Agent Orange Seminar in Napoleon held Saturday, April 6, 2003. The following is partial copy and paste from my report on the seminar the Ohio AMVET News.
"The seminar was jointly sponsored by AMVETS Post 1313 of Napoleon and the United Auto Workers local union at the Tenneco plant.
There was plenty of audience interaction with the presenter, AMVETS Department of Ohio State Service Officer (SSO) David Barker who is stationed at the Chillicothe VAMC.
The program began with a brief review of the speakers credentials followed by a review of the book In Search Of The Truth For The Vietnam Combat Veteran. There was in depth coverage of the diabetes type 2 and leukemia issues. SSO Barker reminded the veterans it was in 1991 that Army Scientist studies had linked diabetes and dioxin exposure. SSO Barker explained diabetes type 1 is usually referred to as juvenile diabetes and diabetes type 2 is often referred to as adult onset diabetes.
The Ohio AMVETS News had published an article on diabetes and herbicide exposure written by SSO Barker in 1986. The National Academy of Sciences did a comprehensive study again in 1998 and former Secretary Togo West rejected the study and had the issue revisited. The diabetes type 2 was again presented to the Acting, VA Secretary Herschel Gober in October of 2000 and Secretary Gober approved the condition November 9th of 2000.
After review of the book, SSO Barker brought several ignored issues to the forefront. He discussed the United States Air Force study released in 2000 which proves the Ranch Hand Study was severely flawed and showing a 26% higher rate of heart disorders in those veterans in the study comparison. SSO Barker has maintained for over a decade the probability of a direct relation of heart disorders and herbicide exposure.
There was also comparison of the birth defect issue which still remains stalled, even though the studies from the National Academy of Science, Institute of Medicine clearly show a higher ratio of incidence for Cerebral Palsy which has been ignored.
There are several issues regarding Agent Orange and additional birth defects, which more than likely, will be brought to the forefront in the next several years of study. Many people do not understand that birth defects are reported to the authorities, at the birth of the child. Thus many defects such as learning disabilities; or sensory impairments may not be discovered for months or years. As a result many birth defects go unreported and these children suffer as a result.
The current dioxin levels and profound health problems existing today in Vietnam was reviewed and the 2002 World Health Organization report was made available to those present. SSO Barker strongly recommended those with Internet access to use the available research on line, to obtain information to assist them in learning about the dangers of dioxin."
http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html#Exposed?

Dave Barker

[This message was edited by DaveBarker on Mon, 27 September 2004 at 2:42.]

The recent Supreme Court reviews concerning chemical company liability have nothing to do with the Agent Orange issues concerning the VA. It also has nothing to do with VA decisions regarding residual effects.
If you have a heart condition and were exposed to herbicides in Vietnam or Korea please let me know at;
dave.barker@med.VA.gov
Dave Barker
If you desire the books I have electronically available are:
http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html#Exposed?

[This message was edited by DaveBarker on Mon, 27 September 2004 at 2:43.]

Hello friends:
Due to problems with my 12 year old daughter and her obsession with e-mail I had to disconnect my home computer. Please e-mail me through my office:

dave.barker@med.VA.gov

my hubby died 4 years ago in the va hospital. they said he died of natural causes but all he had was a sore throat. last I new that won't kill ya. he was exposed in vietnam he was a tank driver and had scares and rashes from agent orange dripping down in the tank.

Have you read my book on Agent Orange? Also my book on the Persian Gulf? Please read my website and e-mail me so we can work on your issues.
http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html#Exposed?

DaveBarker

PTSD Forum Moderator

Registered: Tuesday, 12 November 2002
Posts: 1041
The Heart of Agent Orange
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1984 I filed a claim for service connected compensation for a heart condition as a residual of exposure to Agent Orange for several clients. After all I had in my possession reports of the tests results of rats exposed to herbicides 2,3,67-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. There was mention of heart damage as well as other recognized conditions. Those claims were denied. Any condition not recognized by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, will by law be denied.
Finally a scientific study was done in Vietnam to determine the affects on human population regarding the use of Agent Orange. The study has not been developed in this nation for the benefit of those veterans exposed while on active duty. It is apparent to me there has been significant downplay to outright ignoring the studies.
We shall review briefly these studies made by independent sources. Dr. Hoang Dinh Cau, chairman of the government-supported National Committee for Investigation of the Consequences of Chemicals Used in the Vietnam War, known as the 10-80 Committee, has studied the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnamese people over two decades. Dr. Cau is not as guarded as others at Tu Du Hospital in discussing the use of the herbicide, which contained dioxin, a contaminant many Western researchers called the most toxic chemical discovered by mankind so far.
This was also stated in my book IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH FOR VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS. The original essay “Poison: Agent Orange” published by The Ohio AMVET in 1983 is the chapter with that statement.
"We have recognized many kinds of birth defects associated with dioxin," Dr. Cau said, opening up a book with photographs of Vietnamese civilians identified as Agent Orange victims. Several of the photos depict badly deformed infants.
The children in Vietnam suffer a broad range of birth defects: many have unformed limbs, others are mentally handicapped and those with extremely enlarged heads. In a Vietnam hospital were found a pair of teenage boys, Siamese twins separated several years ago, are two of the ward's older patients. One boy moves about the third-floor in the ward riding a wheelchair, the brother, legless and with one arm, receives attention from staff members.
Vietnamese scientists and government officials believe the children, along with hundreds of thousands of other Vietnamese are victims of the massive amounts of Agent Orange herbicide that US forces dumped on South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
The US military used 19 million gallons of herbicides - including more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange - between 1962 and 1971 during Operation Ranch Hand, which was intended to destroy forest cover used by Viet Cong guerrillas and, to a lesser extent, crops thought be useful to the insurgents or their sympathizers. US forces sprayed defoliants over an area that represented between 14 and 18 percent of South Vietnam.
Vietnamese researchers, as well as some of their Western colleagues, know that the more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange that the US military introduced to South Vietnamese ecosystems created a public-health nightmare from which Vietnam has not recovered.
Vietnamese scientists believe the dioxin contamination has caused not only birth defects, but also respiratory cancers, heart problems and diabetes. In 2000 the US Air Force released a study indicating a link between Agent Orange exposure and diabetes and heart disease.
Pilot surveys conducted by Vietnamese researchers in December 1998 found that between 800,000 and 1 million Vietnamese had Agent Orange related health problems, in a report released in 1999 by Dr. Le Cao Dai, executive director of the Agent Orange Victims Fund of the Vietnam Red Cross. As much as 100,000 of those affected by the herbicide suffered some form of birth defect, the surveys found.
The United States thus far has nothing to do with research, into the connection between Agent Orange spraying and health problems among Vietnamese. The US government has dismissed without review the accuracy and reliability of Vietnamese studies on Agent Orange.
Vietnamese researchers never will be able to arrive at reliable estimates, of how many people died as a result of Agent Orange. Dr. Cau, however, said research conducted by the 10-80 Committee suggested that about 15 percent of those who had been born with Agent Orange-related birth defects were already dead.
It's been over 30 years since the United States stopped using Agent Orange. The seriously ill patients have already died.
Dr. Caus' 10-80 Committee was so named because it was founded in October 1980. It is the only Vietnamese organization to attempt systematic research into the effects of Agent Orange. Dr. Cau said the Vietnamese government had tried studying the mysterious herbicides that the United States used as far back as 1965, but lacked the resources and knowledge to do so effectively. "The Vietnamese Army never used Agent Orange, so they had no experts to study it," he said.
Vietnamese researchers now know that the dioxin from Agent Orange continues to affect Vietnamese born long after the war because it moves up the food chain, accumulating in higher concentrations as it goes.
According to Dr. Dai's report, 85 to 90 percent of the dioxin detected in the Vietnamese comes from contaminated food. After an area was sprayed, the report explains, the dioxin from Agent Orange contaminated organic matter in soil as well as river and lake mud. Animals, fish and shrimp then ingested some of the soil and mud and became contaminated. Humans, in turn, were exposed to dioxin when they consumed contaminated animal, fish or shrimp products.
Dioxin reaches human fetuses through the mother's placenta. After the mother gives birth, she can pass dioxin to her newborn through her breast milk. Agent Orange was restricted in the United States. This is covered in chapter 2 of IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH FOR VIETNAM COMBAT VETERANS.
Testing for dioxin is a difficult and expensive procedure. One dioxin test costs about $700 in Vietnam, which can quickly destroy budgets of Vietnamese researchers.
Since the mid 1980’s, Western scientists have assisted Vietnamese researchers in conducting tests to measure dioxin levels in soil and river mud, in the food supply, and in human fat, blood and breast milk.
People living in sprayed areas as well as the Northern Vietnamese who served in the South during the war have higher levels of dioxin in their bodies than those who have always lived in non-sprayed areas in the North. A study of human fat tissue in 1984-'85 found that dioxin levels in people who lived in sprayed areas of South Vietnam were 10 times higher than in people living in the North, and two to three times higher than in people residing in industrialized nations.
A 1988 World Health Organization study comparing levels of dioxin in breast milk worldwide found that nursing South Vietnamese women had significantly higher levels of the contaminant in their breast milk than their counterparts in Hanoi and in industrial countries. Breast milk from one heavily sprayed area had a level of dioxin eight times higher than samples taken from those in Hanoi, and almost five times higher than samples taken from women in the United States.
According to Dai's report, more recent tests have shown that dioxin levels in the environment and human tissues have decreased over time, while dioxins in commonly used foods have returned to normal.
Dai wrote in his report that areas around former US air bases remain dioxin hot spots. His concerns about base sites are predicated partly on a 1998 environmental assessment of an area around a former US Special Forces base in Aluoi province.
In a report release by the United States Air Force in 2000 stated “this research, constituted the first systematic environmental assessment of residual dioxins in Vietnam.” This was according to David Levy, a scientist involved in the Vietnam study who is vice president for Hatfield Consultants Ltd.
"In one area around the site of the former base, dioxins are present in duck fat and fish fat at high levels," Levy said. Similar concentrations in Canada trigger a regulatory response, such as food consumption advisories and closure of commercial fisheries.
Levy also supports more outside help for research on the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
He said that Vietnam, with the contrast between the unsprayed North and sprayed South, provides what may be the best natural laboratory in the world to study links between exposure to the herbicide and health problems.
In terms of epidemiology, both prospective studies, similar to the US Air Force Ranch Hand study, and retrospective studies, similar to those carried out by Vietnamese medical scientists, should be done, Levy said.
Dr. Cau of Vietnam's 10-80 Committee is not too optimistic about the possibility of establishing causal links that would measure up to Western scientific standards. "A long time has already passed," he said. "Mitigation of Agent Orange's effects on human health and the environment is the goal now."
It is time the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to request the National Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Medicine, to complete research on effects of Agent Orange and the heart. Then properly assist those exposed, or their survivors, to receive just compensation.
Dave Barker
posted Fri, 19 September 03 03:08

ttydog
Member

Registered: Saturday, 19 July 2003
Posts: 106
Heart
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dave,
That is real interesting. I've got scare tissue in two places on my heart. Dr. said I had two heart attacks. Must have been silent, didn't know I had them.
posted Sat, 14 February 04 21:25

Click on the link, then go to Agent Orange Heart 2.
http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html#Exposed?

Thank you for the link to your site. This is quite an interesting issue. It never occured to me that Thailand had been a testing ground for this. Now that I'm researching it I'm finding tons of articles out there confirming the use of Agent Orange in Thailand between 1964 and 1965. It sounds like it will be quite a battle ahead, but I'm ready.

Dave,
I thought this was common knowledge that Agent Orange was used on USAF bases in Thailand. Apparently it isn't from what you say. I know of four USAF Vets (personally) that have/had cancer and all served on USAF bases in Thailand, and one claims to be compensated for it.

What It Takes Is A Little Courage.

I was asked a question by a USAF veteran who served in Thailand in the late 1960's early 70' period, should there be a concern of cancer? Recently he learned of cancers being reported in USAF veterans, who were stationed in Thailand, during the Vietnam war. His question "could these veterans have been exposed to certain herbicides we generally refer to as Agent Orange?" My answer "there is certainly concern."
The "powers that be" since my earliest days of being involved with Agent Orange issues have attempted to deny or limit the dangers of Agent Orange. It seems as if every person who tried to bring the dangers of dioxin poisoning of American troops in Southeast Asia, to the forefront was discredited by the VA, some veterans groups and the various political administrations. This was both Democrats and Republicans as well.
In 1977 at the Whitehall VFW Post 8794 (Columbus Ohio) we organized a group to assist Vietnam veterans who were having problems with unusual conditions in very young adults. We met with strong opposition from some veterans and equal strong support from others.
Involved with that group were several veterans who did not go "in-country" but were in Thailand. Of those who were in Thailand several had similar problems as those who were "in-country" Vietnam. A common thread was they claimed to have been working on C-130's. These C-130's may have or may not have had Agent Orange aboard. I attempted to obtain direct answers but could never link an individual veteran with a specific aircraft. Records of maintenance were not available.
The Agent Orange issue nearly got me fired in 1984. After I had published my first article regarding Agent Orange in 1983. The essay is chapter 2 of my book IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH FOR THE VIETNAM COMBAT VETERAN. "Poison: Agent Orange" was the article involved.
After the article was published in the OHIO AMVET News, the Veterans Service Office director asked me if I was the author of the article. He was holding the paper and pointing to my name. The director then read the title of the article, my name and stated it included Franklin County VSO. He said it was wrong for me to link the office with false information and accused me of "printing lies" he then told me if he saw my name linked with the "trash" again he would fire me.
The veterans commission supported his position. The next several articles appeared in the Ohio VFW, Ohio AMVETS and VVA paper were without my by-line. It was only after he retired did my by-lines appear again.
During the 1980’s many of my fellow VSO’s avoided being seen with me at meetings. Although many would catch me when others were not around to ask questions regarding Agent Orange. Over the next decade, as the issues I pushed in the late 1970’s and early 80’s, began to be recognized as residuals of Agent Orange, things changed quite a bit. A few of the employees in the VA Regional Office even began sending their contacts to me for representation.
In my opinion, as a result of early desire to "nip it in the bud" as Barney Fife used to say, any USAF comparison was destroyed. Operation Ranch Hand was flawed when I read it in the 1980's. I said so in print, in 1983. In the year 2000, the USAF admitted 17 years after my article, the Operation Ranch Hand was indeed flawed.
I honestly believe people were at least exposed to Agent Orange in Thailand by direct contact with equipment used in spraying missions. I do not have any evidence there was any Agent Orange sprayed in the area; but, I am not so sure, there was no Agent Orange sprayed in or around Thailand either. It is an unanswered issue.


http://www.geocities.com/dave_barker_amvet/index.html

dave.barker@med.VA.gov

I have found an interesting letter from May 2003 to Secretary Rumsfeld from Congressman Lane Evans. He's asking for a full and open disclosure of the herbicides used and their locations. As many veterans are still having claims denied.

Here's the link:

http://veterans.house.gov/democratic/press/108th/5-9-03rumsfeld

Here's a copy of the letter since the link didn't work.


NEWS FROM….

CONGRESSMAN LANE EVANS
RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER
COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES



Room 333 Cannon HOB For More Information Contact:
Washington, DC 20515 Mary Ellen Mc Carthy @ 202-225-9756
FOR RELEASE: May 7, 2003


Evans Asks Secretary Rumsfeld for Information Concerning Agent Orange and Similar Herbicide Usage in Guam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Puerto Rico and Various Locations in the United States

Veterans Need Access to Information to Establish VA Claims Related to Herbicide Exposure

Washington, DC – Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, the Ranking Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has asked Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld for information concerning the use and storage of Vietnam-era herbicides such as Agent Orange, Agent Blue, and Agent White at the Anderson Air Force Base at Yigo, Guam. Evans has been contacted by veterans who report that these herbicides were used in Guam during the Vietnam era. Evans also provided the Secretary with a report which indicates that dioxin has been found in soil at the Air Force Base.

Evans also asked the Secretary for an assessment of the use, testing or storage of Agent Orange, Agent Blue, Agent Purple, Agent White or other herbicides which contain dioxin at locations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Puerto Rico and various locations in the United States. U.S. locations include sites in Maryland, Florida, Texas, California, Georgia, Mississippi, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Washington. Evans cautions that the amount of herbicides used in some of these locations may have been small amounts for short term testing and may present no danger to populations.

Evans notes that veterans who are claiming service-connection of disabilities which have been associated with herbicide exposure have had serious difficulty in proving exposure. “If the Department of Defense has evidence that herbicides were used in particular areas, during specific periods of time, that information should be made public so that affected veterans may receive appropriate assistance in establishing their claims,” said Evans. Evans complained, “It is more than 30 years since many of the herbicides were used, yet veterans are still having claims denied because the Department of Defense has not been forthcoming with information concerning the locations where veterans may have been exposed. It is well past the time for full and open disclosure.”

I would suspect so, but I think it was the other chemical in the mix ... 2-butoxyethanol

Earls Woods (Vietnam Vet)
Tiger Woods' dad

Vietnam Vets : Earls Woods - Tiger Woods' dad


Earls Woods was a Vietnam Vet. I suspect his chemical of harm was 2-butoxyethanol, although that would not be recognized by our Nation. I believe he would be helped by glyconutrient food supplements.


"Earls Woods first was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, but the cancer returned in 2004 and spread to other parts of his body. He has not seen his son play since Woods won his Target World Challenge in December 2004 at Sherwood Country Club."


This chemical does not spread to other parts of the body as much as it targets multiple organs and body systems at the same time

Margaret Diann

If you go to my website (links in the menu) and read my new book, you will find an article I did on Benzene and JP fuel. There is also an article in the Disability Compensation forum in Health and Fitness.
There were many chemicals used in the various conflicts. JP fuels have been in use quite some time. Benzene has been a poison problem as long as gasoline has been.
Thanks for your post.

!