Agent Orange, Vietnam's Unfinished Research
For almost 40 years, the US Government has resisted supporting Vietnam Veterans and Vietnamese who have developed diseases because of their exposure to Agent Orange. The National Science Foundation says that there is no research to prove the effects of the carcinogen. The article, Agent Orange, Vietnam's Unfinished Research, provides an overview of the Agent Orange issue and offers a research strategy.
(PRWEB) March 21, 2005 -- The ghosts of the Vietnam War still haunt us. From
1965 to 1971, an estimated 11 million gallons of Agent Orange with dioxin were
sprayed on Vietnam. Not only did this carcinogenic herbicide kill vegetation, it
also poisoned 2.6 million United States veterans, the children of these U.S.
veterans, and millions of Vietnamese and their children.
It was not until
1991 that the U.S. Veterans Administration was forced by Congress to admit a
service connection between exposure to Agent Orange and to over 30 kinds of
cancer. In 1996, a genetic birth defect, spina bifida, was hesitantly added to
the VA disability list. Leukemia and diabetes are now part of the Agent Orange
legacy. Last year, conferences held at Yale University, Stockholm, and Hanoi
brought to light new data and research issues in the Agent Orange debate.
Researchers have begun to establish a correlation between Agent Orange and
mental illness, Hodgkin’s Disease, and cancer.
Ask any veteran who has
had to deal with the Agent Orange issue and he or she will tell you about how
the U.S. government has been either non-cooperative or complicit in trying to
silence the persistent moans heard from this ghost.
It is now time to
act. Recent research is now available to justify a major epidemiological study
of America’s Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange was only sprayed on South Vietnam,
excluding North Vietnam. This affords an excellent opportunity to compare the
health of the two areas.
In the National Academy of Science Agent Orange
Report for 2003, the Academy admits that “the lack of adequate data on Vietnam
veterans themselves makes it difficult to reach conclusions about increased risk
of disease among Vietnam veterans.”
Promoting Enduring Peace, a
non-profit organization, published a July 2002 ”Vietnam Report from HOA BINH”
that stated that thousands of children are being born with terrible defects and
disabilities to include mental illness, fatal heart ailments, spina bifida, and
many cancers. What these children have in common is a parent, or both parents,
who were exposed to Agent Orange.
The cover-up continues. The VA is not
only denying that Agent Orange is a major contributor to the diseases that the
children of Vietnam veterans have, but is also violating Federal law that
requires veterans be assisted. In April 2003, Donald Stout, Regional Director of
Veteran’s Affairs, Oakland, in a letter to Mr. Dodge, stated that “we are not
obligated to furnish the records (you) requested under the Veterans Claims
Assistance Act of 2000.” This VA denial for support is in-spite of Federal
Regulations Title 38 that states the “VA will make reasonable efforts to help a
claimant obtain evidence necessary to substantiate the claim.”
It is now
time for the VA to initiate a study of all those exposed to Agent Orange,
Vietnam veterans and their children, as well as Vietnamese and their children.
It is for the children that a nation goes to war. It is for the children that a
nation seeks peace. It is for all children exposed to Agent Orange that we seek
justice. Yes, Agent Orange is America’s weapon of mass destruction.
C.W.
Brown, PhD, is an independent scientist and consultant to the non-profit
Promoting Enduring Peace, an organization researching the effects of
AgentOrange(www.pepeace.org).
William Dodge, is a disabled Vietnam
veteran and parent of a child with mental illness, and is editor of his
daughter’s book, SugarStory, about her illness.(www.SugarStory.com).
By C.W. Brown, PhD and William
Dodge
Special from the Iconoclast
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb220061.htm