Agent Orange - Town Hall Meeting

[boardman]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
For information contact
Ken Holybee at 707 887 8891
or Holybee@comcast.net.
Pete Conaty or Dana Nichol at 916-492-0550

Faces of Agent Orange
Intergenerational effects of Agent Orange
Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building
October 16, 2010

Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 223, Santa Rosa, CA will be hosting a town hall meeting to discuss the health effects of exposures to chemicals and their effect on our children. We have invited all of our elected representatives to join us and listen to what our children have been living with throughout their lives. The stories of the life struggles of our children, their burdens and our struggles to make a life for them can be heard on October 16, 2010 from 1 till 4 pm at the Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building, 1351 Maple Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA.
Our goal is to bring attention to the hidden cost of our service and encourage the government to create and maintain a registry of these birth defects as well as assist our doctors in finding ways to treat and correct these defects. We encourage all veterans with children suffering from illnesses or physical disabilities to come tell their stories. The Veterans Administration and the Institute of Medicine acknowledge one (1) birth defect from Agent Orange exposure to the children of Vietnam Male Veterans and nineteen (19) defects to the children of female Vietnam Veterans at this time.
There is a push to have the U.S. government spend millions of dollars to assist victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam, including their children, and to clean up the bases where the chemicals were stored and used, saying that all of the Veterans and their families are being taken care of by our government. Studies of chemical exposure from the use of Agent Orange have been confined to only that chemical. Other chemical use and the effects of the cross contamination of other dioxins and carcinogens have not been factored into the research.

Veterans of all wars are subjected to many contaminates and most were not aware of what was being used or what effects most would have on their health. Our children are victims of a war and need the help of our government to cope with these problems. Who will take care of them when we are gone?