Agent Orange & Birth Defects

Agent Orange Booth

2012-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

Come join us at our Agent Orange booth during the Vietnamese Tet (new years) festival, held at Father Lopez High School. It is located at 3918 LPGA Boulevard, Daytona Beach, FL, 32124 and will be on February 5th, Sunday around 12:00 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Our booth will be there to inform those about Agent Orange Veterans, which then created the idea of producing a Center for Children that have been affected by Agent Orange.

Our booth will include:

DVDs about our organization and also a segment on Agent Orange and the Vietnam Veterans
Fact sheets on the Children Center To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins
Birth Defect Research for Children information Post Cards
Bumper stickers
and much more

We will also be raising funds by selling bracelets from Birth Defect Research for Children, Agent
Orange hope bracelets, and Agent Orange ribbon pins. We hope that you will be able to make it out to enjoy the festival and enjoy learning of the upcoming events we hope to see in the future.

Support for Children

2012-01-19T10:40:00.000-08:00

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIESH) is a government agency that funds research on the connection between the environment and health problems. The research will go through a process of a five year strategic planning period in the year of 2012 to 2017. Our research facility has proposed a visionary idea that was voted on NIESH and considered amongst 200 other competing visionary ideas. As of today we have 112 comments on our idea that can be viewed NIESH website.(http://niehs.nih.gov/about/od/strategicplan/index.cfm)

Once you have reached the website, go to Visionary Ideas on the left. Then click “Visionary Ideas: Affected/Susceptible Populations, Idea #13’, it will then bring you to our Visionary Statement, “Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins,” and a brief description of the idea our organization has proposed to NIESH. You will be able to post comments by sending an e-mail to ehs-strategic-plan@mail.nih.gov

The deadline for all comments will be February 5th, 2012.
Thank you for your avid support throughout our cause.

Vote for the Children's Centers Project

2011-04-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIESH) is the government agency that funds research on the connections between the environment and health problems. The NIESH is working on their Strategic plan and has a web site where Visionary Ideas can be submitted for consideration. Birth Defect Research for Children has posted the following idea:

Children's Centers To Study Prenatal Effects of Dioxins

The children of Vietnam veterans are the largest living laboratory for studying the possible adverse reproductive outcomes of their parent(s)' exposures to dioxins. Data collection on thousands of cases of children reported by their parents to the National Birth Defect Registry suggests a pattern of adverse outcomes that includes increases in learning, attention, immune and endocrine disorders. Creating a NIEHS center(s) to study these reproductive outcomes could contribute to a valuable database of knowledge on the reproductive effects of dioxins that would be applicable to exposures in the civilian environment.

To vote on this idea, go to http://strategicplan.niehs.nih.gov/a/ideafactory.do?id=12617&mode=top&discussionFilter=active and register by clicking Register in top right hand corner. Once registered, you can find the project under "Hot Ideas". Please vote and encourage all other veterans and interested parties to vote also. For more information send an email to betty@birthdefects.org

What You Can Do About Agent Orange & Birth Defects!

2011-02-15T10:58:00.000-08:00

Birth Defect Research for Children has been collecting data and working on the Agent Orange birth defect issue since 1986. Since that time spina bifida has been service connected in the children of male Vietnam veterans and 17 different birth defects have been service connected in the children of female veterans. Our data and other research, however, indicate that many, many other conditions could and should be added to the list for service connection.

We have presented data on Agent Orange and birth defects collected through our National Birth Defect Registry to the National Academy of Science, the EPA Subcommittee on Endocrine Disruptors, the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Disabled American Veterans, the American Legion and to the house and senate subcommittees on veterans' affairs as well as the VA. Yet, no other conditions have been added to the current list.

I believe that those in the best position to advocate for the children of Vietnam veterans are "the children of Vietnam veterans". You are young enough and have the energy and motivation to make your voices heard. If you are interested in starting a group for this purpose, please send an email to betty@birthdefects.org and I will share your email with others contact us. Facebook and Twitter are your tools to get your message out. All you need is to organize and work together.

Agent Orange & Birth Defects

2010-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

We receive many messages from children of Vietnam veterans describing the problems in their families. While we can't respond to each inquiry, we encourage all these families to enter their cases in the National Birth Defect Registry http://www.birthdefects.org/registry. We have collected data on thousands of cases of birth defects and disabilities in the children of Vietnam veterans and found a pattern of disabilities. To learn more about this pattern, you can view this slide presentation about the registry online. There is a section on Agent Orange. http://www.birthdefects.org/registry/niehs_pres.pdf We also have a Veterans Research section on our home page www.birthdefects.org that has a review article on Agent Orange and birth defects that was published in the VVA's Veteran Magazine. We have presented data on the pattern of birth defects in Vietnam veterans' children to the National Academy of Sciences; the EPA's Subcommittee on Endocrine Disruptors; the VA; congressional committees and in the national media. The more cases we have, the stronger the data becomes to support your cause.

VVA Pushes for Children's Centers

2010-04-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

The Vietnam Veterans of America and Birth Defect Research for Children have been working together to further the cause of care and assistance for veterans' children who have birth defects and/or developmental disabilities.

VVA's Birth Defects Position Paper recommends the following:

That VVA make every possible effort to get birth defects included as part of the recently VA announced longitudinal study on Vietnam veterans.

 That VVA make every possible effort to get VA to fund a study to formally andsystematically integrate and analyze the Air Force Health Study on birth defectsin veterans’ offspring, as recommended in the 2008 IOM/VAO Review.

 That the VVA take action to facilitate the passage of legislation that would create centers to provide for research, treatment (funded by ChampVA), and social services for offspring of Veterans of all eras who were exposed to toxins in service. Send email to betty@birthdefects.org for copy of entire paper...

Agent Orange Quilt of Tears Birth Defects Resource

2008-04-08T07:38:00.001-07:00

The Agent Orange Quilt of Tears web site has added an excellent resource page on birth defects.
http://www.agentorangequiltoftears.com/BirthDefects.html

The page includes a link for Second Voice an organization for the children of Vietnam veterans.

Australian Vets Win $13.5 Million Study of Child Defects

2007-09-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Australian Federal Government has announced a decision to commission a $13.5 million, eight-year study into the health of children of Vietnam veterans. The first results of this study will be out in 2009.
The Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Bruce Billson, announced the study this week, to be done by a research institute yet to be chosen.
Vietnam veterans' children have long been thought to be vulnerable to the effects of the defoliant Agent Orange and other health problems. Agent Orange, which includes the deadly compound dioxin, has been suspected of having an effect on human stem cells and thereby on future generations. More see: Veterans win $13.5m child study.

Dioxins Associated With Learning and Attention Disorders

2007-07-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Association of serum concentrations of persistent organic pollutants with the prevalence of learning disability and attention deficit disorder.
Lee DH, Jacobs DR, Porta M.

Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook University, 101 Dongin-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu 700-422, Korea. lee_dh@knu.ac.kr

OBJECTIVE: Even though persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are well-known neurotoxicants, there is no previous study, even cross-sectional, on the association between background exposure to POPs and clinically significant developmental disorders, such as learning disability (LD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD), among children from a general population. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Study subjects were 278 children aged 12-15 years included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2000. The seven most commonly detected POPs (each detectable in >/=20% of children: 3,3',4,4',5-pentachlorobiphenyl; 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (HPCDD); 1,2,3,4,6,7,8,9-octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD); 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzofuran (HPCDF); beta-hexachlorocyclohexane; p,p'-dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; and trans-nonachlor) were selected. MAIN RESULTS: Compared with children with non-detectable levels of POPs, adjusted prevalence ORs (95% CIs) of LD among those with detectable levels of HPCDD, OCDD or HPCDF were 2.08 ( 1.17 to 3.68), 2.72 (1.24 to 5.99) and 2.18 (1.15 to 4.15), respectively. For ADD, the corresponding figures were 3.41 (1.08 to 10.8), 3.33 (0.94 to 11.8) and 2.31 (0.62 to 8.63), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Associations were observed between serum concentrations of POPs belonging to the categories of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans and the prevalence of two clinically significant development problems, LD and ADD. The nature of these associations needs to be clarified by prospective studies.

Birth Defect Registry Data on Agent Orange

2007-07-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

The National Birth Defect Registry sponsored by Birth Defect Research for Children collects data on birth defects and disabilities in the children of Vietnam veterans. To view charts on these cases, go to this slide presentation which was made to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. http://www.birthdefects.org/NIEHS/3510.html To add your child's case to the registry, go to www.birthdefects.org and click on the registry on the home page.

2007-07-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

Agent Orange plaintiff dies of cancer. One of the key plaintiffs of a group of Vietnamese suing US manufacturers of the war-time defoliant Agent Orange has died only four days after returning from attending an appeal of the case. Bangkok Post, Thailand. 9 July 2007.

Agent Orange & Genetic Changes

2007-07-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Vol. 116, No. 4, 2007
Free Abstract Article (Fulltext) Article (PDF 112 KB) Vol. 116, No. 4, 2007 -->

Original Article
Elevated sister chromatid exchange frequencies in New Zealand Vietnam War veteransR.E. Rowlanda, L.A. Edwardsa, J.V. PoddbaInstitute of Molecular Biosciences andbSchool of Psychology, Massey University, Palmerston North (New Zealand)
Address of Corresponding Author
Cytogenetic and Genome Research 2007;116:248-251 (DOI: 10.1159/000100407)
Abstract.
From July 1965 until November 1971, New Zealand Defence Force Personnel fought in the Vietnam War. During this time more than 76,500,000 litres of phenoxylic herbicides were sprayed over parts of Southern Vietnam and Laos, the most common being known as 'Agent Orange'. The current study aimed to ascertain whether or not New Zealand Vietnam War veterans show evidence of genetic disturbance arising as a consequence of their now confirmed exposure to these defoliants. A sample group of 24 New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and 23 control volunteers were compared using an SCE (sister chromatid exchange) analysis. The results from the SCE study show a highly significant difference (P < 0.001) between the mean of the experimental group (11.05) and the mean of a matched control group (8.18). The experimental group also has an exceptionally high proportion of HFCs (cells with high SCE frequencies) above the 95th percentile compared to the controls (11.0 and 0.07%, respectively). We conclude that the New Zealand Vietnam War veterans studied here were exposed to a clastogenic substance(s) which continues to exert an observable genetic effect today, and suggest that this is attributable to their service in Vietnam.

Combined Analysis Agent Orange and Birth Defects

2007-07-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

: Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Oct;35(5):1220-30. Epub 2006 Mar 16.
Links
Comment in:
Int J Epidemiol. 2006 Oct;35(5):1230-2.
Association between Agent Orange and birth defects: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Ngo AD, Taylor R, Roberts CL, Nguyen TV.
School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center, USA.
BACKGROUND: The association between parental exposure to Agent Orange or dioxin and birth defects is controversial, due to inconsistent findings in the literature. The principal aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of relevant epidemiological studies that examined this association and to assess the heterogeneity among studies. METHODS: Relevant studies were identified through a computerized literature search of Medline and Embase from 1966 to 2002; reviewing the reference list of retrieved articles and conference proceedings; and contacting researchers for unpublished studies. A specified protocol was followed to extract data on study details and outcomes. Both fixed-effects and random-effects models were used to synthesize the results of individual studies. The Cochrane Q test and index of heterogeneity (I2) were used to evaluate heterogeneity, and a funnel plot and Egger's test were used to evaluate publication bias. RESULTS: In total, 22 studies including 13 Vietnamese and nine non-Vietnamese studies were identified. The summary relative risk (RR) of birth defects associated with exposure to Agent Orange was 1.95 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.59-2.39], with substantial heterogeneity across studies. Vietnamese studies showed a higher summary RR (RR = 3.00; 95% CI 2.19-4.12) than non-Vietnamese studies (RR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.04-1.59). Sub-group analyses found that the magnitude of association tended to increase with greater degrees of exposure to Agent Orange, rated on intensity and duration of exposure and dioxin concentrations measured in affected populations. CONCLUSION: Parental exposure to Agent Orange appears to be associated with an increased risk of birth defects.
PMID: 16543362 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]