Have you seen the new Agent Orange Pin?

Have you seen the new Agent Orange Pin ?

The designer of the Agent Orange Pin, Chuck Leist, served in Vietnam in 1967-1968. In 2014, he was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, renal cell carcinoma and mantle cell carcinoma in his bone marrow. All of these cancers are directly linked to his exposure to agent orange during his Vietnam service.

After having a large part of his left kidney removed, Chuck searched for an Agent Orange Cancer Survivor ribbon. He found two, but neither one adequately addressed the relationship between Agent Orange and service in Vietnam. Chuck designed his own ribbon and applied for a copyright on his ribbon design. His goals are to use this pin to promote education about Agent Orange as well as to allow 501(c) organizations to make a profit from sales to support their mission statements.

Chuck has met many other veterans who are suffering with cancers caused from their exposure to Agent Orange, and he feels great empathy for them. He wants to help them get the care they deserve. He also wants the public to be aware of this issue.

During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed nearly 20,000,000 U.S. gallons (75,700,000 L) of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia as part of the aerial defoliation program known as Operation Ranch Hand, reaching its peak from 1967 to 1969

Studies have shown that veterans have increased rates of cancer, and nerve, digestive, skin, and respiratory disorders, in particular, higher rates of acute/chronic leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, throat cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, , soft tissue sarcoma and liver cancer. With the exception of liver cancer, these are the same conditions the U.S. Veterans Administration has determined may be associated with exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin, and are on the list of conditions eligible for compensation and treatment.

While in Vietnam, the veterans were told not to worry, and were persuaded the chemical was harmless.

After returning home, Vietnam veterans began to suspect their ill health or the instances of their wives having miscarriages or children born with birth defects might be related to Agent Orange and the other toxic herbicides to which they had been exposed in Vietnam. Veterans began to file claims in 1977 to the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability payments for health care for conditions they believed were associated with exposure to Agent Orange, or more specifically, dioxin, but their claims were denied unless they could prove the condition began when they were in the service or within one year of their discharge.

You can order one of these pins by going to clicking on Order Agent Orange Pins.

More information about Agent Orange is available through the Department of Veteran Affairs Agent Orange Newsletter.

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