Agent Orange, dioxin

Agent Orange tied to aggressive prostate cancer risk

Posted on MAY 13, 2013 Written by THANHNIENNEWS LEAVE A COMMENT

Soldiers detect Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) and defoliant Agent Orange during the launch of the “environmental remediation of dioxin contamination” project, in Vietnam’s central Da Nang City

Men who were exposed to Agent Orange chemicals used during the Vietnam War are at higher risk for life-threatening prostate cancer than unexposed veterans, researchers have found.

What’s more, those who served where the herbicide was used were diagnosed with cancer about five years earlier than other men, on average, in the new study.

“This is a very, very strong predictor of lethal cancer,” said urologist Dr. Mark Garzotto, who worked on the study at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Oregon.

“If you’re a person who’s otherwise healthy and you’ve been exposed to Agent Orange, that has important implications for whether you should be screened or not screened,” he told Reuters Health.

But one researcher not involved in the new study said it’s hard to take much away from it, given the imprecise way it measured exposure.

Agent Orange – named after the giant orange drums in which the chemicals were stored – was used by the U.S. military to destroy foliage, mainly in southern Vietnam. The herbicide was often contaminated with a type of dioxin, a potently carcinogenic chemical.

The Vietnam Red Cross Society has estimated that up to one million Vietnamese suffered disabilities or health problems as a result of Agent Orange, including children born with birth defects years after their parents were exposed.

Past research has also suggested that U.S. veterans who served where Agent Orange was used are at an increased risk of lymphoma and certain other cancers, including prostate cancer.

For the new study, researchers wanted to see whether exposure was more closely linked to slow-growing prostate cancers or aggressive tumors.

They analyzed medical records belonging to 2,720 veterans who were referred to the Portland VA for a prostate biopsy. About one in 13 of those men had been exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, according to their VA intake interviews.

One third of all men in the study were diagnosed with prostate cancer, about half of which were high-grade cancers – the more aggressive and fast-growing type.

When the researchers took men’s age, race, weight and family history of cancer into account, they found those with Agent Orange exposure were 52 percent more likely than unexposed men to have any form of prostate cancer.

Separating out different types of tumors showed the herbicide was not linked to an increased risk of slower-growing, low-grade cancer. But it was tied to a 75 percent higher risk of being diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer, the study team reported Monday in the journal Cancer.

“The increase in the rate of cancers was almost exclusively driven by the potentially lethal cancers,” said Garzotto, also from Oregon Health & Science University.

More research is needed to figure out exactly why that is, he said. In the meantime, Garzotto said veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange should discuss that with their doctors.

But Dr. Arnold Schecter, from the University of Texas School of Public Health’s Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Program in Dallas, said there’s a “big problem” with just asking veterans if they were exposed to Agent Orange or served in an area where it was sprayed.

“Of those most heavily exposed in the military as best we know, only a relatively small percentage of them had elevated dioxin from Agent Orange in their blood when tested by (the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” he toldReuters Health.

Schecter said that in Vietnam, people who have high levels of that type of dioxin in their blood live in places where the chemical has become integrated into the food supply – or were sprayed directly with Agent Orange.

Another researcher who has studied the effects of Agent Orange agreed that not having blood dioxin levels is a drawback, but said the findings are consistent with past research and general thinking about the chemical.

“Almost all studies have implicated that men with Agent Orange (exposure) either have higher-grade prostate cancer or a more aggressive clinical course,” said Dr. Gregory Merrick, head of Wheeling Hospital’s Schiffler Cancer Center in West Virginia, who also wasn’t involved in the new research.

But, he added, as long as men are getting into the VA system and getting regular evaluations and treatment for cancer, Agent Orange exposure “is not a death sentence by any means.”

Toxicity found in breast milk of mothers in dioxin-affected areas — TalkVietnam

Toxicity found in breast milk of mothers in dioxin-affected areas

Posted on MAY 9, 2013 Written by VIETNAMNEWS LEAVE A COMMENT

DONG NAI (VNS)- During the war in Viet Nam, US troops stored more than 98,000 buckets of Agent Orange at Bien Hoa airbase in the southern province of Dong Nai. After they overflowed several times, the contamination level far exceeded what regulations permitted.

Today, the breast milk of women in Bien Hoa City still contains more toxic dioxin than that of women in other areas.

In so-called dioxin “hot spots” – Da Nang, Phu Cat District in the central province of Binh Dinh -toxicity levels are even higher.

These troubling findings emerged as part of a study on dioxin’s effect on newborns conducted by Kanazawa Medical University and the Dong Nai Department of Health. During the study, doctors took more than 200 blood and umbilical cord samples from babies born near the Bien Hoa airbase. They also drew breast milk samples and checked the development of the infants’ nervous systems.

According to the researchers, newborns’ heads in Bien Hoa City were bigger than in Da Nang; the babies who were born prematurely gained weight slowly.

A representative from the Japanese university said that the researchers would continue studying dioxin exposure in food in Bien Hoa City, as more than 90 per cent of dioxin entered people’s bodies via food products like fish and dairy.

The airbase has long been recognised as a toxic spot. In the period of 2009-10, the province discovered three more spots near the airbase that were seriously affected by dioxin. — VNS

Toxicity found in breast milk of mothers in dioxin-affected areas — TalkVietnam

Vietnam Beware

State-owned firm faces a lot of complaints for polluting environment
Connection charge increases won’t be able to rescue fixed line services

Vietnam beware!
August 14, 2011 about Reports

Activists worry multinational corporations that produced Agent Orange could perpetrate another ecological disaster through genetically modified organisms


Agent Orange victims Chu Quang Duc (C), 27 years old, and his father Chu Quang Chien (R) who served in Vietnam’s central Quang Nam – Da Nang area from 1971-1975 during the Vietnam War, attend a computer class at the Friendship Village, a hospice for Agent Orange victims outside Hanoi.

Vietnam should be wary of overtures of all sorts made by multinational agricultural corporations with insidious records as they try to push for widespread application of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the country, activists say.

Specifically mentioning multinationals like Monsanto, implicated in the Agent Orange crisis, they say such corporations should not get the message that token gestures of compensation would make them welcome to do business in the country.

In an appeal released in June, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent of Orange/dioxin (VAVA) had demanded that Dow Chemical and Monsanto “ask themselves: if they are still not paying compensation to the Vietnamese people, does it make sense that they have their representatives in Vietnam?”

A statement issued at the two-day international conference of Agent Orange victims that wrapped up Tuesday (August 9) in Hanoi also touched on the aspect of "biochemical engineering".

“Humanity’s concern about the impacts of chemical warfare, the threat of accidents at chemical manufacturing plants and the looming environmental disaster due to biochemical engineering is increasing,” it said.

Günter Giesenfeld, a German professor at the Philipp University of Marburg, wrote in an Op-Ed to Thanh Nien Weekly last month that “some people fear that Monsanto… could offer Vietnam some help (voluntarily and without any recognition of responsibility) for the victims of Agent Orange if Vietnam introduces GMOs on a large scale.”

The fears are well founded.

It is planned that GM corn (genetically modified corn) will be grown on a large scale throughout Vietnam next year, the official Vietnam News Agency reported on August 4, citing the Agricultural Genetics Institute.

The agency said that GM corn, which is more resistant to insect pests and grass pesticides, could ensure crop yields 30-40 percent higher than normal. A pilot cultivation of the GM corn in the northern province of Vinh Phuc has shown no negative impact on the environment and biological diversity, it added.

But activists in the field are skeptical of such claims.

Margrit Schlosser, a founding member of the Swiss-Vietnam friendship association who attended the Agent Orange conference, said in her speech that the effects of GMOs on the economy, human health and the environment are yet to be properly assessed.

“By introducing [GMOs] paired with toxic weed killers in Vietnam, the tragic legacy of Agent Orange might repeat itself,” Schlosser said.

“The concern is that, in the end, Vietnam will loose its food security and food sovereignty. The fear is that, ultimately, the Vietnamese farmers will pay the bill.”

Seeds of destruction

The world’s largest seed company, Monsanto, was again in the headlines last month with news that its product Agent Orange was being used to clear the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Aerial surveys detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound — poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations, according to a July 8 post by Stephen Messenger on the Food Freedom blog.

Elsewhere, NGOs and social activists in India launched Tuesday a campaign called “Monsanto, Quit India” across 15 states of the country, drawing on the historic Quit India movement launched against the British colonialists.

Campaign organizers said their aim is to get big multinational seed and agro-chemical companies out of domestic markets.

It is hosted by the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), an all-India network of about 400 organizations of farmers, agricultural workers, consumers, social activists and academics.

“We are forced to remind everyone on Quit India Day that we are living in times when our freedom is being jeopardized yet again in insidious ways – if we as a nation want to protect our food sovereignty and if we want to retain control on what we grow and what we eat, we need to resist this corporate takeover,” ASHA said in a press release.

Activists say that the Vietnamese people could well get stuck in the same boat with Indian farmers, and it is time to take action.

Said Schlosser: “We should eventually come to say, ‘Monsanto, Quit Vietnam!’”






2011, THE YEAR OF AGENT ORANGE VICTIMS




On August 10th, 1961, the US Air force began spraying chemicals over Vietnam. Several events are taking place this year to mark the fiftieth anniversary of that dreadful act. The Vietnam War is known for the massive bombing of North Vietnam. Less obvious and unknown for too long by the public at large has been the chemical warfare waged in the Southern part of that country from 1961 to 1971, whose consequences have been dramatic and long-lasting. The ecological disaster is huge and the human catastrophe bears on the economic, social, cultural and well-being of the whole Vietnamese population, affecting now the third generation.

The US government, as well as US chemicals companies, has tried to escape its responsibilities, but things may begin to change. On June 26th, 2010, in Hanoi, the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group (*) published a report, its fourth, consisting of two parts: a Statement and an Action plan. In its tone, the Statement is unusually candid, stressing Vietnam’s efforts to face the consequences of the chemical sprayings and also pointing at the modest humanitarian aid procured by NGO, the Ford Foundation included.

According to the Action plan, US$300 million should be spent during the next ten years to finance a list of projects detailed in four pages of the report. It is a rather ambitious plan and $300 million will surely not be enough. Moreover, the Dialogue Group has no funds of its own and has no authority over other bodies. Therefore, the consequences of the chemical sprayings will not be mitigated anytime soon. Still, one important fact is that the Dialogue Group is calling on the US government to finance the largest part of the fund.

The humanitarian assistance of NGO cannot cope with the needs of the Vietnamese victims. It is at the governmental level that the energies must be mobilized and the reparations to the victims must be paid. The chemical firms must face their responsibilities and contribute to the reparations.

Meeting in Ivry (France), on May 21st, 2011, for the 50th anniversary of the France-Vietnam Friendship Association (AAFV), the representatives of the four following solidarity associations with Vietnam have decided to work together to inform the public about the tragedy Vietnam is still under going, thirty six years after the end of the Vietnam War. They will do their utmost to convince their respective parliaments of the necessity to support, as quickly and massively as possible, the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin and Vietnam, which has been devastated by the defoliants.

Signatures:

· Association Belgique-Vietnam (Belgium-Vietnam association)

· Association d’Amitié Franco-Vietnamienne (AAFV, Franco-Vietnamese friendship association)

· Association Suisse-Vietnam (Switzerland-Vietnam association)

· Germany-Vietnam friendship association (Freundschaftgesellschaft Vietnam)

· **Britain-Vietnam Friendship Association

· **Italy-Vietnam association (Associazionne Italia-Vietnam)

**(These two associations, absent from the original congress, later joined the four first endorsers.)


(*) The Dialogue Group is a bi-national US-Vietnam advocacy committee of private citizens, scientists and policy-makers, which considers ways of remediating the consequences of the sprayings over Vietnam, from a humanitarian perspective. It was established in 2007 under the aegis of the Aspen Institute, with financial support from the Ford Foundation.


By An Dien, Thanh Nien News (The story can be found in the August 12th issue of our print edition, Thanh Nien Weekly)

Vietnam, US set up health task force on AO/dioxin - Vietnam, US set up health task force on AO/dioxin

Vietnam and the US have reached consensus on directions to address the consequences of Agent Orange/dioxin in the Southeast Asian country, including the establishment of a health task force.

The two nations came to the decision during the fourth annual meeting of the Vietnam-US Joint Advisory Council (JAC) on AO which ended in Hanoi on September 10 after three days of talks.

The establishment of the health task force, following the environmental task force set up at the third meeting, is seen as a step forward by the JAC, said Le Ke Son, co-chair of the JAC, at a press conference following the event.

The health task force comprises experts chosen from both Vietnam and the US, said Son, who is also Deputy General Director of the General Environment Department.

The group will first gather all information related to AO/dioxin and their adverse effects on humans generally and in Vietnam in particular to help the JAC make accurate assessments of this issue, especially in AO/dioxin-contaminated areas.

The health task force will also put forth measures to prevent exposure in AO-affected areas and provide better health care to people who have been exposed or have a high likelihood of exposure to AO, said Son.

Having praised the establishment of the task force, US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak reiterated the US’s commitment to continue cooperating with Vietnam in seeking solutions to decontaminate the environment and provide health assistance to tackle the damage caused by AO/dioxin.

The diplomat revealed that the US is assisting Vietnam to address AO/dioxin contamination at Da Nang airport-one of the country’s three hot spots-with funding sourced from the US commitment of US$6 million. VNA/VOVNew

More efforts needed to solve dioxin issues - More efforts needed to solve dioxin issues

Vietnam-US projects to deal with the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin on the environment and human health has not met expectations despite efforts from both sides, says a Vietnamese official.

The Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Nguyen Xuan Cuong, made the statement at the fourth annual session of the Vietnam-US Joint Advisory Committee (JAC) on Agent Orange/dioxin in Hanoi on September 8.

It’s time the two governments reached official agreement on a long-term and effective programme for this issue, insisted Mr Cuong.

He said Vietnam gives priority to cleaning up dioxin-contaminated hotspots to prevent further exposure and providing healthcare services to the victims. He asked the JAC to put forward specific proposals to realise these two tasks.

He recommended that a Vietnam-US working group on health care be established to draw up a roadmap and propose solutions to minimise the number of children born with deformities. He lauded the Vietnam-US working group on the environment for creating a roadmap and technical solutions to deal with hotpots at Da Nang Airport in central Vietnam.

However, he said, the amount of money that the US government has promised to help with the environmental cleanup at this airport has not been disbursed yet, hampering JAC activities.

Mr Cuong thanked non-government organisations such as the Ford Foundation, the Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund, UN agencies and other organisations for showing their interest in projects to overcome the consequences of the toxic chemicals in Vietnam.

US Ambassador M. Michalak and US officials at the session. (Photo: Hanoimoi)

The US Ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Michalak, acknowledged the implementation of healthcare and environmental projects which were proposed at their meeting last year.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed three-year projects with a number of organisations including Save the Children US, East Meets West Foundation and Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped to provide medical and rehabilitation services to handicapped people in Da Nang City, and to help them earn a livelihood.

The US has received bidding dossiers and will soon announce the winner of a project to assess the environmental impact and prepare to clean up dioxin-contaminated hotspots at Da Nang Airport. In June 2009, the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) carried out experiments at Da Nang Airport using bioremediation technology. The technology is expected to bring about highly-efficient, low-cost solutions.

During the three-day meeting, JAC delegates, scientists and representatives from non-governmental organisations will hear reports and propose solutions to the ongoing problems in Vietnam.

Agent Orange Causes Media Blindness

Agent Orange, the herbicide used as a weapon by US military forces in Vietnam for nearly a decade to defoliate vast stretches of inhabited forest and jungle in an effort to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces of both cover and a supportive populace, has long been known to have caused a large number of serious and debilitating diseases, many of them passed on to children of those exposed. But now it also appears to cause a peculiar blindness among American journalists.

This is demonstrably the case at the New York Times, where a report in Saturday's edition on new Agent Orange links being found to Parkinson's Disease and ischemic heart disease noted that it could lead to many more Vietnam War Era veterans being eligible for disability benefits and treatment, but completely failed to mention the significance of the discovery for the millions of Vietnamese who were also exposed to the chemical--and for their descendants.

The new link was announced in a report by a 14-member committee of the Institute of Medicine, which had been asked to determine what conditions might be traced to exposure to the chemical that had been "used to clear stretches of the jungle" in Vietnam. As the article noted, since 1994, the Institute of Medicine has to date found 17 medical conditions that can be traced to exposure to Agent Orange, "13 of which qualify veterans for service-connected disability benefits."

There's a lot wrong with this article, as written by Times reporter Janie Lorber (though admittedly we can't know what is her responsibility and what is the handiwork of the newspaper's editors).

For starters, the benign-sounding description of how Agent Orange was used--"to clear stretches of the jungle"--makes it sound like the kind of thing President George W. Bush used to do when he was down at his "ranch" in Crawford, TX "clearing brush," or like grounds-keeping work at the local golf course. In fact, what the US military was doing was defoliating vast tracts of inhabited forest in South Vietnam, in an effort both to make it hard for enemy troops to hide, and to drive peasants into strategic hamlets where they could be controlled, and prevented from providing assistance to Vietnamese fighters. There was no effort made to keep the defoliant away from people--civilians or enemy fighters--indeed, people were, at least indirectly, the targets. It would, indeed, have made no sense to defoliate areas where there were no people.

It is certainly true that the Defense Department showed absolutely no concern about sending American troops out into the sprayed areas, where hundreds of thousands or soldiers and marines were exposed to the residue of the spraying, and it is true that the Defense Department and the US government spent millions of dollars after the war battling efforts by desperately ill veterans in a futile effort to deny legal responsibility for their ailments, and to deny any link between those ailments and Agent Orange. (A friend, the late Dorothy Thompson, was one of the lead attorneys in the successful fight to win compensation from the government for veterans who suffered from Agent Orange-related disease.)

But how can any honest journalist or news organization write about this sordid chapter in America's criminal use of chemical weapons without even mentioning its impact on the enemy, or on huge numbers of wholly innocent civilians?

To this day, the US has refused to accept any responsibility for the victims in Vietnam of its chemical warfare in that country, despite the fact that millions have suffered and continue to suffer from the results, including innocent children born long after the war was over, and of course many older people who have long since died of their diseases.

It is no surprise, of course, that the US government would decline to accept responsibility for its actions, or even to discuss the issue. The Vietnam War was the first war in which the US clearly was defeated, and there is no desire to even think about it, much less about the evils which were done by America in the fighting of it. And as a federal agency, it's perhaps understandable, though still inexcusable, that the Institute of Medicine panel examining Agent Orange's impacts would fail to note its impact on the people of Vietnam, and focus instead only on veterans.

But the media, and particularly the New York Times, have no excuse whatsoever -even if the Institute of Medicine report is incomplete--for failing to mention the obvious point that, as bad as Agent Orange was for the troops who dispensed it, and who had to fight in areas where it had been used, it was far, far worse for the people upon whom it was actually dispensed.

Unless, of course, the problem is that the Times and its reporters and editors are also victims of the chemical, and it is also causing journalistic blind spots.
_______

About author

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His new book of columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's new book is "The Case for Impeachment," co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.

He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com

Report Sees Agent Orange Link to More Illnesses - NYTimes.com

An expert panel reported on Friday that two more diseases may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the American military during the Vietnam War.

People exposed to the chemical appear, at least tentatively, to be more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, according to the report. The report was written by a 14-member committee charged by the Institute of Medicine with determining whether certain medical conditions were caused by exposure to herbicides used to clear stretches of jungle.

The results, though not conclusive, are an important first step for veterans groups working to get the government to help pay for treatment of illnesses they believe have roots on the battlefield. Some other conditions linked to Agent Orange already qualify.

Claud Tillman, a 61-year-old veteran from Knoxville, Tenn., who lost his job repairing guns after he received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, said those benefits could help dig him out of tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

Mr. Tillman has not worked since March 2007 and now lives on loans from relatives, including his son. “It sure has messed my life up,” said Mr. Tillman, who said he was sure he became ill after exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam. “I don’t know how to explain it. It won’t be long till I’m living under a bridge. I am confident that that’s where it came from, but there’s no way to prove it.”

Since 1994 the Institute of Medicine committee has found 17 conditions associated with exposure to the chemical, 13 of which qualify veterans for service-connected disability benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In its latest report, the committee found “limited or suggestive evidence” linking the herbicide to Parkinson’s and ischemic heart disease. In the past, that has been enough evidence of a link to prompt benefits for some conditions but not for others.

The group Vietnam Veterans of America plans to write a letter to the secretary of veterans affairs, Eric K. Shinseki, asking for extended benefits, said Bernard Edelman, the organization’s deputy director for policy and government affairs.

The report notes that its conclusions about ischemic heart disease, a condition that restricts blood flow to the heart, causing irregular heartbeats and deterioration of the heart muscle, are still tentative because it is difficult to separate confounding risk factors like age, weight and the effects of smoking.

The link between Parkinson’s disease and Agent Orange is also uncertain because, while new studies have strengthened the connection between the condition and certain chemicals, there is still no data on veterans and the condition.

US doubles funds for Agent Orange cleanup

The United States government has doubled its funding for dealing with the environmental and health consequences of its wartime use in Vietnam of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange, the embassy said Friday.

President Barack Obama recently signed a bill increasing the funding from $3 million to $6 million, embassy officials said. Most of the money is being used in Danang, where U.S. troops used to mix and store Agent Orange at an Air Force base before loading it onto planes.

During the Vietnam war, which ended in 1975, the U.S. sprayed more than 20 million gallons (75 million liters) of Agent Orange and other herbicides across the country to strip Vietnamese guerrillas of ground cover and kill their crops.

Agent Orange contains dioxin, a highly toxic substance that remains in soil and sediment for years and poses a serious health threat to anyone who touches it.

Vietnam believes as many as 4 million people have suffered serious health problems from the herbicide, such as cancer, spina bifida and other birth defects. The U.S. says the actual number is probably far lower and that further scientific study is needed to understand the health impact. The U.S. and Vietnam only began working together in 2007 to address the consequences of Agent Orange after years of disagreement.

The embassy said in a statement that one third of the $6 million is being used for health programs to serve people in the Danang area. The rest will be used to remove dioxin from the soil and sediment near Danang airport.

The first $3 million in U.S. funds was allocated during the administration of George W. Bush. Some of that money was used to contain dioxin at the Danang site to prevent it getting into the water supply.

Friday's People's Army newspaper quoted Lai Minh Hien, a Vietnamese environmental official in charge of Agent Orange issues, as saying that Vietnam needs additional 1 trillion dong ($57 million) to clean up dioxin in Danang as well as at former U.S. air bases in Bien Hoa and Phu Cat.

Agent Orange woman writes Obama

Citing herself as a living evidence of the terrible impacts of dioxin during the Vietnam War, Tran Thi Hoan, 23, who is missing two legs to her knees and her left hand, has written a letter to US President Barack Obama.

Hoan and her small corner at Hoa Binh Village, HCM City.

Hoan is a second-year student at the HCM City University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT). She told VNExpress online newspaper that she wrote to President Obama a month ago, after the US Supreme Court once again rejected the petition of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA).

Dang Hong Nhut, the chief of HCM City Association for Victims of AO/Dioxin Office, said that Hoan’s letter was translated by a US-based relief association for Agent Orange victims and sent to the US President. An Agent Orange victim herself, Nhut didn’t have high hopes, but she said that at the least, the letter will supply the US President more reliable information about Agent Orange victims in Vietnam.

“It is very sad because once again, the voice of Vietnamese people who became disabled because of dioxin was ignored. I decided to write the letter when by chance I read on the internet a letter Obama sent to his daughters, in which he expressed his hope that all children in the world might be happy. I thought that he is sentimental, so I wrote the letter,” Hoan said.

Hoan said in September 2008, she and Dang Hong Nhat, the chief of the HCM City Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin Office, went to the US. After meetings with American lawyers, veterans and intellectuals, Hoan was convinced that many people in the US still pay attention to Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.
“At that time, I placed hope in the petition to the US Supreme Court, but finally it was refused,” she added. She was disappointed but she didn’t give up. Hoan said her letter to Obama expresses her innermost feelings. “I hope he will spend some time to read and think about Vietnamese Agent Orange victims,” Hoan said.
Hoan has been living in the Hoa Binh (Peace) Village, ran by the HCM City-based Tu Du Obstetrics Hospital, since she was 6. Her parents are farmers in Binh Thuan province. Her six brothers and sisters show no effects of dioxin poisoning, but, Hoan says, there are many other disabled children in her home village.
Because of her handicaps, when she reached school age, Hoan was not admitted by local schools. Luckily, someone advised Hoan’s parents to bring her to Hoa Binh Village, where the disabled child was accepted and where she has now lived for 17 years.
“After school hours, I help others to take care of kids living in the village,” Hoan said. In Hoa Binh Village, there are dozens of disabled children who are second, third and even fourth generation Agent Orange victims. Inside bodies handicapped by dioxin, their hearts still beat stronger than ever.
Hoan said she has been luckier than many other Agent Orange victims, and still hopes her small letter will reach President Obama.
VietNamNet/VNE

Vietnam War victims continue to suffer decades after conflict

VIETNAM: Legal battles continue for three million people affected by the dioxin deployed by US military
THE PRESENCE of and lust for American brands on the throbbing streets of Hanoi suggest the wounds of the Vietnam War have healed. Middle-class Vietnamese drive Fords to suburban malls for Gap gear and a KFC burger.
However, the consequences of the bitter 1969-1975 conflict remain a live political issue. A group that features prominently in the press here, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVAO), a state-sponsored organisation that represents three million Vietnamese suffering from contact with the dioxin, is facing a crunch decision in its long-running legal battle with US chemicals companies.
Having earlier this year lost their case against Agent Orange makers, including Dow and Monsanto, in the Brooklyn District Court and again at the US Court of Appeal, the group will file an appeal to the Supreme Court in September. The two firms supplied the dioxin to the US government, which has claimed sovereign immunity from prosecution for dropping millions of litres of Agent Orange - named for the orange labels on drums containing the liquid - to strip jungle sheltering Vietcong.
Activists admit that hopes are slim for a victory in the highest court in the USA, but they are playing a long game. "We may not win at the Supreme Court but we've won in the court of public opinion," says a Hanoi-based VAVAO campaigner who prefers not to be named.
He says that despite recent economic success, Vietnam can't afford to compensate local Agent Orange victims, beyond $50 million a year in state pensions for victims - "it's not enough," says the veteran. The constraints of Vietnam relative poverty means victims need the chemical companies' money. "Vietnam has so many things to solve after the war and Agent Orange is just one of them." The US-based Vietnam Agent Orange Relief Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC) believes the chemical companies should contribute to an overall US government settlement with victims, which would include a clean-up of "hot spots" - areas where the soil remains poisoned.
Several prominent US legislators are on the campaign's side - "they see it as an issue of morality," explains Merle Ratner, co-coordinator of VAORRC. But given the scale of any payout, progress is unlikely to be swift: the US Congress has already squabbled over how to assign $3 million in humanitarian aid marked for clean-up.
To keep the pressure on, a delegation of Vietnamese women will arrive in New York on September 29th for a 10-city speaking tour. Among them is a 21-year-old computer science student, Tràn Thi Hoàn. She says she will tell public and TV audiences how she was born without two legs and with an atrophied hand. One of the many children of those affected during the war, she's learned English in the 12 years she has spent in a residential Agent Orange treatment centre in Ho Chi Minh.
Vietnamese sufferers have vociferous allies in a core of US army veterans who also suffered from exposure to the dioxin. Bernie Duff, a Michigan-born army medic who suffers skin disorders from his exposure in 1969 and 1970, raises funds and awareness for Vietnamese children born with related defects. The 60-year-old Irish-American went back to Vietnam in 2006 to confront the nightmares which have haunted him since his service time. Seeing the needs of fellow Agent Orange victims, he stayed, and this year walked from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to raise money for a school caring for affected children.
Many of the Vietnam War victims have succumbed to cancer with "horrible defects", which in third-generation sufferers includes mangled bodies and over-sized heads, explains Ratner. Parents who give up their jobs to care for the children invariably slide into poverty.
Duff's goal is to build a training hospital in central Vietnam, easily accessible and staffed with doctors and specialised equipment for treating the Agent Orange victims. Though he is steering clear of the court case - "simply so we can appeal to all sides for help" - Duff is one of the veterans who took a class action suit against the chemical companies in the 1980s which ended in a lump sum payment (but rejection of responsibility) by the chemical companies. Most of the money was eaten up by legal fees. US veterans, however, got respite in 1991 with the passage of the Agent Orange Act, which deemed that Agent Orange illnesses could be considered service-related and covered by veteran health care.
Any compensation for the Vietnamese victims better be "substantial," says Merle Ratner. As an indication of the needs she points to the $30,000 being spent annually to treat each US veteran affected by Agent Orange. If the Supreme Court goes against them, VAORRC is preparing a Michael Moore-style campaign to target the chemical companies' well-advertised image as responsible multinational corporations. This may have some effect in throbbing Asian cities like Hanoi, a promised land for western multinationals. Dow and Monsanto have both opened offices in Vietnam.
© 2008 The Irish Times

Exposure To Agent Orange Linked To Prostate Cancer In Vietnam Veterans

UC Davis Cancer Center physicians today released results of research showing that Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange have greatly increased risks of prostate cancer and even greater risks of getting the most aggressive form of the disease as compared to those who were not exposed.
The findings, which appear online now and will be published in the September 15 issue of the journal Cancer, are the first to link the herbicide with this form of cancer. The research is also the first to utilize a large population of men in their 60s and the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to screen for the disease.
"While others have linked Agent Orange to cancers such as soft-tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, there is limited evidence so far associating it with prostate cancer," said Karim Chamie, lead author of the study and resident physician with the UC Davis Department of Urology and the VA Northern California Health Care System. "Here we report on the largest study to date of Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange and the incidence of prostate cancer."
Chamie also said that, unlike previous studies that were either too small or conducted on men who were too young, patients in the current study were entering their prime years for developing prostate cancer. There was also the added advantage that it was conducted entirely during the era of PSA screening, providing a powerful tool for early diagnosis and tracking of prostate cancer.
More than 13,000 Vietnam veterans enrolled in the VA Northern California Health Care System were stratified into two groups — exposed or not exposed to Agent Orange between 1962 and 1971. Based on medical evaluations conducted between 1998 and 2006, the study revealed that twice as many men exposed to Agent Orange were identified with prostate cancer. In addition, Agent Orange-exposed men were diagnosed two-and-a-half years younger and were nearly four times more likely to present with metastatic disease. Other prostate cancer risk factors — race, body-mass index and smoking — were not statistically different between the two groups.
"Our country's veterans deserve the best possible health care, and this study clearly confirms that Agent Orange exposure during service in Vietnam is associated with a higher risk of prostate cancer later in life," said Ralph deVere White, UC Davis Cancer Center director and a study co-author. "Just as those with a family history of prostate cancer or who are of African-American heritage are screened more frequently, so too should men with Agent Orange exposure be given priority consideration for all the screening and diagnostic tools we have at our disposal in the hopes of early detection and treatment of this disease."
Now a banned chemical, Agent Orange is a combination of two synthetic compounds known to be contaminated with the dioxin tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD) during the manufacturing process. Named for the color of the barrel in which it was stored, Agent Orange was one of many broad-leaf defoliants used in Vietnam to destroy dense forests in order to better visualize enemy activity.
It is estimated that more than 20 million gallons of the chemicals, also known as "rainbow herbicides," were sprayed between 1962 and 1971, contaminating both ground cover and ground troops. Most of the rainbow herbicide used during this time was Agent Orange. In 1997, the International Agency for Research on Cancer reclassified TCDD as a group 1 carcinogen, a classification that includes arsenic, asbestos and gamma radiation.
The study was funded by the UC Davis Cancer Center. In addition to Chamie and deVere White, study authors were Bryan Volpp, associate chief of staff, clinical informatics, VA Northern California Health Care System; Dennis Lee and Joon-ha Ok, UC Davis resident physicians with the Department of Urology; and Lars Ellison who, at the time the study was conducted, was an assistant professor with UC Davis and chief of urology with the VA Northern California Health Care System. Ellison is now affiliated with the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Maine and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve currently serving active duty in Iraq. A copy of the study can be requested by e-mailing Amy Molnar at .com.
Prostate cancer is the second most common malignancy and the second leading cause of cancer death in American men. It is estimated that there will be about 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2008 and about 28,660 men will die of the disease this year.

Agent orange town

THE Australian Army tested chemical weapons on a town which now has deaths from cancer 10 times the state average.
Military scientists sprayed the toxic defoliant Agent Orange in the jungle that is part of the water catchment area for Innisfail in Queensland's far north at the start of the Vietnam War.
The Sun-Herald last week found the site where military scientists tested Agent Orange in 1966. It is on a ridge little more 100 metres above the Johnstone River, which supplies the drinking water for Innisfail.
Forty years later the site - which abuts farmer Alan Wakeham's land - is still bare, covered only in tough Guinea grass, but surrounded by thick jungle.
"It's strange how the jungle comes right up to this site and then just stops. It won't grow any further," Mr Wakeham said.
Agent Orange was sprayed extensively in Vietnam to defoliate the jungle and remove cover for North Vietnamese troops. It contains chemicals including the dioxin TCDD, which causes forms of cancer, birth defects and other health problems.
Researcher Jean Williams found details of the secret Innisfail tests in the Australian War Memorial archives.
"These tests carried out between 1964 and 1966 were the first tests of Agent Orange and they were carried out at Gregory Falls near Innisfail," said Ms Williams, who has been awarded the Order of Australia Medal for her work on the effects of chemicals on Vietnam veterans.
"I was told there is a high rate of cancer there but no one can understand why. Perhaps now they will understand."
Ms Williams unearthed three boxes of damning files.
One file showed the chemicals 2,4-D, Diquat, Tordon and dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) were sprayed on the rainforest in the Gregory Falls area in June 1966.
The file carried the remarks: "Considered sensitive because report recommends use of 2,4-D with other agents in aerial spraying trials in Innisfail."
Ms Williams said: "It was considered sensitive because they were mixing together all the bad chemicals, which just made them worse. They cause all the cancers."
Ms Williams claims a file which could indicate much wider testing in a project called Operation Desert had gone missing. The contents were marked "too disturbing to ever be released".
"Those chemicals stay in the soil for years and every time there is a storm they are stirred up and go into the water supply," Ms Williams said.
"The poor people of Innisfail have been kept in the dark about this. But these chemicals cause cancer and deformities that are passed on for generations. It is shocking. I am just an 83-year-old war-weary battler. I don't want any more medals, I just want justice for the people of Innisfail."
read more-->>Agent orange town - National - smh.com.au

Agent Orange Work Progresses in Vietnam

More than three decades after the Vietnam War, the United States and Vietnam have just completed temporary steps to contain dioxin contamination at a former U.S. air base in Danang.
But the U.S. government, as well as U.S. foundations and corporations, should contribute more money to clean up the site permanently, members of a joint U.S.-Vietnamese working group on Agent Orange said Friday.

more-> The Associated Press: Agent Orange Work Progresses in Vietnam