From: PATBNAAV@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1998
To: pdxavets@aracnet.com
Subject: Smoking Gun
Dear Keith
Sorry I've been so dilatory in responding to your messages. I've been really
busy as you will see in our newsletter (if it ever gets mailed, but that's
another story)--
The really important stuff is this:
1. Sen. Wellstone's S.1385 bill was the subject of a Sen.Vets. Affairs hearing
of April 21. I was present and submitted a written statement, which I'll try
to email to you later. The markup of that bill, amongst others, was June 28.
It was whittled down to three cancers: lung, brain and CNS tumors, and ovarian
(?).
2. Although this was rather disheartening, my computer was smoking because of
my emails to all the senators on that committee. In the meantime, one of the
speakers of the April 21 hearing was Kenneth Kizer, MD, MPH, the
Undersecretary for Health of the VA.
3. On that same day, the 21st, Dr. Kizer, although he had testified on behalf
of the VA and against the Wellstone bill, went back to his office and wrote a
memo to the Secretary of the VA, Togo West. I copied it for the newsletter,
and I will try with this email to send it to you. It speaks for itself. Sen.
Wellstone's office received it several weeks ago, although it was dated the
21st of April. Someone anonymously faxed it to Wellstone. That is the smoking
gun.
4. Also, for your information, the Brookhaven National Laboratories have been
trying for several years to get funding from the DSWA to do urine bioassays on
the atomic veterans. Please believe me when I tell you this will not work
after this many years, mainly because most of the plutonium 239 (which is what
they are trying to test) was inhaled as a fine, less than 5 micron oxide, and
of course is then retained in the lung and lymph system for many, many years.
The only way it can filter down to the intestines, is if it is coughed up and
swallowed, and then it may show in the feces, not the urine. This is straight
scoop as you will see from the note at the end of the enclosure, from our
scientific adviser, Jay Brady.
Hope you can use this. It's very important that our members see this
information.
One more piece of good news:
Congressman Lane Evans has introduced a companion bill to Wellstone's, in the
House Veterans Affairs. It is No. H.R. 4368. It is imperative that all your
readers write immediately to their elected representatives to vote for H.R.
4368 in the House, and S.1385 in the Senate.
DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEMORANDUM
Date: April 21, 1998
From: Under Secretary for Health
Subj: Request for Reconsideration of the Department’s Position
on S. 1385 (Wellstone)
To: Secretary
1. I request that you reconsider the Department’s position on S. 1385
(Wellstone), which would add a
number of conditions as presumptive service-connected conditions for atomic
veterans to those already
prescribed by law. I only learned that the Department was opposing this
measure last night on reading the
Department’s prepared testimony for today’s hearing; I had no input into that
testimony. Indeed, my
views on this bill have not been obtained. I would strongly support this bill
as a matter of equity and
fairness.
2. I do not think the Department’s current opposition to S. 1385 is
defensible in view of the
Administration’s position on presumed service-connection for Gulf War
veterans, as well as its position
on Agent Orange and Vietnam veterans.
3. While the scientific methodology that is the basis for adjudicating
radiation exposure cases may be
sound, the problem is that the exposure cannot be reliably determined for many
individuals, and it never
will be able to be determined in my judgment. Thus, no matter how good the
method is, if the input is not
valid then the determination will be suspect.
4. I ask that we formally reconsider and change the Department position on S.
1385. I feel the proper
and prudent position for the Department is to support S. 1385.
/s/ Kenneth W. Kizer, M.D., M.P.H.
Editor’s Note (Pat Broudy):
The above Memorandum was received in Senator Paul Wellstone’s office on
the 25th of July. It was
FAXed to me on that date and I then FAXed it, with a cover page, to all the
Senators on the Senate
Veterans Affairs Committee, and also to Congressman Bob Stump, Chair of the
House Veterans Affairs
Committee. In that message I requested their support and co-sponsorship of
Sen. Wellstone’s S.1385. It is
scheduled for mark-up tomorrow, the 28th. In a telephone conversation today
(the 27th) I was told by an
individual in the VA that the Secretary had not changed his position on S.
1385 and still opposed it. This
means we have to work all the harder.
In a conversation with Congressman Lane Evans office, I was told he would
be submitting a draft of a
companion bill but some of the illnesses in S.1385 might be eliminated. I was
told to call back right
before Labor Day for more information.
It seems the House Veterans Affairs (at least Congressman Lane Evans’
office) is as disenchanted with
our "dose reconstructions" accomplished by DSWA’s contractor, Science
Applications International
Corporation, as we are. However, they’ve been sucked in by Brookhaven
National Laboratories (BNL)
pie-in-the-sky promise of positive bioassay assessment by urine analysis. It
seems they (BNL) have had an
ongoing battle with DSWA over funding, but have now received the go-ahead from
the DOD, very
reluctantly, I might add. We must now convince Congressman Lane Evans office
that this is as phony as
SAIC’s method of waving the magic wand over a computer to obtain radiation
doses.
In trying to convince a staffer of the idiocy of the urinalyses I asked,
"How do the widows figure in this
great new method of determining dose?" After a very pregnant pause she
replied, "I guess they’ll have to
use the old method." Come on--lady. Didn’t you just tell me you didn’t trust
SAIC’s method?
In my frustration I made a phone call to William Brady, NAAV, Scientific Adviser . His
assessment of this issue follows.
Pat Broudy
Legislative Director
National Association of Atomic Veterans