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Agent Orange

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Dioxin Contamination in Vietnam

THE DOGS OF WAR

(sorry for the quality of the photo)

Quantities of Documented Herbicides Used in Vietnam

Agent Gallons

Orange ----------------------------------------------------- 12,066,804

White ------------------------------------------------------- 5,430,462

Blue -------------------------------------------------------- 1,252,541

Pink -------------------------------------------------------- 13,291

Purple ------------------------------------------------------ 500,018

Unspecified* ------------------------------------------------ 227,538

Total -------------------------------------------------------- 19,490,690

* About 8% (767) of all recored missions did not specify a specific herbicide agent. Of these, 474 were perimeter spray that involved comparatively small volumes and were most likely Agent Orange. The remainder of the missions with "unknown herbicide" also had high probability of being Agent Orange. These data do not include the small quanities of dinoxol and trinoxol tested in 1961 in Vietnam.

Birth Defects in the Children of Vietnam Veterans

Birth Defects in the Children of Vietnam Veterans

Submitted by joessoft on Sat, 11/27/2004 - 00:00. Facts About Agent Orange The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), under one of two separate programs, provides monetary allowances, health care specific to the disability and vocational training, if reasonably feasible, to the biological children of Vietnam veterans born with certain birth defects. The child must have been conceived after the date on which the veteran first entered the Republic of Vietnam.

Spina Bifida

This benefit is applicable to the biological child of a Vietnam veteran (male or female) diagnosed with any form and manifestation of spina bifida, except spina bifida occulta. For the purposes of this benefit, a veteran parent of a child diagnosed with spina bifida must have served "in country" in Vietnam during the period beginning on January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975. Benefits are paid at three levels based on the level of severity.

Other Birth Defects

VA also provides benefits to the biological children of women Vietnam veterans diagnosed with certain birth defects, as identified by the Secretary of VA, associated with the mother's service in Vietnam during the period beginning on February 28, 1961, and ending on May 7, 1975. Covered birth defects under this benefit do not include conditions due to familial disorders, birth-related injuries or fetal or neonatal infirmities with well established causes. Benefits are paid at four levels depending on the child's degree of permanent disability.

Covered birth defects include, but are not limited to, the following (however, if a birth defect is determined to be familial in a particular family, it will not be a covered birth defect):

. Achondroplasia

. Cleft lip and cleft palate

. Congenital heart disease

. Congenital talipes equinovarus (clubfoot)

. Esophageal and intestinal atresia

. Hallerman-Streiff syndrome

. Hip dysplasia

. Hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis

. Hypospadias

. Imperforate anus

. Neural tube defects (including spina bifida, encephalocele, and

anencephaly)

. Poland syndrome

. Pyloric stenosis

. Syndactyly (fused digits)

. Tracheoesophageal fistula

. Undescended testicle

. Williams syndrome

The Agent

I am the reminder.
I am a herald of sorrow and anguish.
Pain and misery precede me on my appointed rounds.
I collect on debts owed. I am the keeper of receipts.
My list of diagnosis grows. I grow.
I am the Agent.

Through the years my disguises are many.
The result is the same.
I am irresistible, unstoppable, though once preventable, now terminal.
Final.
Look here to the dark angel of a generation misguided and mismanaged.
I am the way to this inglorious and undeserved end.
I have the last word.
I am the Agent.

I am the instrument of early demise ongoing.
I am a corrupter of men's ideal and intentions.
I am the Agent.

Some will escape me. Not many. All will know of me.
I know whom I have gotten and who yet remains.
I have the last word.
I am the Agent. I am dioxin. I am Agent Orange.

An Agent Orange Poem by:
Paul L. Norton, USMC 68-69
Vietnam Combat Veteran

Possible Link: Agent Orange and Diabetes

The Department of Defense released recently the latest report of the Air Force Health Study on the health effects of exposure to herbicides in Vietnam, which includes the strongest evidence to date that Agent Orange is associated with adult-onset diabetes. This supports the findings from earlier reports in 1992 and 1997. The Air Force Health Study summarizes the results of the 2002 physical examination of 1,951 veterans, which is the final examination of the 20-year epidemiological study. Since the first examination in 1982, the Air Force has tried to determine whether long-term health effects exist in the Ranch Hand pilots and ground crews, and if these effects can be attributed to the herbicides used in Vietnam, mainly Agent Orange and its contaminant, dioxin. Results from the 2002 physical examination support adult-onset diabetes as the most important health problem seen in the Air Force Health Study. They suggest that as dioxin levels increase, not only are the presence and severity of adult-onset diabetes increased, but the time until the onset of the disease is decreased. The report, along with many other studies on herbicide and dioxin exposure, will be reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences. Based upon this review, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs can ask Congress for legislation on disability compensation and health care. The report is available on the Air Force Health Study website.

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