I have been trying to get Congress to help 7120 men used in chemical weapons and drug experiments from 1955 thru 1975 at Edgewood Arsenal Maryland that the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration refuse to help.
Can you all PLEASE write your Senators and Congress Critters and ask for their assistance for these veterans and their families, many of these men died and their wives and children never knew their fathers or husbands were even used in these experiments. If their cause of death can be linked to the weapons or drugs or 77 toxic substances in the drinking water or soil of Edgewood they MAY be entitled to Veterans benefits and medical care.
Dear Senator Edward Kennedy, I find myself writing to you again in frustration. I did appreciate your office's and your assistance in 2003 in making the Institute of Medicine, and Dr. William Page comply with my Freedom of Information request regarding the health surveys I have completed since being one of the "test veterans" used at Edgewood Arsenal from June 25, 1974, thru August 22, 1974, which they refused to send me. After your office became involved I received a FedEx box three days later with all the requested documents.
I have tried using the VA system to file my claim for medical care and compensation in regard to the numerous health problems I developed as a young man and ended up totally disabled by age 45, in June 2002. The VARO has refused to address any issue even remotely connected to the drug and chemical weapons experiments or environmental exposures at Edgewood. The EPA website shows there to be 77 toxic chemicals in the soil and drinking water on the base, they ordered the government to cap the water wells, and the Army was forced to pipe water into the town of Edgewood and the base of Edgewood Arsenal. Since the Army started dumping toxic waste in 1917 on the site and it was found in 1978 it would be reasonable to any person that in 1974 the toxic chemicals found in 1978 were there and had been there for decades. The chemicals are linked to every known medical problem there is, pulmonary, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and neurological conditions, cancers, etc. These were confirmed by the CDC in Atlanta.
There are also 2 published studies on long term health conditions caused by Sarin, mustard agents and other chemical weapons, one is by a German doctor who did studies on Wermacht soldiers after WW2 and he took care of them from 1945 - 1975 DR Karl Heinz Lohs, the paper was published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPR) which shows cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological and gastrointestinal problems related to chemical weapons exposures http://www.sipri.org/... (large PDF file info is on pages 40 and 45 have the symptoms listed) this paper was published in 1975, then another chemical weapon paper completed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in January 1994 http://www.ehponline.org/... shows the effects of exposure to Sarin and other nerve agents
Human beings are one of the most sensitive species for OPIDN induction; hens are equivalently sensitive and have been used widely to test chemicals for OPIDN-inducing potential (133). To date, human beings are known to be significantly more sensitive than hens to OPIDN induction by only one chemical, methamidophos (126,130). Lotti (130) attributed this greater human sensitivity to a higher rate of spontaneous reactivation of methamidophos-inhibited human AChE, and the availability of assisted ventilation to human beings (but not hens).
Ratios of anticholinesterase activity and NTE-inhibiting activity in vitro for hen tissue (AChE I50/NTE I50) and human tissue are similar (133,134). In vivo toxicity ratios (LD50/neurotoxic dose) for the hen correspond well with the in vitro AChE I50/NTE I50 ratios. Thus, it is likely that in vivo assays in hens and in vitro human and hen enzyme activity ratios are at least qualitatively predictive for human OPIDN-inducing potential (133).
Although the data are often sparse on the other delayed health effects of nerve agents per se, an expanding field of literature on delayed health effects of OPs, particularly insecticides, exists (49,66,35). Information from this literature is included, particularly where there are data gaps for nerve agents.
from the report by the NIH Jan 1994.
As you can see I have been doing research in the past 4 years, I also find it disgusting that the symptoms known as Gulf War Illness, match all of the KNOWN medical conditions linked to mustard agents and Sarin. Can anyone explain to the veterans of Gulf War One why Dr. Page's March 2003 IOM Study (based on the Edgewood Arsenal test vets from 1955 - 1975) found NONE of these health problems, despite the fact that of the 7120 soldiers used at Edgewood were determined in FY2000 that 40% of them were probably deceased 2098 men could not be found using IRS, VA and SS databases, these are men that ranged in age in 2000 from 45 - 65 years old, men this age are either paying taxes or drawing government benefits. Of the 4022 men they could find 54% of them were found to be disabled another 2200 men, yet the study httpwww.iom.eduObject.FileMaster58440 , does not explain what caused either problems the deaths nor the disabilities, why? Was DOD and the VA already aware of these 2 previous studies? Why doesn't DR Pages conclusions match either of these unbiased studies, is it the fact that DOD paid for the IOM study, because it would be used to determine government liability for the Gulf War One veterans?
Senator Kennedy, I am in contact with 11 other "test vets" now, they range in test dates from 1958 thru 1974 they live from Los Angeles, Detroit, New York, Conn., Utah, South Carolina, Tenn., North Carolina, it has now been 32 years since the Church Committee, and in August it will be three decades since you yourself took testimony on the Cold War experiments from Admiral Stanfield Turner Director of the CIA about the tests at Edgewood Arsenal and other places, they were not stopped as you know until the summer of 1975 after the DA IG Report on Human Experimentation was made public. You were very knowledgeable on these matters 30 plus years ago.
Senator, isn't it time for the DOD and the VA to quit jerking these men and their families and the widows around. All of us have the same thing in common sir, we are all disabled and the VA will not mention the Edgewood experiments in their denials of our claims for compensation and medical care, why? Do we not deserve it? It has been seven years since the data was gathered, many more of the men may have passed away since the majority of the men were born in 1935 and after and the youngest have birthdates in 1955 and 1956 the youngest will be 51, the oldest in their 80's, this affects families across the nation on average 50 states 142 men or rather families per state to total the 7120, , many of the widows probably have not even been informed their husbands or fathers were even used in the experiments an d that they may be entitled to survivors benefits if whatever caused their deaths could be linked to the toxic chemical or the experiments at Edgewood.
Will you please help us now, before we all die, and the VA and DOD ignore us until then?
PROJECT MKULTRA, THE CIA'S PROGRAM OF
RESEARCH IN BEHAVIORAL MODIFICATION
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1977
U.S. SENATE,
SELECT COMMITTEE on INTELLIGENCE,
and SUBCOMMITTEE on HEALTH
and SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
of the COMMITTEE on HUMAN RESOURCES
Washington, D.C.The committees met, pursuant to notice, at 9:07 a.m. in room 1202,
Dirksen Senate Office Building, Senator Daniel K. Inouye (chairman
of the Select Committee on Intelligence) presiding.Present: Senators Inouye (presiding), Kennedy, Goldwater, Bayh,
Hathaway, Huddleston, Hart, Schweiker, Case, Garn, Chafee, Lugar
and Wallop.Also present: William G. Miller, staff director, Select Committee
on Intelligence;Fr.Lawrence Horowitz, staff director, Subcommittee on Health and
Scientific Research;and professional staff members of both committees.Senator INOUYE. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is
meeting today and is joined by the Subcommittee on Health and
Scientific Research chaired by Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts
and Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania. Senator Hathaway
and Senator Chafee are members of both committees. We are to hear
testimony from the Director of Central Intelligence, Adm. Stanfield
Turner, and from other Agency witnesses on issues concerning new
documents supplied to the committee in the last week on drug testing
conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency.It should be made clear from the outset that in general, we are
focusing on events that happened over 12 or as long as 25 years
ago. It should be emphasized that the programs that are of greatest
concern have stopped and that we are reviewing these past events
in order to better understand what statutes and other guidelines
might be necessary to prevent the recurrence of such abuses in the
future. We also need to know and understand what is now being done
by the CIA in the field of behavioral research to be certain that
no current abuses are occurring.
I have not been posting much, I feel better today but most of this was easy copy and paste lol
Crossposted at Daily Kos
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