http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/23/886968/-VA-backs-Wydens-request-to-monitor-Iraq-vets-health-VA backs Wyden's request to monitor Iraq vets' health
by Laurence Lewis
Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 07:16:05 PM PDT
In yet another indication that the Democratic Obama administration cares for military personnel in a way that its Republican predecessor didn't, the Department of Veterans Affairs is establishing a registry to monitor and treat veterans who were exposed to highly toxic hexavalent chromium, at Iraq's Qarmat Ali water-treatment facility.
As reported by The Oregonian:
The monitoring is a victory for nearly 300 Oregon Army National Guard members and for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Wyden proposed such a registry March 22 after veterans with breathing and skin problems told him in an emotional meeting in Portland that VA staff did not understand the hazards of their assignment.
"This is a concrete step forward," Wyden said. "But it is only a step." He wants the VA to go further and presume a service connection that will increase access and benefits.
Officially, the VA does not yet presume a causal connection for illnesses suffered by those who served at Qarmat Ali, and it does not presume that those who did serve there are ill. But it is now taking such claims seriously enough to begin monitoring. As Wyden said, this is one step forward, and the VA needs to take to more.
But the Qarmat Ali Medical Surveillance program will standardize medical exams nationwide, focusing doctors' attention on lung cancer and other related problems and help direct treatment. Among the steps: ear, nose, throat, lung and skin exams as well as regular chest X-rays, said Dr. Victoria Cassano, director of radiation and physical exposure for the VA's Office of Public Health and Environmental Hazards.
Nearly 300 members of the Oregon Army National Guard were among those who served at Qarmat Ali, and Oregon Democratic Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader voiced support for the new program, as did Oregon's other Democratic Senator, Jeff Merkley.
Under Bush, suffering troops were told they had allergies. The Army's previous investigation had concluded that there were little long-term health risks. The problem only began to be taken seriously in 2008, when employees of contractor Kellog, Brown and Root took their own health concerns to Senate Democrats. KBR was cleaning and repairing the facility, and the troops were protecting them.
More than a hundred fifty members of the Guard from Oregon and Indiana are suing KBR, claiming they were deceived about the risk from the hexavalent chromium, which the Senate was told was "piled like snow" at the Qarmat Ali facility. The VA's new Qarmat Ali Medical Surveillance program will standardize monitoring of the troops, with a particular focus on diseases, such as lung cancer, that are associated with hexavalent chromium. But that's not all:
Meanwhile, VA Sec. Eric Shinseki has focused more attention on environmental hazards of military service. On Wednesday the VA announced $2.8 million in new research into Gulf War illness. The Qarmat Ali program is a subset of the Gulf War Registry, established in late 1992.
Once again, the Bush-Cheney team used military personnel as cannon fodder, and downplayed or ignored their suffering. Once again, it takes a Democratic administration to give more than lip service to supporting the troops.
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