Assessing Health Outcomes Among Veterans Of Project Shad Shipboard Hazard And Defense

Download or read book Assessing Health Outcomes Among Veterans of Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1963 and 1969, the U.S. military carried out a series of tests, termed Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), to evaluate the vulnerabilities of U.S. Navy ships to chemical and biological warfare agents. These tests involved use of active chemical and biological agents, stimulants, tracers, and decontaminants. Approximately 5,900 military personnel, primarily from the Navy and Marine Corps, are reported to have been included in Project SHAD testing. In the 1990s some veterans who participated in the SHAD tests expressed concerns to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that they were experiencing health problems that might be the result of exposures in the testing. These concerns led to a 2002 request from VA to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to carry out an epidemiological study of the health of SHAD veterans and a comparison population of veterans who had served on similar ships or in similar units during the same time period. In response to continuing concerns, Congress in 2010 requested an additional IOM study. This second study expands on the previous IOM work by making use of additional years of follow up and some analysis of diagnostic data from Medicare and the VA health care system.

Download or read book Review of Report and Approach to Evaluating Long-Term Health Effects in Army Test Subjects written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-06-11 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1942 and 1975, the U.S. Army conducted tests on human subjects to study the effects of a variety of agents, including chemical warfare agents, biological agents, medications, vaccines, and other substances. The tests investigated the immediate or short-term health effects from acute exposure to understand vulnerabilities to attack. Whether the exposures could have resulted in long-term health consequences to the test subjects has been assessed periodically, and the Army is required to notify subjects of information relating to potential health effects associated with exposure to the test agents. Most recently, a 2016 court injunction directed the Army to provide test subjects with new information about potential long-term health effects associated with their exposures, and to provide medical care if an injury or illness could be attributed to their participation in an Army chemical or biological testing program. In support of the first requirement, the Army contracted a report, Assessment of Potential Long-Term Health Effects on Army Human Test Subjects of Relevant Biological and Chemical Agents, Drugs, Medications and Substances: Literature Review and Analysis (the Report), to determine whether new information published since 2006 should be provided to the veterans. At the request of the Army, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed an ad hoc committee that was tasked with conducting an independent review of the Report. The committee assessed whether the Report appropriately identified potential long-term health effects that could have resulted from test exposures using an adequate weight-of-evidence approach. The general approach for evaluating agent- and outcome-specific associations as outlined in the Army Memorandum was also reviewed. An interim report of its overarching findings and their supporting evidence was prepared in February 2018. This final report provides additional detail about the basis of the committee's findings and recommendations. No new findings or recommendations have been added to this report.

Download or read book Contaminated Water Supplies at Camp Lejeune written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-09-06 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early 1980s, two water-supply systems on the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were found to be contaminated with the industrial solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE). The water systems were supplied by the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point watertreatment plants, which served enlisted-family housing, barracks for unmarried service personnel, base administrative offices, schools, and recreational areas. The Hadnot Point water system also served the base hospital and an industrial area and supplied water to housing on the Holcomb Boulevard water system (full-time until 1972 and periodically thereafter). This book examines what is known about the contamination of the water supplies at Camp Lejeune and whether the contamination can be linked to any adverse health outcomes in former residents and workers at the base.

Download or read book Long-Term Health Effects of Participation in Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-07-03 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 5,800 military personnel, mostly Navy personnel and Marines, participated in a series of tests of U.S. warship vulnerability to biological and chemical warfare agents, Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), in the period 1962-1973. Only some of the involved military personnel were aware of these tests at the time. Many of these tests used simulants, substances with the physical properties of a chemical or biological warfare agent, thought at the time to have been harmless. The existence of these tests did not come to light until many decades later. In September 2002, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) agreed to undertake a scientific study, funded by the Veterans' Affairs, of potential long-term health effects of participation in Project SHAD. In general, there was no difference in all-cause mortality between Project SHAD participants and nonparticipant controls, although participants statistically had a significantly higher risk of death due to heart disease, had higher levels of neurodegenerative medical conditions and higher rates of symptoms with no medical basis. Long-Term Health Effects of Participation in Project SHAD focuses on the potential health effects of participation in Project SHAD. It is a useful resource for government defense agencies, scientists and health professionals.

Download or read book Noise and Military Service written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-01-20 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Institute of Medicine carried out a study mandated by Congress and sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide an assessment of several issues related to noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus associated with service in the Armed Forces since World War II. The resulting book, Noise and Military Service: Implications for Hearing Loss and Tinnitus, presents findings on the presence of hazardous noise in military settings, levels of noise exposure necessary to cause hearing loss or tinnitus, risk factors for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, the timing of the effects of noise exposure on hearing, and the adequacy of military hearing conservation programs and audiometric testing. The book stresses the importance of conducting hearing tests (audiograms) at the beginning and end of military service for all military personnel and recommends several steps aimed at improving the military services' prevention of and surveillance for hearing loss and tinnitus. The book also identifies research needs, emphasizing topics specifically related to military service.

Download or read book A 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans for Disability Benefits written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans' Disability Benefits recommends improvements in the medical evaluation and rating of veterans for the benefits provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to compensate for illnesses or injuries incurred in or aggravated by military service. Compensation is a monthly cash benefit based on a rating schedule that determines the degree of disability on a scale of 0 to 100. Although a disability rating may also entitle a veteran to ancillary services, such as vocational rehabilitation and employment services, the rating schedule is out of date medically and contains ambiguous criteria and obsolete conditions and language. The current rating schedule emphasizes impairment and limitations or loss of specific body structures and functions which may not predict disability well. 21st Century System for Evaluating Veterans' Disability Benefits recommends that this schedule could be revised to include modern concepts of disability including work disability, nonwork disability, and quality of life. In addition to the need for an updated rating schedule, this book highlights the need for the Department of Veterans' Affairs to devote additional resources to systematic analysis of how well it is providing services or how much the lives of veterans are being improved, as well as the need for a program of research oriented toward understanding and improving the effectiveness of its benefits programs.

Download or read book General and Applied Toxicology written by Bryan Ballantyne and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: