This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
As the Iraq war "ends", our veterans get some more good news. KELO reports that the Department of Veterans Affairs is adding heart disease, Parkinson's, and hairy-cell leukemia to its list of conditions related to Agent Orange exposure. The VA will review 90,000 previously denied Agent Orange claims and expects 150,000 new claims over the next year and a half. Expected cost: $42 billion over ten years (any teabaggers care to criticize that government spending?)
I have to wonder: since Monsanto produced Agent Orange and continues to deny Agent Orange's health harms, will Monsanto executive board member David Chicoine allow the land-grant university he runs to do any research on the health effects of Agent Orange to support the VA's work to help veterans? Hmm... good thing our medical school is in Vermillion, not Brookings....
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I don't identify myself as a member of the Tea Party movement, but I'll answer your question.
ReplyDeleteYes, many people think that some of the diseases added to the list of presumed diseases caused by agent orange shouldn't be there. Heart disease and diabetes specifically as no evidence can be presented that exposure to agent orange in any way increases your chances of getting those diseases. Genetics, life style and old age have more effect than agent orange.
Yes, I do practice what I preach. I have heart disease and borderline diabetes and have not and will not apply for VA compensation for these.
I have however applied for compensation for a very rare type of cancer that does have a direct link to agent orange. For all of you that just went ah ha, any compensation that I recieve from the VA will be offset by a reduction in my military retirement pay. I applied only because the VA said I should to protect my wife.
I do not use the VA medical facilities for treatment, not because I consider them substandard, but because I choose not to take appointments away from my brothers and sisters who are less fortunate then me.
Saw an interview with a gentleman on KELO the other night what he said I have been saying for years. I have no complaints with Monsanto or the Department of Defense using agent orange knowing what they new at the time. Agent orange may have taken a few years off my life at the end but most probably agent orange gave me the last almost fifty years of my life.
I gladly give some years from the ending of my life to expierince my wife, my son, my daughter(in law), my grandchildren and many others who are in my life.
In a purely selfish way I thank the Department of Defense and Monsanto for giving me those years.
Joseph G Thompson