SAN FRANCISCO (AP)
Under VA regulations, veterans
do not have to prove they were
exposed to Agent Orange or other
herbicides containing the toxic
substance dioxin.
In fact, anyone
who served in the war is
automatically presumed to have
been exposed to it.
A
1989 court ruling in the case
voided all VA benefit decisions it
had made based on the agency's
assertion that only the skin
disease chloracne was linked to
Agent Orange.
Although
the VA has since recognized that a
variety of cancers are connected
to the defoliant, it has failed to
review claims made prior to the
1989 ruling and continued to
insist that benefit applicants
state that their disability
resulted from exposure to Agent
Orange, the court found.
``We agree with plaintiffs that the VA´s approach is inconsistent with both the spirit and intent of this court's decision, as well as the liberal nature of the VA's own claims process,'' U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson wrote.
``The court expected that the VA would revisit those benefit decisions that had been erroneously decided under the invalidated regulations,'' he said. The plaintiffs wanted the VA ordered to pay the benefits, but Henderson ruled that the agency should revisit the denied claims.
With benefits denied as far back as 1985, retroactive payments would average $70,000 per person, plaintiffs' attorney Bart Stichman said.
No one knows how many people suffer from the effects of Agent Orange, which was sprayed over wide swaths of jungle by U.S. planes during a 10-year period to strip away cover from enemy troops and their convoys.
A
call to U.S. Justice Department
attorney Karen Richardson seeking
comment Thursday evening was not
returned. ..>>
Please pass on this information
YEAR 2000 INFORMATION
THE VIETNAM CONFLICT
. An estimated 3.1 million veterans served in the Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in the South China Sea). . An estimated 2.6 million personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam and in adjacent waters.
AGENT ORANGE
Agent Orange was a herbicide used in Vietnam to defoliate trees and remove cover for the enemy. Agent Orange spraying missions were flown in Vietnam between January 1965 and April 1970. Shipped in orange-striped barrels, it was a reddish-brown liquid containing four herbicides:
2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T),
2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), cacodylic acid and picloram. The 2,4,5-T was contaminated in the manufacturing process with dioxin. Several herbicides were sprayed in Vietnam at different times -- during different years as well as during different seasons because of the variety of vegetation and environmental conditions.
The history of herbicides for military use dates to World War II. During the early part of the war, interest arose in chemicals that could be used for crop destruction. Two chemicals were developed as a result of those early efforts -- 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. Although neither chemical was used in World War II, the value of their use in weed and brush programs was recognized, and both chemicals have been used widely throughout the world since the 1940s by farmers, foresters and homeowners.
VA SERVICES FOR VIETNAM VETERANS
Free Medical Care: VA has offered special access to health services and studies since 1978, when it initiated a medical surveillance program for Vietnam veterans with health concerns. By 1981, VA offered priority medical care to Vietnam veterans with any health problems which may have resulted from Agent Orange exposure. That program continues today.
-Special Compensation for 10 Diseases: As with other veteran, Vietnam veterans with disabilities incurred or aggravated by military service may receive monthly VA compensation. As knowledge has grown from studies of Agent Orange, some diseases that may not have become evident in service have been recognized as service-connected. Based on clinical research, the following diseases are now on VA's Agent Orange list: chloracne, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer. In addition, monetary benefits, health care and vocational rehabilitation services are provided to Vietnam veterans' offspring with spina bifida, a congenital birth defect of the spine. VA presumes that all military personnel who served in Vietnam and who have one of the listed diseases were exposed to Agent Orange.
VA RESPONSE TO CONCERNS ABOUT AGENT ORANGE . VA developed the Agent Orange Registry Examination Program in 1978 to identify Vietnam veterans concerned about Agent Orange exposure. Nearly 300,000 Vietnam veterans have been provided examinations under the Registry program as of December 1999. VA maintains a computerized registry of data from these examinations. Registrants receive periodic updates on studies and policy.
. VA's Advisory Committee on Health-Related Effects of Herbicides was established in 1979 to examine issues surrounding the possible health effects of herbicides on Vietnam veterans. VA also established the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards, consisting of non-VA experts in dioxin and radiation exposure as well as several lay members, to advise the Secretary on the results of Agent Orange-related research, and regulatory, administrative and legislative initiatives. Since passage of a 1991 law (PL102-4), which directs VA to request that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review diseases associated with herbicide exposure, the committee's work has been superseded by the NAS review. . The NAS reviews and evaluates scientific literature about Agent Orange. NAS reviewed more than 6,000 abstracts of scientific or medical articles and analyzed 230 epidemiological studies before its initial July 1993 report, which led to the inclusion of additional diseases on the list for presumptive service-connection. The NAS review has been continuing, with acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer added to VA's presumptive list after the NAS issued an updated report in March 1996. Also based on that report's findings of new "limited or suggestive evidence" of an association between herbicides and spina bifida in the children of Vietnam veterans, VA proposed legislation to aid children of Vietnam veterans who suffer from that disorder, and established a reproductive outcomes research center to investigate potential environmental hazards of military service. The latest NAS update, released in February 1999, contained no major changes in its classifications of diseases. (The executive summary of that report is available on the Institute of Medicine's National Academy Press web site at http://books.nap.edu/html/update98/.) The next major update is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2000.
However, a separate VA study led Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West Jr. to call for legislation to benefit children who suffer from birth defects that may have been caused by their mothers' Vietnam service, not necessarily by herbicide exposure. Secretary West also asked NAS to further review a study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health of dioxin-exposed production workers at two U.S. plants that revealed elevated rates of diabetes among workers. A decision whether to establish a presumption of service-connection for diabetes will be made once the additional review is completed, which is expected in May 2000.
Regional Records Services Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA)
The public has access to certain military service information without the veteran's authorization (or that of the next-of-kin of deceased veterans).
Examples of information which may be available from Official Military Personnel Files without an unwarranted invasion of privacy include:
Name - Service Number - Rank - Dates of Service -Awards and decorations - City/town and state of last known address including date of the address
If the veteran is deceased:
Place of birth -Geographical location of death - Place of burial
PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVACY ACT
The basic provisions of the Privacy Act, as it applies to military and ci vilian records at NPRC(MPR), are to provide safeguards for an individual against an invasion of personal privacy by:
permitting the subject to determine what records pertaining to him/her are maintained; - permitting the subject to prevent records that pertain to him/her from being used or made available for purposes other than the purpose for which they were created; - and permitting the subject to gain access to the records, or to have photocopies made of all or any portion thereof, and to correct or amend such records.
The Privacy Act places great emphasis on the privacy of the individual named in the record, and carries provisions for civil action against Federal agencies for violations of an individual's rights under the Act
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