By I have to wonder if Senator Coburn made this statement in response to recent Agent Orange claims from Steve House?
More than 84,000 Vietnam veterans afflicted with heart disease, Parkinson’s disease or B-cell leukemia are drawing disability compensation today thanks to a decision by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki to expand the list of ailments presumed caused by exposure to herbicides, including Agent Orange, used during that war.
Another 74,000 veterans have claims pending, and will only need to show VA that they set foot in Vietnam and have one of the diseases added last year to the list of Agent Orange “presumptive” conditions.
Though these payments comfort veterans and their families, they have upset some Republican senators who argue they are “unfair” to fellow veterans and taxpayers, and drive up VA compensation claims at a time when budgets are tightening and needs are expanding for new veterans.
These senators argue the Agent Orange Act of 1991 is flawed, providing too much authority to the VA secretary and allowing compensation awards based on a mere “association” between a disease and herbicide exposure rather than evidence that exposure “caused” the ailments.
“We are transferring a half million dollars to veterans under this decision by Secretary Shinseki for people who weigh 350 pounds, smoke three packs of cigarettes a day, and have hypercholesterolemia because they will not take their medicine,” Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) complained to colleagues during floor debate on his recent amendment to tighten the law. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
5:05 pm on August 12th, 2011 1
Coburn is right. With all of the other stuff these folks are doing to themselves, to claim Agent Orange is to blame is ludicrous.
5:08 pm on August 12th, 2011 2
And it takes away from the plight of those truly affected by TCDD…
7:27 am on August 13th, 2011 3
#1 & 2: Concur. The USAF personnel who handled and sprayed this stuff have a lower incidence of “agent orange” maladies. This despite often being covered from head to toe in the stuff and some units having an initiation rite requiring noobs to drink a coffee cup full of the chemical!
The real sad thing is most/many of the vets suffering from “agent orange” problems probably really are hurting. But since someone decided to go after a cash cow (the manufacturer) we’ll probably never know what is the real cause(s).
8:33 am on August 13th, 2011 4
Now vets are coming out claiming Agent Orange was buried in Okinawa:http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110813a1.html
2:03 am on August 14th, 2011 5
#3,
Well, it depends if one of the reactions during the production of n-Butyl ester 2,4,5-T was allowed to go above 180 C. If it was, then one of the products of the reaction was a highly toxic dioxin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin
Dioxins bind with key receptors in our cells (Ahr receptors). Once this is done, the molecule can affect DNA expression within those cells.
Furthermore, according to my sources, they stopped using n-Butyl ester 2,4,5-T in pesticides after 1968 because of the high risk for contamination.
So, it’s possible that some people were only exposed to a “safe” batch of those pesticides, if there is such a thing.
6:24 pm on August 14th, 2011 6
#5 If this is the case (and I’m not doubting you) the Ranch Hand crews should still be much more disease prone than the remaining population of Vietnam vets.
7:51 pm on August 14th, 2011 7
#6,
The thing about 180C? It’s correct. They were negligent in the fact that they didn’t properly control the chemical reactions during production. They probably used more heat than needed because it sped up the reactions.
Wacky things happen when you add too much heat to a reaction. It’s Chemistry 101.
Are stats being kept on ranch hands? Whether their illnesses were caused by dioxins or not, they’d still get benefits one way or another. Vietnam vets are now senior citizens, don’t forget.