Agent Orange Update

[allan]

Agent Orange Update

Finally; at last a non-government association that receives no money or grants from our government is speaking out and maybe it just might be some good news on our Herbicide Issues. I say maybe; because the long arm of our cover-up the mistakes no matter how many Veterans/Widows/Offspring it may have damaged government still might get to them. As they have in the past with others that tried to report the real facts.

I will let you read for yourselves the report being presented to Congress.

Now as in the past will they do nothing except enable the cover-ups by DoD and VA? My guess is yes they will do NOTHING! Except say we need better communications as they have in the past when even government scientists brought forth issues. And Veterans elect the same folks time after time?????

That link is located at:

http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com/Chas/impactAO.htm

U.S. Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange:

National Organization on Disability

With funding from the Ford Foundation

Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin

June 1, 2009

Already some of the Veterans Groups you pay your dues to so they can supposedly represent you have all of sudden after seeing this report are jumping on the bandwagon. I would point out that these same groups have remained silent for at least 40 years when they should have been demanding and not just whispering the issues. Especially since our congress has somehow deemed they alone speak for the entire Veterans Community. All so assuming at least on face value that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs has no influence in your “so called” representation with your real representation.

I am sure these VSO’s will now all of sudden come out of the woodwork with demands; all be it a façade or not after 40 years of silence will be up to you to decide.

Also in this report you will find issues and facts that will never be reported on the broadcast media or in the print media. ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN would never bring these issues to the forefront of the public in their lack of concern for what our own government has done to its Veterans and the civilian population in general. Yes, as Dr. Birnbaum concluded in her presentation “Are We All At Risk” from these toxic chemicals regardless of source and the byproduct of dioxins; the answer was yes. While diminished some since the mandates were tightened in the 80’s and 90’s for control and banning of some of these products and the environment improvements of residuals from that time of infancy of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) when the chemical companies and their representatives with millions in lobby money practically ran the fledgling EPA.

Birth Defects:

From:

Betty Mekdeci

Executive Director

Birth Defect Research for Children

http://www.birthdefects.org/

800 Celebration Ave., Suite 225

Celebration FL 34747

407-566-8304 Fax 407-566-8341

Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Oct;35(5):1220-30. Epub 2006 Mar 16. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->

Comment in: Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Oct;35(5):1230-2.

Association between Agent Orange and birth defects: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ngo AD, Taylor R, Roberts CL, Nguyen TV.

School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, USA.

BACKGROUND: The association between parental exposure to Agent Orange or dioxin and birth defects is controversial, due to inconsistent findings in the literature. The principal aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of relevant epidemiological studies that examined this association and to assess the heterogeneity among studies. METHODS: Relevant studies were identified through a computerized literature search of Medline and Embase from 1966 to 2002; reviewing the reference list of retrieved articles and conference proceedings; and contacting researchers for unpublished studies. A specified protocol was followed to extract data on study details and outcomes. Both fixed-effects and random-effects models were used to synthesize the results of individual studies. The Cochrane Q test and index of heterogeneity (I2) were used to evaluate heterogeneity, and a funnel plot and Egger's test were used to evaluate publication bias.

RESULTS: In total, 22 studies including 13 Vietnamese and nine non-Vietnamese studies were identified. The summary relative risk (RR) of birth defects associated with exposure to Agent Orange was 1.95 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.59-2.39], with substantial heterogeneity across studies. Vietnamese studies showed a higher summary RR (RR = 3.00; 95% CI 2.19-4.12) than non-Vietnamese studies (RR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.04-1.59). Sub-group analyses found that the magnitude of association tended to increase with greater degrees of exposure to Agent Orange, rated on intensity and duration of exposure and dioxin concentrations measured in affected populations.

http://www.2ndbattalion94thartillery.com:8...s/AOupdatec.htm