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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Military Update: SBP-DIC’s ‘ludicrous’ rule
Widows who remarry after age 57 exempt from offset
Jacqueline Peters, widow of a retired Army officer, only recently grasped how "ludicrous" the law that limits Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) payments to surviving spouses of military members who either die in retirement from service-related ailments or die while on active duty has become.
These survivors qualify for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) from the Department of Veterans Affairs, which pays a basic benefit of $1,154 a month. But if they also are covered by military SBP, then the SBP must be reduced by an amount equal to DIC. Widows then are refunded the premiums their husbands had paid for the portion of SBP being offset.
But now there is an exception, the result of a subtle change in law six years ago. Defense pay officials ignored the change until three military widows won a lawsuit last year and forced the department to acknowledge what Congress had done. The quirky bottom line is that military widows who remarry after age 57 are exempt from the SBP-DIC offset.
The situation, says Peters of Newport News, Va., is a little unreal.
"Someone who remarries is certainly not as in need of [full SBP] as is a widow living on a fixed income," she said.
The offset exemption so far applies to just 704 widows, say Defense officials. All of them began to draw their full SBP again either this month or back as early as February. Their SBP is paid in full in addition to their DIC.
Many of these 704 widows also will get SBP retroactive payments back to Dec. 16, 2003, the date Congress, whether lawmakers knew it or not, lifted the ban on concurrent receipt of both DIC and SBP for this select group.
Legislation to wholly repeal the offset has been introduced in every recent Congress. The current Senate bill from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has 55 co-sponsors. The House bill from Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, has 320. But the pattern has been that the Senate will pass Nelson’s bill with overwhelming support and then it will get tossed by a House-Senate conference committee as being unfunded.
The armed services committees just haven’t found the money to pay for it. They point to pay-as-you-go budget rules that bar any increase in spending on a new entitlement without an equal offset to existing entitlements.
Last month, Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., introduced a discharge petition to try to pull the SBP-DIC offset repeal bill out of the armed services committee for a floor vote. The idea is to match support from the Senate.
A total of 216 signatures are needed for the petition to succeed. It’s still unclear whether Jones will get that many members to defy the committee leadership even with the bill having 330 co-sponsors.
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