[CPEO-MEF] HERBICIDES, HEALTH, GLOBAL: "Okinawa vet blames cancer on defoliant"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Okinawa vet blames cancer on defoliant
VA refuses aid amid Pentagon denial of Agent Orange at bases

By JON MITCHELL
Japan Times
August 24, 2011

When Caethe Goetz was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare form of  
bone marrow cancer, at age 49 in 2003, both she and her doctor were  
perplexed.

The disease affects only 20,000 Americans a year, typically African- 
American males in their late 60s. Goetz's family has no history of  
cancer.

However, when her doctor learned she was a former U.S. Marine, he  
thought he might have found the answer to the mystery. Since multiple  
myeloma is one of the 14 diseases that the U.S. government recognizes  
as related to contact with the toxic defoliant Agent Orange, he  
speculated that the roots of her illness came from her military service.

"He questioned if I had been exposed to Agent Orange and suggested I  
do an intake exam," Goetz told The Japan Times. "I did the exam, but  
discounted it as I was unaware of any exposure to Agent Orange  
outside Vietnam."


...

For the entire article, see
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110824f1.html
--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org