VETERAN SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS NEED TO PASS ON CRITICAL HEALTH INFORMATION
Updated November 4, 2010
(WASHINGTON, DC) -DOD is the biggest owner of EPA Superfund sites. The contaminants and health effects of exposure are published on the EPA Superfund website. A simple website hyperlink to military installations on the National Priority List (EPA Superfund), identifying the contaminants and health effects can save lives, but no one seems interested in setting up this hyperlink.
Veterans of military installations currently on the National Priority List (EPA Superfund) need to know the contaminants of concern (COC) found on these sites and the health effects of exposure to receive proper medical treatment.
Exposure to COC’s can cause serious medical conditions, including cancer and death. Veterans with serious medical conditions who were stationed on an EPA Superfund installation need to share this information with their medical care provider.
This is not about collecting a VA disability compensation, but about helping veterans “connect the dots of serious illness” to military service and giving information to their health care providers that could save their lives.
Superfund is the environmental program established to address hazardous waste sites. It is also the name of the fund established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA statute, CERCLA overview). CERCLA was passed into law in the wake of the discovery of toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Times Beach in the 1970s, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
No one in their right mind would voluntarily live and work on a Superfund site. For the most part, veterans are not provided the choice of military assignments. Many of the installations on the NPL were constructed during WW II and experienced decades of environmental contamination.
DOD has spent and continues to spend millions in the clean-up of contaminated sites.
With exception of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, DOD has no means of readily contacting veterans separated from military service for years and even decades.
Congress mandated that the Navy and Marine Corps contact veterans of Camp Lejeune regarding the contamination of the base wells.
As it turns out, thousands of veterans and their dependents lived and worked on military installations that are now listed as EPA Superfund sites. No one has notified these men and women that they are at risk for possible exposure to contaminants.
EPA lists 130 military installations as Superfund sites, including the Contaminants of Concern (COC’s) with a hyperlink to the health effects of exposure.
According to EPA, “COC’s are the chemical substances found at the site that the EPA has determined pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment.These are the substances that are addressed by cleanup actions at the site. Identifying COCs is a process where the EPA identifies people and ecological resources that could be exposed to contamination found at the site, determines the amount and type of contaminants present, and identifies the possible negative human health or ecological effects that could result from contact with the contaminants.”
Access to the COC’s and their health effects can easily be obtained from EPA’s Superfund website, if you know where to look and, if you know that you may have been exposed to one or more of the contaminants.
The first page of every EPA Superfund website contains a site progress profile, including important information on contamination.
Under the caption “Contamination,” a reader can quickly access all of the site’s COC’s with a hyperlink the health effects as determined by the Agency for Toxic Substances Health Registry (ATSDR), the Federal agency responsible for performing public health assessments of EPA Superfund sites.
The Veterans Administration and the Veterans Service Organizations (VSO’s) have the capability to establish a website hyperlink to the list of EPA Superfunds that are military installations.
Legislation may be needed to require the VA to establish a website hyperlink. The VA is not looking for more clients so I doubt if they would be interested in promulgating this information. On the other hand, VSO’s exist solely to service the needs of their membership or at least, that’s the theory. The VSO’s, many with excellent websites, could easily establish a hyperlink on their own authority.
Our review of the 45 VSO’s chartered by Congress or authorized by the VA to represent VA claimants showed that many have excellent website but NONE PROVIDED ACCESS TO THIS IMPORTANT HEALTH INFORMATION.
If you are a member of one of the following VSO’s chartered by Congress or recognized by the VA to represent VA claimants, take a few minutes to email your organization, asking them to help to save veterans’ lives by establishing a link to the military installations that are EPA Superfund sites. The life you save may literally be your own.
| African Amer.Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Assoc. |
| Air Force Sergeants Association |
| American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor |
| American Ex-Prisoners of War |
| American GI Forum of the United States |
| American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. |
| American Legion |
| American Red Cross |
| American War Mothers |
| AMVETS |
| Armed Forces Services Corporation |
| Army and Navy Union, USA, Inc. |
| Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America |
| Blinded Veterans Association |
| Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc. |
| Catholic War Veterans, USA, Inc. |
| Congressional Medal of Honor Society of the United States of America |
| Disabled American Veterans |
| Fleet Reserve Association |
| Gold Star Wives of America, Inc. |
| Italian American War Veterans of the USA |
| Jewish War Veterans of the USA |
| Korean War Veterans Association, Inc. |
| Legion of Valor of the USA, Inc. |
| Marine Corps League |
| Military Chaplains Association of the United States of America |
| Military Officers Association of America |
| Military Order of the Purple Heart of the U.S.A., Inc. |
| Military Order of the World Wars |
| National Amputation Foundation, Inc. |
| National Association for Black Veterans, Inc. |
| National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, Inc. |
| National Association of State Directors of Veterans Affairs (NASDVA) |
| National Veterans Legal Services Program |
| National Veterans Organization of America (NOVA) |
| Navy Club of the United States of America |
| Navy Mutual Aid Association |
| Non Commissioned Officers Association |
| Paralyzed Veterans of America |
| Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, Inc. |
| Polish Legion of American Veterans, USA |
| Reserve Officers Association of the United States |
| Swords to Plowshares: Veterans Rights Organization |
| The Retired Enlisted Association |
| United Spinal Association |
| United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. |
| US Submarine Veterans of World War II |
| Veterans Assistance Foundation, Inc. |
| Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States |
| Veterans of the Vietnam War, Inc./Vets. Coalition |
| Veterans of World War I of the USA, Inc. |
| Vietnam Veterans of America |
| Women`s Army Corps Veterans Association |
Wounded Warrior Project
I’ve listed the military installations that are EPA Superfund sites by military service below. Please pass this information on to a veteran.MILITARY BASES ON THE NPL (EPA SUPERFUNDS)US Air Force
US Army
US Coast Guard
US Navy
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Robert O’Dowd served in the 1st, 3rd and 4th Marine Aircraft Wings during 52 months of active duty in the 1960s. While at MCAS El Toro for two years, O’Dowd worked and slept in a Radium 226 contaminated work space in Hangar 296 in MWSG-37, the most industrialized and contaminated acreage on the base.
Robert is a two time cancer survivor and disabled veteran. Robert graduated from Temple University in 1973 with a bachelor’s of business administration, majoring in accounting, and worked with a number of federal agencies, including the EPA Office of Inspector General and the Defense Logistics Agency.
After retiring from the Department of Defense, he teamed up with Tim King of Salem-News.com to write about the environmental contamination at two Marine Corps bases (MCAS El Toro and MCB Camp Lejeune), the use of El Toro to ship weapons to the Contras and cocaine into the US on CIA proprietary aircraft, and the murder of Marine Colonel James E. Sabow and others who were a threat to blow the whistle on the illegal narcotrafficking activity. O’Dowd and King co-authored BETRAYAL: Toxic Exposure of U.S. Marines, Murder and Government Cover-Up. The book is available as a soft cover copy and eBook from Amazon.com. See: http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-Exposure-Marines-Government-Cover-Up/dp/1502340003.
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