WSU to Study Iraq Toxins' Effect
Spokesman-Review
by Bert Caldwell
Research to examine how exposure might damage offspring of soldiers
Washington State University scientists will use a $1.7 million grant to study what multi-generation genetic damage might be done by toxins U.S. troops could encounter in Iraq.
The research using laboratory rats, not humans, will be the first for the military to examine the epigenetic effects of pesticides, herbicides and other compounds, said lead scientist Michael Skinner, director of the university's Center for Reproductive Biology.
Previous studies have looked at the health effects of other substances, notably the Agent Orange used to defoliate jungles in Vietnam, on the soldiers directly exposed, he said, not on their children or grandchildren.
"The science really had not caught up with the trans-generational stuff," said Skinner, one of several WSU pioneers in the field of epigenetic, or multi-generational, inheritance.
Besides herbicides and pesticides – which and in what combinations has not been determined – the study also will look at the effects of explosives residues, he said.
The four-year study will allow researchers to see how any changes in genetic chemistry that develop are passed along through two subsequent generations of rats, he said, noting that only the first two years of research have been funded.
Among the problems that might develop are kidney disease, or changes in the male and female reproductive organs, he said.
If any genetic markers are identified in rats, Skinner said, follow-up research could look at whether they might show up among members of the military as well.
That would be of particular interest to Dave Holmes, interim chief operating officer of the Institute for Systems Medicine, which was awarded the U.S. Department of Defense grant passed through to Skinner.
Holmes' son, Tim Hammond, did two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps.
"They sprayed all kinds of stuff on them," Holmes said.
Although the grant money, the first awarded ISM, will fund work in Pullman, he said the organization's supporters hope any subsequent clinical studies will be done in Spokane.
"There's a lot of excitement about making it happen," he said.
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Long-ago war's insidious legacy
Bill would widen benefits for Vietnam Agent Orange exposure
By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
First published: Monday, March 22, 2010
SAND LAKE -- Robert Hug thought he had put Vietnam behind him.
After serving in the Gulf of Tonkin and South China Sea aboard the USS Hancock from 1967 to 1970, the Troy man went to college, married his wife, Cindy, and raised three kids while working at Watervliet Arsenal.
But 30 years after coming home, Hug's voice turned raspy and he felt pain in his neck. Doctors found cancer of the larynx, a disease that typically develops late in life. He underwent surgery, and was fed for weeks through a tube.
"I thought of Agent Orange," Hug, 60, said recently in his Averill Park home. To talk, he must push a button in his throat, which activates a plastic prosthesis that replaced his voice box.
Agent Orange has become a lasting legacy of the Vietnam War. Decades after the U.S. military sprayed 20 million gallons of the toxic herbicide in an effort to protect its troops, an increasing number of veterans are filing disability claims for Type 2 diabetes, cancer and other diseases. And while the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs recently widened coverage for troops who served on the ground in Vietnam, thousands of ill veterans who served in the air and on ships aren't being compensated for the same health problems because they're excluded from the system based on current regulations.
The VA has ruled that veterans who didn't serve on Vietnamese soil are ineligible for Agent Orange disability benefits unless they can prove their sickness is directly service-connected. That isn't easy decades later, and certainly wasn't for Hug, a nonsmoker who can no longer work. The VA denied his claims for cancer-related benefits four times in nine years, even though doctors blamed his illness on Agent Orange.
Last fall, the agency did approve disability payments for Hug.
Hug joined Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans, a group of Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Air Force and Merchant Marine veterans fighting for congressional passage of the Agent Orange Equity Act. The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Scott Murphy, D-Glens Falls, would treat all Agent Orange claims equally.
"Most Vietnam vets who are alive today have some type of issue with Agent Orange," said John Paul Rossie of Colorado, executive director of the Blue Water group.
The military sprayed Agent Orange to defoliate heavily forested areas so troops could better see the enemy. It worked, but military members and civilians ingested dioxins and other toxic chemicals contained in the herbicide that mixed in the dust and rainwater.
The VA estimates that 2.6 million military personnel in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange between January 1965 and April 1970. The 303,000 Vietnam veterans in New York make up its biggest veteran population.
Army veteran Bob Heuthe of Chatham, 62, served in central Vietnam for 22 months in 1968. He was diagnosed with diabetes in 1995. The VA ruled four years ago that his illness was related to Agent Orange, for which he is compensated each month.
But Navy seamen also came into contact with the herbicide while circling river mouths to escort smaller craft and while working on the open ocean, Hug said.
Agent Orange drifted onto the decks of ships, leaving an oily substance, Rossie said. More significant was that the USS Hancock and other warships got drinking water from the sea. The desalinization process, however, did not remove Agent Orange contamination, and likely concentrated it, studies show. "People are now feeling the effects," Murphy said.
In October, the VA widened the number of illnesses presumed to be caused by Agent Orange to 15 from 12, allowing those with Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease and B-cell leukemias to get benefits. But that applies only to former service members who served on the ground. The VA in 2002 stopped compensating offshore Navy and Air Force veterans who could not prove when they had contact with the material.
The new rules have caused an uptick in filings for benefits in New York, where about 300 Vietnam veterans a month file new claims for Agent Orange disabilities, said Jim McDonough, director of the state Division of Veterans Affairs. Nationally, about 200,000 veterans are expected to file new claims in the next two years, according to the VA.
Last year, the VA received more than a million claims for disability compensation and pension. It provides $123 to $2,673 a month in benefits to more than 3.8 million veterans and beneficiaries.
The Agent Orange Equity Act would come at a reported cost of $3 billion. It would make as many as 800,000 more veterans eligible for payments, according to the VA, a number critics say is inflated to scare members of Congress about costs. The bill has support, but is stuck in a House of Representatives subcommittee. "We're all starting to lose faith," Rossie said.
Murphy and Charles Pompey, a state veterans officer, worked the system to get Hug and other veterans in the country about $1 million in Agent Orange-related disability benefits. The VA approved a 100 percent disability for Hug in September after he acquired deck logs proving that he spent eight hours on Vietnam soil while waiting to be flown to an aircraft carrier. He's paid back more than two years of taxes owed and leased his 87-year-old mother a new car.
The last decade left Hug with advice for those still suffering: "Keep on fighting, just like we did over there."
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