Veteran Issues Digest Number 1792

[admin]

.
Number of disabled vets on the rise

Posted by: "Colonel Dan" colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net coloneldan1

Mon May 12, 2008 8:25 am (PDT)

From: Smithson, Steve via KURT PRIESSMAN
http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 24566987/ page/2/
MSN Tracking Image
<http://c.msn. com/c.gif? NC=1255&NA= 1154&PS=73838& PI=7329&DI= 305&TP=http% 3a%2
f%2fmsnbc.msn. com%2f>
<http://www.msnbc. msn.com/images/ MSNBC/msnbc_ ban.gif> MSNBC.com
_____

Number of disabled vets on the rise
Medical advances help troops survive injuries that could have been fatal
The Associated Press
updated 1:47 p.m. CT, Sun., May. 11, 2008

WASHINGTON - Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with
damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will
cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population
of America's vets shrinks.

Despite the decline in total vets - as soldiers from World War II and Korea
die - the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate
injured warriors in 25 years, up from today's $29 billion, according to
internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans
Affairs Department concedes the bill could be much higher.

Why?

Worse wounds. More disabilities. More vets aware of the benefits and quicker
to file for them.

Also, ironically, advanced medical care. Troops come home with devastating
injuries that might well have killed them in earlier wars.

Time is also a factor when it comes to disability compensation costs.
Payments tend to go up as veterans age, and an increasing number of soldiers
from the Vietnam War will be getting bigger payments as they get older and
are less able to work around their disabilities.

'A cost of war'
The number of disabled veterans has jumped by 25 percent since 2001 - to 2.9
million - and the cause really is no mystery.

"This is a cost of war," says Steve Smithson, a deputy director at the
American Legion. "We're still producing veterans. We've been in a war in
Iraq for five years now, and the war on terror since 9/11."

VA and Census Bureau figures show the previous six-year period, before
hostilities in Afghanistan and Iraq, saw a more modest increase of 4 percent
in the number of disabled vets. Veterans can make claims for disability
benefits long after their military service has ended.

Today's veterans - disabled or not - number nearly 24 million. That
population is projected by the VA to fall under 15 million by 2033, mostly
because of dying World War II and Korean War vets. But costs are expected to
rise.

Inflation accounts for a big chunk of the increase. But even when the VA
factors out inflation, the compensation for disabled veterans would still
grow from $29 billion to $33 billion in today's dollars - a more than 10
percent increase. And the department acknowledges the estimate could rise by
30 percent.

VA officials were not eager to talk about reasons for the increases. They
declined several requests for interviews. In a written response to a handful
of questions, the agency noted a few factors at play in the rising costs,
such as the aging veterans population, an increase in the number of
disabilities claimed and the severity of injuries sustained.

Outside experts provided more insight.

Surviving severe injuries
The American Legion's Smithson says the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are
resulting in more severe injuries - amputations and traumatic burns - the
kind of injuries that troops in Vietnam and earlier wars would not have
survived.

Smithson says today's veterans also are filing claims for more disabilities.

"People are more aware of the benefits they are able to file for (because
of) better outreach," Smithson said. "It's not like the WWII generation and
Korean war generation where they weren't aware of what they could file for,
and they were also reluctant to file if they didn't think they needed it."

Iraq veteran Christopher Bain filed for about 10 disabilities after his tour
in 2004. Bain came under mortar fire outside Baghdad and was hit several
times. He successfully fought doctors who wanted to amputate his left arm.
But 10 operations later, he still needs help getting dressed each day. An
electrical stimulator implanted in his upper buttocks helps dull the pain
from his injuries.

"It's hard, you go through certain periods of remorse," said Bain. "I am
never going to be the man I once was."

Bain suffers from tinnitus, post-traumatic stress disorder and serious
injuries to his arms. He receives a check each month for $2,618 that helps
the former Army staff sergeant pay the mortgage, food and clothing costs for
his family of five in Williamsport, Pa.

Bain is one of about 755,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Of
that group, the VA says more than 181,000 are collecting disability
benefits.

Another factor driving up costs and the overall number of disabled veterans
is Vietnam. Veterans from that era make up the biggest group of vets today
receiving disability compensation. At the end of 2006, more than 947,000
Vietnam vets were getting monthly checks.

"You see an awful lot of Vietnam veterans over the course of the years have
gone from a 30 percent to 40 percent disability rating up to 100 percent
when their employment years start to wane a little bit," said David Gorman,
a Vietnam War veteran who is executive director at the Washington
headquarters of Disabled American Veterans.

Aging's toll
Conditions, such as a bad back or knee, can worsen with age and draw higher
payments. A big concern for Vietnam vets is diabetes. Last year, more than
271,000 veterans were receiving disability benefits for diabetes. Most of
the disabilities - 236,000 of them - were linked to Agent Orange exposure.

Veterans who are approved for disability receive monthly checks for injuries
or illnesses sustained or aggravated while on active duty. Ratings are
scaled from 0 to 100 percent in 10 percent increments. A rating of 10
percent, for example, is given to tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is
increasingly common for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because
of roadside bombings. Ratings for post-traumatic stress disorder and
traumatic brain injury can range from 0-to-100 percent, and 10-to-100
percent, respectively.

Former Army Sgt. Michelle Saunders was rated at 70 percent by the VA after
being shot at during a 2004 convoy mission in Iraq. The bullet was caught in
her flak jacket, but she sustained painful injuries, including two ruptured
disks in her lower back and nerve damage to her right leg.

"It's turned me from a really alive, pretty happy person into somebody who
is numb. I don't know how to feel anymore," she said.

Saunders gets a disability check each month from the VA for just under $800.

Annual benefits run from $1,404 for a veteran rated at 10 percent to about
$30,324 for those at 100 percent. Severe disabilities, such as the loss of a
limb, draw additional compensation.

C 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc. msn.com/id/ 24566987/ page/2/

_____




2. IOM study released, Agent Orange Exposure and Hypertension

Posted by: "Colonel Dan" colonel-dan@sbcglobal.net coloneldan1

Mon May 12, 2008 10:12 am (PDT)

PUT IN YOUR POST NEWSLETTERS
If you served in Vietnam, and have any illnesses related to Hypertension,
file a claim, or reopen previous claim.. also evidence of an association
between exposure to the
chemicals of interest and the following health outcomes:
Laryngeal cancer
Cancer of the lung, bronchus, or trachea
Prostate cancer
Multiple myeloma
AL amyloidosis (category change from Update 2004)
Early-onset transient peripheral neuropathy
Porphyria cutanea tarda
Hypertension (category change from Update 2004)
Type 2 diabetes (mellitus)
Spina bifida in offspring of exposed people

also see message I sent July 31, 2007
<http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/VeteranIss ues/>
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/VeteranIss ues/

[VeteranIssues] Agent Orange Exposure and Hypertension

Data Suggest a Possible Association Between

Agent Orange Exposure and Hypertension, But the Evidence Is Limited

WASHINGTON - A new report from the Institute of Medicine finds suggestive
but limited evidence that exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used
during the Vietnam War is associated with an increased chance of developing
high blood pressure in some veterans. The report is the latest update in a
congressionally mandated series by the IOM that reviews every two years the
evidence about the health effects of these herbicides and the type of dioxin
- TCDD - that contaminated some of them.

see: http://www.elpasoti mes.com/ci_ 9207845 article


VA begins taking claims related to Agent Orange exposure

<mailto:chrisr@elpasotimes. com?subject=El Paso Times: VA begins taking
claims related to Agent Orange exposure> By Chris Roberts / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 05/09/2008 12:56:04 PM MDT

Veterans Affairs has started taking claims for hypertension related to Agent
Orange exposure, but it will determine at a later date whether the claims
will be honored as being military "service-related, " according to service
organizations who received notices from VA.

A letter from the Texas Veterans Commission to its county service officers
indicates that the claims are expected to be approved. The claims won't be
actively "worked" until the VA makes its decision.

Requests for comment made to local VA agencies were referred to Washington,
D.C. However, after two days, the public affairs office in Washington, D.C.,
still had no comment.

If the claims are approved, it could mean as much as $300 a month for Bob
Snow, a retired soldier who worked as a forward observer directing artillery
fire in the Vietnamese jungles. Snow - who worked with special forces
soldiers and Montagnards, a French name for the indigenous people of
Vietnam's central highlands - operated in areas sprayed with Agent Orange, a
defoliant that knocked down vegetation used as cover by the enemy.

Snow retired in 1982 and was diagnosed with hypertension by the VA in 1983.
However, the condition was not considered service related and therefore his
disability compensation was limited. If hypertension is connected to Agent
Orange claims, it could mean as much as an extra $300 per month for Snow,
which he said will relieve some of the pressure of the rising cost of
living.

Jeri Elena Mark worked as a radar mechanic for Hawk missile systems at a
base in Vietnam where she watched planes drop Agent Orange on vegetation
surrounding the camp, which was being shelled. She had experienced high
blood pressure, a symptom of hypertension, during her Army career, usually
associated with flashbacks from her Vietnam service.

She retired in 1985, but her exposure is not considered combat-related, so
she would get no increase in disability payments. However, her family would
receive benefits after her death if the cause is related to hypertension.

Chris Roberts may be reached at chrisr@elpasotimes. com; 546-6136.

Full report released below
http://www.nap. edu/catalog. php?record_ id=11906

<http://www.nap. edu/catalog. php?record_ id=11906# toc>
http://www.nap. edu/catalog. php?record_ id=11906# toc

Table of contents is above.... review for illnesses you have

Below is from Page 11, of the executive summary


TABLE S-1 Summary of Findings in Occupational, Environmental, and
Veterans Studies Regarding the Association Between Specific Health Outcomes
and Exposure to Herbicidesa
Sufficient Evidence of Association
Evidence is sufficient to conclude that there is a positive association.
That is, a positive association
has been observed between exposure to herbicides and the outcome in studies
in which chance,
bias, and confounding could be ruled out with reasonable confidence. For
example, if several small
studies that are free of bias and confounding show an association that is
consistent in magnitude
and direction, there could be sufficient evidence of an association. There
is sufficient evidence of
an association between exposure to the chemicals of interest and the
following health outcomes:
Soft-tissue sarcoma (including heart)
Non-Hodgkin' s lymphoma
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)
Hodgkin's disease
Chloracne
Limited or Suggestive Evidence of Association
Evidence suggests an association between exposure to herbicides and the
outcome, but a
firm conclusion is limited because chance, bias, and confounding could not
be ruled out with
confidence. For example, a well-conducted study with strong findings in
accord with less
compelling results from studies of populations with similar exposures could
constitute such
evidence. There is limited or suggestive evidence of an association between
exposure to the
chemicals of interest and the following health outcomes:
Laryngeal cancer
Cancer of the lung, bronchus, or trachea
Prostate cancer
Multiple myeloma
AL amyloidosis (category change from Update 2004)
Early-onset transient peripheral neuropathy
Porphyria cutanea tarda
Hypertension (category change from Update 2004)
Type 2 diabetes (mellitus)
Spina bifida in offspring of exposed people
Inadequate or Insufficient Evidence to Determine Association
The available studies are of insufficient quality, consistency, or
statistical power to permit a
conclusion regarding the presence or absence of an association. For example,
studies fail to
control for confounding, have inadequate exposure assessment, or fail to
address latency. There is
inadequate or insufficient evidence to determine whether an association
exists between exposure to
the chemicals of interest and the following health outcomes that were
explicitly reviewed:
Cancers of the oral cavity (including lips and tongue), pharynx (including
tonsils), or
nasal cavity (including ears and sinuses)
Cancers of the pleura, mediastinum, and other unspecified sites within the
respiratory
system and intrathoracic organs
Esophageal cancer (category change from Update 2004)
Stomach cancer (category change from Update 2004)
continued
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap. edu
Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2006
http://books. nap.edu/catalog/ 11906.html
12 VETERANS AND AGENT ORANGE: UPDATE 2006
Colorectal cancer (including small intestine and anus) (category change from
Update
2004)
Hepatobiliary cancers (liver, gallbladder, and bile ducts)
Pancreatic cancer (category change from Update 2004)
Bone and joint cancer
* Melanoma
Non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell and squamous cell)
* Breast cancer
Cancers of reproductive organs (cervix, uterus, ovary, testes, and penis;
excluding
prostate)
Urinary bladder cancer
Renal cancer
Cancers of brain and nervous system (including eye) (category change from
Update
2004)
Endocrine cancers (thyroid, thymus, and other endocrine)
Leukemia (other than CLL)
Cancers at other and unspecified sites
Infertility
Spontaneous abortion (other than for paternal exposure to TCDD, which
appears not to
be associated)b
Neonatal or infant death and stillbirth in offspring of exposed people
Low birth weight in offspring of exposed people
Birth defects (other than spina bifida) in offspring of exposed people
Childhood cancer (including acute myelogenous leukemia) in offspring of
exposed
people
Neurobehavioral disorders (cognitive and neuropsychiatric)
Movement disorders, including Parkinson's disease and amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis
(ALS)
Chronic peripheral nervous system disorders
Respiratory disorders
Gastrointestinal, metabolic, and digestive disorders (changes in liver
enzymes, lipid
abnormalities, and ulcers)
Immune system disorders (immune suppression, allergy, and autoimmunity)
* Ischemic heart disease
Circulatory disorders (other than hypertension and perhaps ischemic heart
disease)
Endometriosis
Effects on thyroid homeostasis
This committee used a classification that spans the full array of cancers.
However, reviews for
nonmalignant conditions were conducted only if they were found to have been
the subjects of
epidemiologic investigation or at the request of the Department of Veterans
Affairs. By default, any
health outcome on which no epidemiologic information has been found falls
into this category.
Limited or Suggestive Evidence of No Association
Several adequate studies, which cover the full range of human exposure, are
consistent in not
showing a positive association between any magnitude of exposure to the
herbicides of interest and
the outcome. A conclusion of "no association" is inevitably limited to the
conditions, exposures,
and length of observation covered by the available studies. In addition, the
possibility of a very
small increase in risk at the exposure studied can never be excluded. There
is limited or suggestive
TABLE S-1 Continued
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap. edu
Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2006
http://books. nap.edu/catalog/ 11906.html
SUMMARY 13
For the first time, a VAO committee found itself deadlocked with respect to
classifying the evidence for several health outcomes. The committee could
not
reach consensus about the strength of the evidence concerning association of
herbicide exposure with three health outcomes: two cancers, breast cancer
and
melanoma, and the specific cardiovascular condition, ischemic heart disease.
In
each case, the debate was whether there was now enough evidence to move the
condition from "inadequate or insufficient evidence to determine
association" to
"limited or suggestive evidence of association. "
As mandated by PL 102-4, the distinctions among categories are based on
statistical association, not on causality. The committee was directed to
review the
scientific data, not to recommend VA policy; therefore, conclusions reported
in
Table S-1 are not intended to imply or suggest policy decisions. The
conclusions
are related to associations between exposure and outcomes in human
populations,
not to the likelihood that any individual's health problem is associated
with or
caused by the herbicides in question.
Risk in Vietnam Veterans
There have been numerous health studies of Vietnam veterans, but most have
been hampered by relatively poor measures of exposure to herbicides or TCDD
and by other methodologic problems. In light of those problems, many
conclusions
regarding associations between exposure to the chemicals of interest and
disease have been based on studies of people exposed in various occupational
and environmental settings rather than on studies of Vietnam veterans,
although
studies of health consequences in the maturing veterans themselves have now
begun to generate more informative findings. The committee believes that
there
is sufficient evidence to reach general or qualitative conclusions about
associa-
TABLE S-1 Continued
evidence of no association between exposure to the herbicides of interest
and the following health
outcomes:
Spontaneous abortion and paternal exposure to TCDDb
a Herbicides indicates the following chemicals of interest:
2,4-dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2,4-D),
2,4,5-trichlorophen oxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and its contaminant
2,3,7,8-tetrachloro dibenzo-p- dioxin
(TCDD, or dioxin), cacodylic acid, and picloram. The evidence regarding
association was drawn from
occupational, environmental, and veteran studies in which people were
exposed to the herbicides used
in Vietnam, to their components, or to their contaminants.
b This conclusion appropriately constrained by specific chemical and exposed
parent was drawn in
Update 2002 but was not carried into the summary table.
* The committee was unable to reach consensus as to whether these endpoints
had Limited or
Suggestive Evidence of Association or had Inadequate or Insufficient
Evidence to Determine
Association, and so these were left in the lower category.
Copyright National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
This executive summary plus thousands more available at http://www.nap. edu
Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2006
http://books. nap.edu/catalog/ 11906.html
14 VETERANS AND AGENT ORANGE: UPDATE 2006
tions between herbicide exposure and health outcomes, but the lack of
adequate
exposure data on Vietnam veterans themselves makes it difficult to estimate
the
degree of increased risk of disease in Vietnam veterans, as a group or
individually.
Without information on the extent of herbicide exposure among Vietnam
veterans
and quantitative information about the dose-time-response relationship for
each health outcome in humans, estimation of the risks experienced by
veterans
exposed to the compounds of interest during the Vietnam War is not possible.
Because of those limitations, only general assertions can be made about
risks
to Vietnam veterans, depending on which category of association has been
attributed
to a given health outcome. If there were "limited or suggestive evidence
of no association" between herbicide exposure and a health outcome, the
evidence
would suggest no increased risk of the outcome among Vietnam veterans
attributable to exposure to the compounds of interest (at least for the
conditions,
exposures, and lengths of observation covered by the studies reviewed). The
only
health outcome remaining in this category is spontaneous abortion with
respect to
paternal exposure specifically to TCDD. Even qualitative estimates are not
possible
when there is "inadequate or insufficient" evidence of an association. For
outcomes categorized as having "sufficient" or "limited or suggestive"
evidence
of an association with herbicide exposure, the lack of exposure information
on
Vietnam veterans prevents calculation of precise risk estimates.
The requisite information to assign risk estimates continues to be absent
despite
concerted efforts to model the exposure of the troops in Vietnam, to measure
the serum TCDD concentrations of individual veterans, and to model the
dynamics
of retention and clearance of TCDD in the human body. Accordingly, this
committee has deleted the repetitious statements about the inability to
calculate
risk for Vietnam veterans that had appeared with each health outcome in
prior
updates. In place of those repeated statements, the committee states a
general
conclusion that, at least for the present, it is not possible to derive
quantitative
estimates of any increased risks of various adverse health effects that
Vietnam
veterans may have experienced in association with exposure to the herbicides
sprayed in Vietnam.