Iom

[Jerrel]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Joellenbeck, Lois

Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 2:36 PM

Cc: Joellenbeck, Lois

Subject: new IOM study on Shipboard Hazard and Defense

***We invite you to share this announcement of a new study at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) with other interested individuals or organizations***

In response to the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2010 and an ensuing request from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the IOM has assembled a committee of experts to conduct an epidemiological study comparing the health status of the SHAD veterans with a comparison population. This study will build on knowledge gained from a prior study conducted by IOM between 2003 and 2007.

As part of the data collection process, the committee will plan and conduct meetings to receive suggestions and input from SHAD veterans about their experiences so that the study can be informed by the insights of these veterans.

The first meeting of the Committee on Shipboard Hazard and Defense will take place on January 19-20, 2012, in Washington , DC. A second meeting is planned for February 23-24, 2012 in California .

The charge to the committee and a list of the membership of the committee is available at http://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=IOM-BSP-10-08 and at an IOM study site: http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Veterans/SHADII.aspx

Background

From 1962 to 1973, more than 5,800 military personnel, mostly Navy personnel and Marines, participated in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) -- a series of tests of U.S. warship vulnerability to biological and chemical warfare agents. Only some of the involved military personnel were aware of these tests at the time. Many of these tests used simulants, which are substances with the physical properties of chemical or biological warfare agents, that were thought at the time to be harmless. The existence of these tests came to light many decades later.

In 2007, the Institute of Medicine ’s Medical Follow-up Agency (MFUA) published a report on the long term health effects of participation in Project SHAD, based on the results of a health survey (the report is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11900). In the new study, an expert committee will work in conjunction with IOM's MFUA and build on knowledge gained from the previous IOM study. The SHAD II study will use the established list of SHAD participants and the comparison population determined from the prior study.

The results of the study will be reported in a brief IOM report by the study committee and an analytic paper for publication.

Input can be provided to the committee through written comments and materials submitted over the course of the study, and through brief presentations at the committee meetings that will be held in January and February 2012.

Written materials can be submitted to the committee through the IOM staff at the postal address shown below. Please note that any comments or materials submitted to the committee in paper or electronic form will normally become part of the study’s public record.

Questions about the study or providing materials for the committee’s consideration should be directed to study director Lois Joellenbeck (ljoellen@nas.edu) or program associate Jon Sanders (jsanders@nas.edu).

Lois Joellenbeck, Dr.P.H.

Study Director

Institute of Medicine

The National Academies

500 Fifth St. N.W.

Washington, DC 20001

202-334-1715

ljoellen@nas.edu

[carlie]

Jerrel,

You need to start taking better care of yourself - because it looks like 112/SHAD vets might finally get a leg up.

It's about damned time - I thought IOM did studies on this a decade ago.

[Testvet]

Carlie the original studies like the Edgewood studies were flawed in that they ignored many of the known problems, like cardiac conditions, and totally ignored the toxic materials in the water wells that the EPA forced the Army to cap in 1978 and made them use bottled water until they could get a new water source piped in from the White Mountains the studies are only as good as the people doing them and how much material m they look at

[Jerrel]

Carlie the original studies like the Edgewood studies were flawed in that they ignored many of the known problems, like cardiac conditions, and totally ignored the toxic materials in the water wells that the EPA forced the Army to cap in 1978 and made them use bottled water until they could get a new water source piped in from the White Mountains the studies are only as good as the people doing them and how much material m they look at

Thank you Testvet the last IOM study was not much help and was so full of misinformation that it was not any help to any one and i

am hoping that this study will be better however as of yet i just can see another three years gone and more Veterans will die..jc

[Jerrel]

Jerrel,

You need to start taking better care of yourself - because it looks like 112/SHAD vets might finally get a leg up.

It's about damned time - I thought IOM did studies on this a decade ago.

Thank you Carlie I sure am trying to take care of my self and yes there was a IOM study sometime back these studies

seen to wast more time another three years and some more extension with the Project 112/SHAD Veterans dieing with

out slowing down at all I sure hope that this study is a lot better then the last one..jc

[carlie]

Sounds like the prior studies were more likely than not millions of dollars paid

to Mr VBA's uncle's - brother's - second cousin, who had the right pedigree

to get the grant (financing) to do the studies, and was allowed to do - a piss-poor job of it -

but still got paid.

[Berta]

One never knows what the IOM might conclude after studies.

I just used their last sentence here from the link, but the AO list has grown a lot over the past years due to IOM studies so maybe SHAD/112 vets will finally have a break thorough with further IOM studies.

But that is hard to count on.

“Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2010

Released:

September 29, 2011

Type:

Consensus Report

Topics:

Veterans Health, Environmental Health

Activity:

Review of the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides (Eighth) Biennial Update

Board:

Board on the Health of Select Population

“Great strides have been made over the last several years in understanding the health effects of exposure to the herbicides used in Vietnam, but there are still many lingering questions. In the 2010 update, the committee recommends that the VA search its own records to look for possible associations between Vietnam service and specific health outcomes, specifically those that are relatively uncommon. The only modification made in this update to disease entries in the categories of association is the notation that early-onset peripheral neuropathy (a condition which has been recognized since Update 1996 as having limited or suggestive evidence of an association with herbicide exposure and must have developed within a year of exposure) is not necessarily transitory. The IOM continues to recommend that laboratory research be conducted to characterize Agent Orange’s potential for inducing epigenetic modifications. Work needs to be undertaken to resolve questions regarding several health outcomes, most importantly COPD, tonsil cancer, melanoma, brain cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and paternally transmitted effects to offspring.”

http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2011/Veterans-and-Agent-Orange-Update-2010.aspx