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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Veterans Ask President Obama to Put the Cross Back:
Mojave Desert Veterans National Memorial Missing Since May 9
PLANO, Texas, June 11, 2010 – Today, the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), The American Legion, Military Order of the Purple Heart, and Liberty Institute, sent a letter to President Obama asking him to help put the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial back in its rightful place following its vandalism and theft on May 9.
The letter reads in part, “This impasse is at a point where we now need your intervention as our nation’s leader, Mr. President, on decisive action to direct restoration of the memorial to its original form.”
On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the seven-foot-tall memorial cross, which was erected by World War I veterans in 1934 and is the only World War I Memorial designated a national monument by Congress, should stand, but sent it back to the lower court to review the land transfer. Vandals then tore the memorial down in the middle of the night. To date, the National Park Service and Department of Justice (D.O.J.) refuse to put the memorial back up, and when a replacement cross was put up in the middle of the night, they tore it down.
“Allowing a national memorial to our veterans to sit in a vandalized state for possibly years is totally unacceptable,” said Kelly Shackelford, president/CEO of Liberty Institute. “It dishonors our veterans and the remembrance of their selfless sacrifice, and it flouts the rule of law and a direct decision of the Supreme Court.”
Henry Sandoz, the caretaker of the memorial for the last 26 years has built an exact replica of what was torn down and is ready to reinstall it. The Park Service and D.O.J. refuse to allow it at this point.
The VFW and the Liberty Institute, which represents the national veterans organizations in their fight to protect memorials, is offering a reward of $125,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the criminals responsible tearing down the Mojave Desert War Memorial. This is a federal crime under the Veterans' Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003, and it defies the rule of law, flouting a binding decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.
View or sign on to the letter at www.putthecrossback.com.
Liberty Institute works to uphold Constitutional and First Amendment religious and speech freedoms in the courts. Liberty Institute represented all major veterans groups as amici in the Supreme Court case of Salazar v. Buono involving this 76-year-old war memorial. The Institute continues to represent them as the case returns to District Court, where the ACLU is still asking that the Memorial be torn down and banned.
