Oh Great, New illnesses associated with Agent Orange

[Scuba]

from my email ...

Last week the Institute of Medicine released a new report on Agent Orange. We wrote a story about it and we have two points we want to highlight for you. We also have a small request.

“Significant gaps in our knowledge”

First, the committee concluded that even after 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War, there’s still not enough Agent Orange research underway, especially related to potential health consequences for the children and grandchildren of vets who were exposed. "Although progress has been made in understanding the health effects of exposure to the chemicals,” the committee members wrote in the report, there are still “significant gaps in our knowledge.” We wrote a story about this. Check it out: http://propub.li/1Mnt5vm

New illnesses associated with Agent Orange

Second, the report moved three illnesses from “inadequate or insufficient evidence” of Agent Orange association to “limited or suggestive evidence” of Agent Orange association. Those illnesses are:

Cancer of the urinary bladder
Parkinson’s-like neurological disorders (only Parkinson’s disease is covered now)
Hypothroidism (under-active thyroid)
The IOM has previously found a similar level of evidence for an association between Agent Orange and hypertension and stroke.

These illnesses are not currently covered by VA and the department will have to decide whether to adopt them. The VA also doesn’t compensate vets with hypertension or who have had a stroke, despite previous IOM reports linking those conditions to Agent Orange. The VA is not bound by the committee’s recommendations. The researchers listed more than 30 past suggestions — including calls for additional government-led studies — that apparently haven’t been pursued by the VA or other agencies. These illnesses lead to our request...

Do you have any of these illnesses? Please get in touch.

You might be able to help us out with our next story. We want to know if you have any of the above illnesses (hypertension, stroke, bladder cancer, Parkinson’s-like neurological disorders, hypothroidism). And, if so, have you tried to get AO benefits from the VA? Were you denied? Tell us about it by replying to this email. We’re looking into this issue.

And, as always, thank you for filling out the survey. If possible, please share the survey with any vets, their family members or their children who you think haven’t filled it out yet. All you have to do is send them this link and ask them if it is something they could do: http://propub.li/1QYtRnM. If you’ve already done this or you don’t know anyone, that’s OK. Thanks again.

Best,

Terry Parris Jr.
ProPublica

Charles Ornstein
ProPublica

Mike Hixenbaugh
The Virginian-Pilot

[Human101948]

1. Don't worry! All the poor bastards exposed will soon be dead...

Problem solved!
|sarcasm|

[Human101948]

2. Oh yeah, and then there's all those Vietnamese people...

Of course, they are not Americans so they don't really count.

[NV Whino]

3. Wait, you mean they finally admitted agent orange is responsible for illness in the first place?

[Drahthaardogs]

4. The issue is 2378 tcdd Dioxin

The health effects are well known alreadyl

[sorefeet]

5. My buddie has bone cancer

which is typical of agent orange exposure and he was. But they denied his claim. Said his cancer was old age until he ended in the emergency room where they told him with an ex-ray he had cancer. I can't stand the VA myself. Watch them start fucking with people now that there are new rules for opiates. Suicides will go up and so will heroin use.

[Dont call me Shirley]

6. That's good old Monsanto...

[djean111]

7. My sister's husband flew a helicopter during the Vietnam War.

He was told that he could not possibly have any problems stemming from Agent Orange - because he was not actually on the ground. Fuckers. Prop wash, soldiers in the chopper with Agent orange on their clothes.

Just last year, I think, the government finally said - if you were in Vietnam during a range of years, and have one or more of a list of problems - then yes it can be blamed on Agent Orange and you will get treated. Great news, for a guy who had a heart attack last year - ischemia - which is on the list.

Gotta say they are now treating him right at the VA hospital, also giving counseling for PTSD.

I knew a couple of guys, back when this was happening, who came back destroyed mentally. With kidney cancer. They died. At that time, the Agent Orange factor was being denied.

[Octafish]

8. My cousin passed away two years ago from bladder cancer.

He served as a front line Army doctor in Vietnam in the early 1970s.

[nolabear]

9. My father died of multiple cancers attributed to Agent Orange.

Bladder cancer was one of the first. The poor man was exposed during the Vietnam War though he was supposedly in Thailand for the years he was there. Turned out after his death (in 2002) that the Air Force attributed it to that and gave my stepmother benefits reserved for the survivors of it. We still don't know what he was actually doing over there but it killed him.