AF Delays Brief to Senator Burr re: C-123 Dioxin Exposure

For uncertain reasons, the Air Force briefer scheduled to meet with Senator Burr's staff and teleconference participants has delayed his presentation until 11 July. We hope it is for a serious reconsideration of the mounting evidence from outside AF/VA sources which challenge such an unscientific report.

Thus far, other federal agencies as well as university experts have weighed in...none in support of the VA/AF, all in opposition. They cite the failure to respect the Army's TG312, failure to allow reasonable benefit of the doubt, failure to avoid unscientific assumptions, failure to weigh opinions expressed by the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, failure to weigh earlier IOM exposure data regarding dermal and inhalation routes of dioxin, and failure to address the greater degree of contamination prior to the first tests conducted on the aircraft.

It is unfortunate that the issue shifts from an examination of aircrew exposure to dioxin contamination on our aircraft, to a detailed expose of why the heck the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine pumped out such an unscientific document.

Let's hope the Air Force Surgeon gets it right this time! All we ask is the benefit of the doubt, to allow the evidence to reach the VA's "as likely to as not" threshold.

We're grateful for the powerful support of the professional societies. We're profoundly grateful to the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America as we continue our struggle. And we look forward to the day we can shut this web site down, go home, and with corrected AF and VA reports, turn to the VA for treatment of our service-connected illnesses.