Military Personnel War Zone Toxic Exposure Prevention Act

[allan]

Military Personnel War Zone Toxic Exposure Prevention Act

Take Action!

Please Contact Your Representative Today Please contact your Representative today and urge him or her to cosponsor the ''Military Personnel War Zone Toxic Exposure Prevention Act'' (H.R. 2419). This important legislation requires the Secretary of Defense to establish a medical surveillance system to identify members of the Armed Forces exposed to chemical hazards resulting from the disposal of waste in Iraq and Afghanistan, and prohibits the disposal of waste by the Armed Forces in a manner that would produce dangerous levels of toxins. For the past century, in nearly every war that America has asked her sons and daughters to fight, there has proven to be dangers on the battlefield that went beyond injuries-dangers that have nonetheless left their disabling mark on hundreds of thousands of veterans. Whether from the mustard gas fields of World War I, to frostbite and radiological diseases in World War II and Korea, or to the relentless spraying of dioxin containing herbicides in Vietnam; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are shaping up no differently. In each previous conflict, the Government took decades before recognizing such dangers; we now have a chance to stop this cycle of disregard. Since the beginning of the current conflicts, our troops have been exposed to toxins produced in part by dozens of enormous burn pits; some so large that they consume upwards of 250 tons of waste every day. Every imaginable form of waste has been burned in these pits, from petroleum products, to unknown chemicals, plastics, rubber, Styrofoam, even medical waste containing body parts. In the recent months since this issue has become public, hundreds of current and former service members have contacted the DAV explaining how thick and noxious the resulting fumes were. Many have relayed to us that their living and working environments were intolerable to such a degree as to cause uncontrollable coughing so intense that it lead to vomiting, or vomiting so hard to nearly produce loss of consciousness. If passed, H.R. 2419 will ensure the government lives up to its responsibility of finding those exposed, investigating current and future illness in those exposed, and preventing further illness by putting an end to these careless and irresponsible procedures. However, in order for this to happen, we need your help to carry this message to Congress. Contact your House representatives immediately to urge him or her to support and cosponsor the "Military Personnel War Zone Toxic Exposure Prevention Act'' (H.R. 2419). Please send the prepared email to your member of Congress.

[john999]

This just shows DAV's preoccupation with younger vets as that is where the dues money is going to come from in the future. DAV has not even solved the blue water vets status who were exposed to AO.

[allan]

I wonder when they'll look into the vaccines, fuels & bio-testing they did on Vietnam Era Vets as well?

[Testvet]

when is hell freezing over? They don't care about exposures to Nam era and before exposures, look at SHAD/112, the atomic vets, WW2 Chemical weapons experiments at Edgewood etc, they just want us to hurry up and die