Driving home from work I heard an NPR news item about Agent Orange and Parkinson’s disease. When I got home I checked online for the exact information, but so far haven’t found anything with today’s date.
As I recall the story, veterans who served during the Vietnam War but never set foot in Vietnam can now receive government health and disability benefits if they have Parkinson’s disease and can prove they were exposed to it in government military environments, such as ships that carried the chemical.
I didn’t realize that Agent Orange and Parkinson’s disease were linked. For a chilling article about this, read The Hazards of War: The grim legacy of Agent Orange.
It turns out that soldiers and civilians were covered with Agent Orange dust and thought nothing of it, even as all the foliage around them withered and died. Now they are suffering horrible diseases.
The list of illnesses linked to the herbicide is lengthy and scary. Wikipedia cites them all:
“…currently the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes mellitus, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as conditions associated with exposure to the herbicide. This list now includes B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, these last three having been added on August 31, 2010.”
Once again, war is not healthy for children and other living things. It’s one of the stupidest endeavors that humans undertake.
I’ll check my online news sources later and update this post if there’s new info.
Two hours later:
The NY Times now carries an AP report which notes that a ruling expected later this week may allow military personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange after the Vietnam War ended (because they were working on the same planes that had dropped the herbicide during the war) to file for health and disability benefits. The article doesn’t name Parkinson’s, but notes some of the other diseases individuals are now dealing with.
Horrifying quote:
“About 653,000 Vietnam-era veterans have received Agent Orange-related disability benefits since 2002, when the VA officially began tracking the cases.”
It turns out that the approximately 200,000 personnel who served on ships during the war and were exposed to Agent Orange there even though they never set foot in Vietnam (they are called “Blue Water” veterans) may still not be eligible for benefits.
The nitpicking really irritates me! Anyone exposed to Agent Orange should receive medical benefits from the VA.