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 Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:27 am Post subject: Navy Shipboard Vietnam cancers linked to water |
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Navy Shipboard Vietnam cancers linked to water
WED 22 MAR 2006, Page 003
By: Simon Kearney
SAILORS who served on naval ships during the Vietnam War have been told their ships' drinking water, which was contaminated with Agent Orange, could be causing their cancers.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is investigating a link between the number of cancers among sailors and the desalinated water on board some ships, which contained dioxins from the deadly defoliant.
The alarm relates to ships that took on water in Vung Tau harbor in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, specifically HMAS Sydney, which made 23 trips to Vietnam during the war, and her escort ships
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Between 1980 and 1994 as many as 170 navy personnel died from cancers potentially related to the water on the ships, according to the Mortality of Vietnam Veterans cohort study.
An updated mortality study on Vietnam veterans is due to be released later this year.
The problem was identified nearly three years ago when the National Research Center for Toxicology found that desalinated drinking water taken from the estuary was contaminated with Agent Orange, which was sprayed widely across the country during the war.
``We are investigating what the issues associated with water and water taken from Vietnamese waters are, and the RMA (Repatriation Medical Authority) have made some progress in that in terms of providing some linkages,'' Department of Veterans Affairs secretary Mark Sullivan said in a Senate budget estimates hearing last month.
He said drinking the water was linked to prostate cancer, bone marrow cancer, and two cancers of the lymphatic system, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Hodgkin's lymphoma.
``It (RMA) is still considering the medical and scientific evidence for the inclusion of a potable water factor in the investigations for malignant neoplasm of the lung (lung cancer), soft tissue sarcoma, malignant neoplasm of the larynx (throat cancer) and acute myeloid leukemia,'' Mr Sullivan said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is urging former navy personnel who have these conditions and served on ships that anchored in Vung Tau harbor to submit or resubmit claims.
``What we encourage all veterans to do, if they are unwell or have a condition or disease and they have any suspicion that that condition is related to their service, is to put in a claim. We will investigate it,'' Mr Sullivan said.
However, Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia president Ron Coxon said the Government had not gone far enough because veterans had to prove they spent a total of 30 days drinking the water.
``They talk about 30 cumulative days but we don't know how much of the dioxin actually settled in the tank because they never cleaned them,'' he said.
The initial toxicology report found that distilling seawater concentrated the dioxins in the water navy personnel were drinking and washing in to above safe levels. The report was an attempt to explain why more navy personnel were dying after the war than other veterans.
Of the 55,000 Australians who served in Vietnam, 12,376 were in the navy.
Opposition veteran’s affairs spokesman Allan Griffin said the Department of Veterans Affairs was not being active enough about warning veterans who might be at risk.
(Gee, I think we just discussed that very issue regarding our own government called outreach.)
(I would also think that includes any ships that stopped in Guam for stores and potable water.}
Simon Kearney
The Australian newspaper
2 Holt Street
Surry Hills
NSW 2010 |
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