

So, what is the toxicological significance of the discovery of glyphosate in most air samples tested? In the month of August, 2007, if you were breathing in the sampled air you would be inhaling approximately 2.5 nanograms of glyphosate per cubic meter of air. It has been estimated the average adult inhales approximately 388 cubic feet or 11 cubic meters of air per day, which would equal to 27.5 nanograms (billionths of a gram) of glyphosate a day.  Of course, when one considers the presence of dozons of other agrichemicals found alongside glyphosate in these samples, the interactions between them are incalculably complex and produce far more harm together than glyphosate alone (i.e. synergistic toxicity). Also, now that recent cell research has shown that glyphosate may act as an endocrine disrupter exhibiting estrogenic-like carcinogenicity within the part-per-trillion range, there is all the more reason to raise the red flag of the precautionary principle — especially since inhaled toxicants evade the elaborate detoxification mechanisms of ingested toxicants which must pass through the microbiome, intestinal lining and liver before entering the blood and only a long time later the lung far downstream.

This study brings to the surface the extent to which GM farming has altered our daily exposure to chemicals, such that even the rain and air we now breath contains physiologically relevant levels of glyphosate ‘fall out’ from the war against any plant not part of the monocultured, genetically engineered system of production. With a significant body of research now available today showing that glyphosate and its components are far more toxic than believed at the time of its widespread approval, the implications of ubiquitous glyphosate exposure should be carefully considered.

Continue Learning:  http://www.cornucopia.org/2014/03/roundup-weedkiller-found-75-air-rain-samples-gov-study-finds

Autism and intellectual disability incidence linked with environmental factors

An analysis of 100 million US medical records reveals that autism and intellectual disability (ID) rates are correlated at the county level with incidence of genital malformations in newborn males, an indicator of possible congenital exposure to harmful environmental factors such as pesticides.

Autism rates—after adjustment for gender, ethnic, socioeconomic and geopolitical factors—jump by 283 percent for every one percent increase in frequency of malformations in a county. Intellectual disability rates increase 94 percent. Slight increases in autism and ID rates are also seen in wealthier and more urban counties.

Continue Learning:  http://www.sciencecodex.com/autism_and_intellectual_disability_incidence_linked_with_environmental_factors-129675

KANSAS: Agent Orange town hall meetings to be held across state

Three town hall meetings on the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam War veterans and their families will be held across the state over a three-day period.

Organizers want to build a database of illnesses caused by Agent Orange that not only affect the veterans but also their children and grandchildren, said Larry MacIntire, a state council member for VVA.

 

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpySites and times of meetings:
• Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Fort Hays State University, Memorial Union, second floor, Stoffer Lounge
• Saturday, 2-5 p.m., Salina Chamber of Chamber of Commerce, 120 W. Ash St.
• Sunday, 1-3 p.m., Prairie Band Casino and Resort, 12305 150th Road, Mayetta.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpy

Sites and times of meetings:

• Friday, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Fort Hays State University, Memorial Union, second floor, Stoffer Lounge

• Saturday, 2-5 p.m., Salina Chamber of Chamber of Commerce, 120 W. Ash St.

• Sunday, 1-3 p.m., Prairie Band Casino and Resort, 12305 150th Road, Mayetta.

Continue Learning:  http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpy

 Organizers want to build a database of illnesses caused by Agent Orange that not only affect the veterans but also their children and grandchildren, said Larry MacIntire, a state council member for VVA.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpyOrganizers want to build a database of illnesses caused by Agent Orange that not only affect the veterans but also their children and grandchildren, said Larry MacIntire, a state council member for VVA.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/2014/03/12/3340658/agent-orange-town-hall-meetings.html#storylink=cpy

Agent Orange from farm to table

While my sister-in-law put the finishing touches on Thanksgiving dinner, I listened to her friend recount the losing battle her husband, a Vietnam veteran, fought with lung cancer. She explained her husband’s illness was caused by his wartime exposure to the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, produced primarily by two companies, Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

Decades after Agent Orange was sprayed over South Vietnam, we have borne witness to the human toll of exposure to its cocktail of chemicals, including 2,4-D. It would be wise to approach with extreme caution any regulatory action that would encourage more — not less — use of 2,4-D. What’s more, herbicide use on American farmland simply perpetuates a vicious cycle: Spraying leads to weed resistance, which leads to more spraying. The solution is to break the cycle by investing in a different kind of innovation, one that promotes ecological solutions to weed control.

On March 11, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service closed its public comment period on the question of regulating these new crops. If the USDA approves the seeds, the EPA still has to assess whether and how 2,4-D should be sprayed. Until then, environmental and health advocates, such as the Center for Food Safety, are urging Americans to air their concerns about this new use of genetic engineering. It’s time we pivot from a corrosive cycle and support the kind of innovations that get decades-old, toxic chemicals off our farms, fields and lawns.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/3/agent-orange-farmtotableherbicidemonsantodowchemicalagriculture.html
Continue Learning:  

Support Care and Medical Treatment for the Children of Vietnam Veterans

 

Sign The Petition! 

200 Signatures Added Since Yesterday!

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS POST AND SIGNING THIS PETITION 

Support Care and Medical Treatment for the Children of Vietnam Veterans.

Our children and grandchildren are sick and suffering and they desperately need specialized medical care related to Agent Orange Exposure.

Now is the time to TAKE ACTION!!  Please click on the above link and share this petition.  Help our Vietnam veterans and their children by sharing this page.

 

)

Many of us (families of Vietnam veterans) have called Birth Defect Research for Children (BDRC) and talked to Betty Mekdeci (Director of BDRC).  When I called I was desperate for answers.  I called Betty on more than one occasion.  Every time I reached out Betty was there to take my call.  Betty was and remains, still to this day, the light at the end of a dark tunnel.  A friend when there weren't any, and always a reassuring voice.

BDRC has been and continues to be a friend to Vietnam veterans and their families especially when few could be found.

Thank you for your support, Sharon & Dee.

Sign the Petition to United States Veterans Administration

14,672 signed

10,328 more needed

Birth Defect Research for Children wants you to join us in raising public awareness about the continuing effects on children of their parents exposure to toxins during military service. 

Donate to Birth Defect Research for Children

$1,650 donated

$3,350 more needed

SOURCE:  http://agentorangezone.blogspot.com/2014/03/sign-petition.html

Vets battle VA on post-Vietnam Agent Orange claim

 
But the veterans’ appeals continued to fall on deaf ears at VA.
Their efforts recently received another shot in the arm: In an article published in Environmental Research, scientists from Columbia, OHSU, Boston University School of Public Health and elsewhere said the potential for dioxin exposure among the C-123 crews “is greater than previously believed, and inhalation, ingestion and skin absorption were likely to have occurred during the post-Vietnam era.”

Using algorithms developed by the Army and data from the 1994 samples, researchers compared estimates with available guidelines and standards.

“Our findings ... contrast with Air Force and VA conclusions and policies,” said Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University. “The VA concept of a ‘dried residue’ that is biologically unavailable is not consistent with widely accepted theories of the behavior of surface residues.”


Some Veterans who were crew members on C-123 Provider aircraft, formerly used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, have raised health concerns about exposure to residual amounts of herbicides on the plane surfaces.

Continue Learning:  http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20140311/BENEFITS06/303110036/Vets-battle-VA-post-Vietnam-Agent-Orange-claims

RELATED POSTS>>>

Agent Orange Residue on Post-Vietnam War Airplanes

Responding to these concerns, VA asked the Institute of Medicine to study possible health effects. Results are expected in late 2014.

If you have health concerns, talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator.

Testing for Agent Orange residue on planes

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) collected and analyzed numerous samples from C-123 aircraft to test for Agent Orange. USAF's risk assessment report (April 27, 2012) (2.3 MB, PDF) found that potential exposures to Agent Orange in C-123 planes used after the Vietnam War were unlikely to have put aircrew or passengers at risk for future health problems. The report’s three conclusions:

1)  There was not enough information and data to conclude how much individual persons would have been exposed to Agent Orange.

2)  It is expected that exposure to Agent Orange in these aircraft after the Vietnam War was lower than exposure during the spraying missions in Vietnam.

3)  Potential Agent Orange exposures were unlikely to have exceeded standards set by regulators or to have put people at risk for future health problems. - See more at: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/locations/residue-c123-aircraft/index.asp#sthash.6Q0UcRyS.dpuf

Continue Learning:  http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/locations/residue-c123-aircraft/index.asp

Open house March 29 in Portage for Vietnam Veterans Day

"I said about two words to my parents and that was it. They shut it down"” said Dennis Benson, who served in the Army from 1969 to 1970.

However, as the veterans age and the public perception shifts, more people do want to know.

For the second time, the local Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1707 will recognize Vietnam Veterans Day on March 29. The open house is from noon to 5 p.m., and free for the public, at the VFW hall at 215 W. Collins St. in Portage. All Vietnam War veterans are welcome to attend and bring memorabilia to have on display.

Continue Learning:  http://www.wiscnews.com/portagedailyregister/news/local/article_6b6519bf-7b88-5f01-a559-94db07cf8ecb.html

The Really Forgotten of The Vietnam War

I wrote about Lesli and her battle with the government in 2012. At that time I pointed to legislation that should have covered her and the life-threatening illnesses she contracted after exposure to Agent Orange. Memo 53 was added to the Federal Employment Compensation Act (FECA) on December 13, and 1967 passed by Congress to deal with those who became disabled or were killed while entertaining the troops. Which each application for coverage she was denied. The addition clearly states… The Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Program Overseas would cover entertainers as "employees" for the purposes of the FECA and, while on tour with the Armed Forces Professional Entertainment Program Overseas, would be entitled to benefits under the Act in the event of death or disability”

Lesli’s denials fly in the face of everything decent about America. Today the medical bills have put her and her husband in debt and the stress of facing the unknown is having a paralyzing effect.

Continue Learning:  http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/03/04/the-really-forgotten-of-the-vietnam-war/

Q&A: 'Toxic War' - The Story of Agent Orange

U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was long and costly in many ways.  The conflict itself raged for more than two decades, but the consequences of military actions taken in Vietnam continue to this day.  One of the darkest legacies is the effect of a widely used defoliant meant to quickly clear dense forests and flush out enemy forces.  Known as Agent Orange, the chemical induced adverse health issues for both U.S. troops and Vietnamese on both sides of the war.

Peter Sills, an attorney who helped represent the Vietnam Veterans of America in a class action lawsuit regarding the use of Agent Orange, has written about it in a new book titled Toxic War. Speaking with VOA’s Jim Stevenson, Sills told of the many ways Agent Orange had a direct effect on people, and how it even evolved into a weapon.

Continue Learning:  http://www.voanews.com/content/qa-the-story-of-agent-orange/1856154.html

Many reasons for VA delays

"Make no mistake, we are manufacturing veterans at a rate, as a result of the Middle East, that we have never done before"” said Nevada’s 2nd U.S. House Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, and a veteran who was in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. "That is why the VA budget, even in these times, has gone up every year in the last few years"”

Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be filing disability claims for decades to come, Amodei said.

Continue Learning:  http://www.rgj.com/article/20140302/NEWS/303020051?nclick_check=1