Do you believe that some Vietnam vets suffer from Agent Orange?

[seemslikeadream]

or are they all faking it? I believe Agent Orange causes illnesses because I have a family member that served in Nam and is very sick. But I have come across an opinion that apparently the sick vets are just hallucinating . I'd like a couple of others thoughts on the matter, if you have the time. Thanks

[Mistress Quickly]

1. just like depleted uranium does eom

[roguevalley]

2. They're lying and full of crap. My cousin Ross died of Agent Orange

poisoning. He got bone cancer and died in agony. The
military gave his wife a pension based on a diagnosis
of agent orange.

Don't let anyone tell you its faking. It isn't. God bless
you and your family with your sick family member. You have
my complete sympathies.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Thank you so much

Your reply made me cry because he is so sick and takes so much medicine and has to travel so far for medical help when he needs it. And for someone to say to me that its all a bunch of crap made me feel so bad, his family suffers so, thanks again for believing and saying so, you have no idea what that means to me.

[yella_dawg]

3. To my knowledge, there is no question as to the validity

of Agent Orange claims, either from US vets or Vietnamese citizens. Any opinion to the contrary is just an attempt to rewrite history, ala Holocaust debunkers.

[Bridget Burke]

4. So, "hallucinating" is normal?

The VA seems to think Agent Orange is not good for you: http://www1.va.gov/agentorange/

Here's information from a Veterans' group: http://www.lewispublishing.com/orange.htm

Google is your friend.

I'm sure some more personal information will be appearing shortly.

[Zorra]

5. My Vietnam Vet friend that died of stomach cancer last year

certainly did.

I do to.

[billybob537]

6. We are witnessing the

symptoms of government out of control!:puke:

[Bjornsdotter]

8. Do I believe...

Hi,

Yes, I believe Agent Orange causes illnesses and death.

Cheers,
Kim:cry:

[bigtree]

9. Seriously

Guide to Understanding Agent Orange
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/guao.pdf

Guide to Agent Orange Benefits
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/guob.pdf

The Institute of Medicine and Agent Orange Research
http://www.legion.org/pdf_files/imaor.pdf

Agent Orange Health Effects and Vietnam Veterans
http://www.va.gov/agentorange/

[Cleita]

10. I knew one who did and I don't think he was faking.

He flew in the planes that were dumping it and he thinks it caused problems he had with blinding headaches and later leukemia.

[TNOE]

11. Absolutely

no question about it. Not sure if it is you or a family member that is suffering, but I truly feel for you and the U.S. Government needs to not only acknowledge this, but make it right, if that's possible.-

[Robbien]

12. My brother was Agent Oranged

He started to have serious health problems a couple of years after he was back home and was fully disabled at 36.

yes, I believe Agent Orange causes problems.

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. If you even SUSPECT the present Administration of lying, they probably are

.
.
.

Myself, I believe anyone else first.

I need PROOF to believe this Administration, not just fork-tongued fools behind a podium with a few flags for a back-drop.


.
.

[One_Life_To_Give]

14. It depends!

Some Vets became sick from exposure to Agent Orange. Some Vets will become sick due to other reasons in addition to Agent Orange. Some Vets will become sick but their exposure to Agent Orange has no bearing on their illness.

Many of the Vets who were exposed are approaching the age when they will become sick from a variety of factors. Twenty years ago the effect of Agent Orange was easier to see due to the age of the victims. Today I wouldn't be surprised if we have more victims of the "Smoke Em if you got Em" than Agent Orange exposure.

OLTG

[nomatrix]

21. A few fact

Welcome to DU OLTG.

One thing I would like to point out, though there might be some validity to your opinion;

"some vets" gave their lives in the jungle,
"some vet" are living in poverty today dying on the streets as a result of a govt who won't acknowledge they exist,
"some vets" never came back from the emotional pain,
"some vets" have been used as experimental guinea pigs
"some vets" crossed over the line as Kerry described,
"some vets" are still suffering, but fighting for the right to help.

May you never suffer the disregard that veterans have suffered.

SOME FACTS
http://www.house.gov/bernie/publications/articles/2000-04-25-ao-globe.html

"Pilot surveys conducted by Vietnamese researchers in December 1998 found that between 800,000 and 1 million Vietnamese had Agent Orange-related health problems, according to a report released last year by Dr. Le Cao Dai, executive director of the Agent Orange Victims Fund of the Vietnam Red Cross. Up to 100,000 of those affected by the herbicide suffered some form of birth defect, the surveys found.

A 1965 confidential memo by one Agent Orange manufacturer, Dow Chemical, described the dioxin in the herbicide as exceptionally toxic. In 1969, studies in the United States found that dioxin caused birth defects in mice and rats. Two years later, the United States halted Agent Orange spraying in South Vietnam."


http://www.independent.org/tii/content/pubs/policyrep/p_toxic-tort.html

"Agent Orange comprises two powerful herbicides and was used by U.S. forces in the jungles of Vietnam beginning in 1965. This was not a case of unknown dangers. Top army people knew of the potential hazard of one of Agent Orange’s components more than a decade earlier, thanks to a manufacturer, the Monsanto Chemical Company. “Indeed, the army knew as much, and probably more, about the potential dangers of these herbicides as any company that manufactured them,” Benson writes. The President’s Science Advisory Committee was informed of the potential for harm by the army in 1963. The National Cancer Institute commissioned research in 1965 and was informed a year later that, at least in mice and rats, there were health hazards. The government did not tell the public, but in 1969 the findings were leaked by a dissident scientist. Shortly thereafter, the army stopped using Agent Orange.
When tort cases began to be filed against the manufacturers, a judge noted that “the government and the military possessed rather extensive knowledge tending to show that its use of Agent Orange in Vietnam created significant, though undetermined, risks to our military personnel.”

[seemslikeadream]

23. Thank you

You'll never know how I appreciate your post

[seemslikeadream]

15. Oh God thank all of you so much

I have never come across anyone before that denied it and it was like a punch in the stomach. I truly am grateful for the replies

[Robbien]

17. I know what you mean

And now we have a whole new crop that have been DUed where the military will deny, deny, deny for the next thirty years.

[leetrisck]

16. Very definitely - I

know that for a fact and fell free to knock the * out of anyone who says otherwise.

[supernova]

18. Of course

And it's shameful the government has never fully taken responsibility for these ill soldiers.

Unlike the nebulous cluster of symptoms known collectively as "Gulf War Syndrome," Agent Orange is a known carcinogen.

I'm not dismissing GWS for anyone suffering from it, just that the effects of AO are so much more documented.

[VolcanoJen]

19. Agent Orange, Gulf War I Syndrome...

... I believe wholeheartedly in the validity of both conditions, because I know two people suffering from it. And they're not faking.

A dear, dear friend of mine who was a part of Marine Force Recon in Gulf War I is suffering from Gulf War Syndrome (not to be confused with GW Syndrome, which I believe most DUers are suffering from) to this day. Literally, we'll be talking and his temperature will spike to 103, and he's off to the Emergency Room where nobody understands what the fuck he's dealing with.

I will take the words of the veterans over the words of the VA any, hany day. Maybe that's just me.

[gpandas]

20. anyone who doesn't believe it is harmful...

should be required to either take a bath in it or drink a glassful

[doni_georgia]

22. My cousin lost all his hair

developed cancer, and died when he was 49. He was sick and in and out of VA hospitals for 30 years. He was exposed to Agent Orange in Nam, and we know that is what caused all his sickness.

[Karenina]

24. "BELIEVE?"

Like it's some "conspiracy theory?" Don't "believe" your lying eyes as you watch your loved ones suffer HORRIBLE, drawn out deaths, health care truncated, nobody seems to give a shit. Yeah, SUPPORT OUR TROOPS.

:argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh: :argh:

[GreenPartyVoter]

25. I think it's the real deal. How can something as toxic as that

not make a person who has been in contact with it ill?

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. Kind of like thinkin the Holocaust never happening. Anyone who thinks that

Agent Orange is "made up" has never watched a loved one suffer and ultimately die because of it. :(

[TeeYiYi]

27. Vietnam vets won a $180 million settlement . . .

As it stands, a soldier's children receive free medical care only as long as a parent remains in the service. For parents who return to civilian life, the going can be grim. Moreover, the government's record on earlier military health grievances is hardly reassuring. Soldiers unwittingly used in radiation experiments in the 1950s, for instance, had to fight the VA for compensation until the 1980s. And Vietnam veterans claim that scientists manipulated evidence to hide the ravages of Agent Orange. "The CDC actually skewed the data," says retired Navy Adm. Elmo Zumwalt Jr., who blames his son's fatal cancer on the defoliant. Vietnam vets won a $180 million settlement from Agent Orange manufacturers, but not until 1984.

http://www.life.com/Life/essay/gulfwar/gulf09.html

TYY

[opihimoimoi]

28. My friend died from exposure. Died about 10 years ago.

was sad. They should bathe the Corp Owners of the shit in it.