1 15 1 https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/speccoll/files/original/a518bcc2f7b8963a96b0692ad57e00a7.pdf 56e9b4181fffbeb5335af00a10435fb0 PDF Text Text Item D Number 05233 Author D NntSBannefl Edwards, Don Corporate Author Report/Article TltlB VA Action Needed on Agent Orange JOUmal/BOOk TltlB Congressional Record Year 1978 Month/Day May 11 Color Number of Images n ° Doscrlpton Notes Friday, March 01, 2002 Page 5238 of 5263 �lAJNGKiiSSiONAJL j'ik'od to asslmllnted to. Thus Mussolini bad a Him produced on Sclpio Africauus. Stalin must bflvc seen the glorification of his own totalitarian meUiods in tho victorious struggle of Ivan and his police "Oprichnina" against princes, boyars and other dissenters. 'Jlils film Is at the same time an apotheosis of Ivan's absolutism aud a clever Justification of Stalin's dictatorship. It Is Incredible that a big corporation like Exxon, having worldwide interests and many bright bruins, Jms DO one to \varn it from falling into such a propagandistio trnp. Consequently, relations between West and East before ftiul after Helsinki nro the same. In the West-East direction they represent a way to channel Western currencies, goods and know-how into the lagging economy of the Soviet Bloc. In the East-West direction, the Soviet Union and its satellites are amply exploiting our concept of artistic freedom which they don't tolerate at home for the propagation of their socialist ideology. Where is the principle of reciprocity? We do not need be afraid of the Soviet Union the weakness of which Is in its multinational composition. Regardless of the Impressive bigness of the Soviet Union as a mechanism of power, the organic troubles of this last historical empire cannot but increase as the proportion of the Non-Russian population is becoming mftjorltariaii and preponderant. We have missed many opportunities to create efficient leverages when dealing with the Soviet Union. The most powerful of them remains the right of peoples to self-determination. This, of course, is only a logical conclusion of civil and human rights. Consequently, self-determination, if reaffirmed by our Government in proper time and proper terms as a general principle, would produce a magic effect upon Non-Russian populations of the Soviet Union and upon Its satellites. Indeed, if the principle of self-determination, shall be applied In Africa, why not In the Soviet empire and East-Central Europe? The Soviet Union is nn atomic "superpower" with the living standard of nn underdeveloped country. Henry Kissinger's idea that world peace depends on the cooperation of the United States of America and the Soviet Union is false. Our SALT negotiations with the Soviets have no practical sense. Even if there is an agreement to that effect, it will have no legally binding force. We know from the history of the East-West relations that the Soviets may sign anything, but will respect nothing. By willingness to negotiate they make us believe that they moon to reach an agreement. However, whoever knows from history something about Russian shifty mentality, will not rely on their words or signatures. Can Western diplomats forget Stalin's dictum: "Treaties are like cakes: You have to break them to eat them!"? World peace depends on the political and economic solidarity of tho United States, Western Europe end Japan as well as on the willingness of China to cooperate. To further build up this solidarity and cooperation Is a worthy objective for our dlplomacy.ffl INFLATION: CAUSE OF ECONOMY'S PROBLEMS Hon. John E. "Jack" Cunningham OF WASHINGTON IN THE.HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, May 11, 1978 0 Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, everyone Is concerned with the high cost of living. On May 10, 1978, Congress fueled Inflation by approving a budget //, 1978 Extensions -of Remarks target figure which includes a $58 billion deficit. . . . .Recently, George H. Weyerhaeuser, chief executive officer of the Weyerhaeuser Co., wrote an analysis of toe present state of the economy, which I submit for the RECORD: INFLATION: CAUSE OP ECONOMY'S PROULF.MS (By George H. Weyerhaeuser) In my annual report message this year, there was something of an essay on the current ttale of our world. Problems In our European nnd Japanese markets were mentioned, along with the rising costr of energy, capital goods, raw materials, labor . . . and virtually everything else. It would be nice to report today that the situation has changed dramatically. It has not. There are some signs of Improvement In specific and important markets and In controlling specific costs; but the pace of Inflation has also since accelerated, not slowed. And, it is Inflation—tho Inflationary blaa in al! tho developed nations, but particularly the United States—that is the root cause of all of these problems. In this country, we liko to blame the oil crisis—the action of tho OPEC nations several years ago in suddenly quadrupling the price of petroleum— for the current inflation. And, Indeed, that did help accelerate and maintain the inflationary momentum. But inflation already was out of hand before the crisis. We need to recognize, as the leaders of the other Western nations do, that -perhaps the greatest engine of inflation abroad in the world today is the continued mismanagement of the United States economy, the apparent inability of this nation or its leaders, to face up to the hard decisions that must be made. INFLATION ADJUSTMENTS IN TAXES NEEDED The President, in his recent inflation mesr-ago, signified the new awareness in Washington of the problem and that may be a start toward a solution. But, the elements of that solution that must eventually be faced were missing. They must include expenditure cuts at least paralleling tax cuts, prid inflation adjustments for corporate depreciation allowances and for individual and corporate taxes, For example, earlier this week most -of us paid income taxes on tho interest earned In our bank savings accounts, As It happens, tho Inflation rate last year exceeded the Interest paid by banks on savings. Thus, in purchasing power, none of us received any increase in the value of those savings. We suffered a marginal loss, but since the tax code doesn't recognize inflation, we paid taxes on" our savings account interest-anyway. This Identical problem is affecting corporations such as ours, dramatically. We we unable to replace and maintain our plants and equipment "With the funds available from depreciation—they are inadequate to do theJob, with rapidly inflating costs for construction and machinery. We, almost alone among the major nations, have continued since 1973 to try to make simultaneous progress toward all of our national aspirations including those of major pressure groups. Tho pressure to overspend in our governmental system has seemingly been too much to control. We seem to have built into our. system a desire to increase benefits in all areas of our public life, coupled by complete inability to face up to the costs—whether in the Social Security System, our various income transfer programs, or in our proliferating regulatory systems. Wo are, for instance, alone among the Western nations in our refusal to allow consumers to face the real market cost for energy—even though we, as a nation, have a unique ability to rely upon the free market's forces to bring energy supply and demand; Into healthy balance. '. The polls have Indicated for some time that the people of the United States have be£n well ahead of the leaders in recognizing that inflation Is the economy's basic problem, and In sensing some of the solutions. While the leaders have continued to talk in terms of energy shortage, rather than energy price, the people have rightly been skeptical, and tt Is now they who are proven right, v,-lth the world awash in ft glut pf oil. Yet, ouv lenders i>U)l seem itmHiU' to njjust ti> thin situation, to let tho tiwrlset <•»!>« ««>'« «f oil availability and prlco, LKAUEKS INTERFERE IN MARKET'S EFFICIENCY Instead, they argue over which form of bureaucracy; which form of tax; which form of regulation can best bo used to prevent tho market from working its efficiencies—which can best delay tho absorbing of tho effect of the OPEC action, and which thus can best delay tho economy^ adjustment to it. I believe most Americans agree that the adjustment lias been postponed too long already, a-nd would prefer to get the absorption period over with, so that the economy can move forward.® ACTION NEEDED ON AGENT ORANGJS HON. DON EDWARDS ' OF CALIFORNIA IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, May 11, 1978 e Mr. EDWARDS of California. Mr. Speaker, many of us have become Increasingly aware of the disturbing allegations being made regarding health hazards experienced by Vietnam era veterans as a result of their exposure to the powerful defoliant, Agent Orange. The defoliant was used in Vietnam between 19G2 and 1970, when it was withdrawn by the Pentagon because of its apparent dangerous effects to human and plant life. . -Along with 13 of my colleagues on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, I have uiitlated a request for nn olliciul response from the VA to provide the committee with a thorough report on Agent Orange and what outreach and research efforts the VA has in mind. While it is perhaps too soon to draw any definite medical conclusions, there are certainly a lot of unanswered Questions about Agent Orange. I think the Congress has a real responsibility to follow up this issue to insure that the needs of our Vietnam veterans are met. In the June issue of the Progressive, there is an excellent article on the filing of Agent Orange related claims in one VA regional oifice—the Chicago office. I think my colleagues will find the article helpful in exploring the work done thus far on this critically Important issue and in clarifying the need for our careful attention to this situation. The article follows: AcrioN NEEDED ON AGENT ORANCR <By Michael Uhl and Tod Ensign) Maude de Victor works behind n colci, steel gray desk in the Benefits Section of the Veterans Administration regional office in Chicago. She Is not your average papershuffier. In recent months, Maude do Victor has Joined the select ranks of whistle blowers— �May 11, 1978 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD —- Extensions of Remark those^ierolo individuals who discover an outrage and, in defiance of bureaucratic inertia or suppression, bring it to public notice. The outrage Maude de Victor discovered \viif) the shocking effect of dioxin poisoning on American veterans who came into contact with the herbicides that were used to defoliate more than five million acres of the Vietnamese countryside between 1962 and 1070. Her efforts have not only focused attention on the plight of these latest victims of the Vietnam war, but have also raised new warnings against the domestic hazards posed by the herbicides. Massive defoliation was a major tactic- pursued by U.S. forces in Vietnam. It had two objectives—to deny guerrillas their Jungle cover, and to destroy food crops so that the peasantry would be compelled to take refuge in controlled resettlement camps. The most widely used defoliant was Agent Orange, a mix of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, two herbicides. used in the United States for many years to control crops and forest growth and to clear vegetation along roads and railroad tracks. Dioxin—Its full name is tetrachloro-dibenzoparadioxin, or TCDD—often appears as a biproduct in the manufacture of trichlorophenol. from which 2,4,5-T is made. Dioxin is one of the most toxic contaminants known to humankind, Among the symptoms associated with exposure to the substance are a skin disorder called chloracne, liver abscesses, spontaneous miscarriages, numbing of limbs, reduced sex drive, personality changes, and birth defects among the children of those exposed. Dioxin poisoning is believed to have caused many birth defects in Vietnam in recent years, and a host of ailments among those who suffered exposure. Maude de Victor, a thirty-eight-year-old black woman, had never, heard of Agent Orange or dioxin when she took a random telephone call about a year ago from the wife of a Vietnam veteran named Charles Owens. Her husband, Mrs. Owens said, was dying of cancer, and he blamed it on "those chemicals from Vietnam." Four months later Mrs. Owens called again to say that her husband had died—and that her claim for survivor's benefits had been refused by the VA. That second call prompted Maude de Victor to try to flnd out about the chemicals which Charles Owens believed had caused his fatal illness. She called the office of the Air Force Surgeon General aud-spoke to Captain Alvin Young, who, she points out, holds a Ph.D. degree in plant physiology. Young briefed her thoroughly on the U.S. military's defoliation program in Vietnam and on the symptoms believed to be associated with dioxin contamination. Most of what we know about the toxic effects of dioxin on human beings has been learned from studying the victims of industrial accidents at plants producing trichlorophenol—especially the notorious accident in July 1976 »t Seveso, Italy, where inhabitants were thoroughly doused with the poison. But there have been relatively few laboratory studies to determine the effects on animal systems of less concentrated exposure, and of dio.xln's reported tendency to accumulate in the body's fatty issue. One scientist who has conducted such experiments. Professor Val Woodward of the University of Minnesota, has asserted, "One thing is clear . . . 2,4,5-T is a very effective teratogen [fetus-deforming agent]. It deforms mice in laboratory situations, and very clearly human beings who have been sprayed have a higher incidence of these deformities than people who were not sprayed." Maude de Victor recalls that Captain Young described several major Vietnamese defoliation programs, such as Operation Ranchhand, and that he said there was "no doubt" that anyone who participated in those operations would have been contaminated.. . ' At this point, Maude de Victor was no longer merely following the bureaucratic routine of her Job. She had a special reason for talcing a special interest: In the 1950s, while serving with the Navy medical corps, she attended women with xiterlne cancer who were receiving experimental treatments with radium pellets. Twenty years later, she learned that she had breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and has been given a clean bill of health, but she suspects that long-ago exposure to radiation may have Induced her cancer. At the VA, Maude de Victor receives an average of seventy telephone calls and personally interviews about fifteen veterans each day. After her talk with Captain Young she began posing some questions to her clients: "You been in Vietnam? Got any kind of rash? Have any children with deformities?" Often they a:iswered, "Yeah, how'd you know?" With her supervisors' permission, she began logging these cases. In the first two months of 1978, she accumulated twentyseven examples of this new disability. Her informal queries afr the Veterans Hospital txirned up about thirty more—all from the Chicago area. Suddenly, without explanation, her boss ordered her to stop logging potential dioxin poisoning cases; apparently, the higher levels of the VA were becoming concerned. Maude de Victor decided to tell what she had learned to a television news correspondent. . On Match 23, 1978, WBBM, the CBS television affiliate In Chicago, aired an hour-long documentary featuring Interviews with alling veterans, research scientists, and the Air Force's Captain. Young. Before the television cameras, he was less certain about the possible hazards of dioxin poisoning than be had been in conversation with de Victor. When asked about alleged dangers from 2,4,5-T, he said, "I don't think there's any supportive evidence." Dow Chemical, a major herbicide manufacturer, released a statement after the broadcast denying any connection with alleged birth defects. Relying on a National Academy of Sciences study conducted In 1974, Dow asserted that "no conclusive evidence (exists) of association between exposure to herbicides and birth defects in South Vietnam." The statement made no mention of possible links between 2,4,5-T and ailments suffered by veterans, and Dow said It "fully supports further epidemiological studies of military personnel who have health problems associated with service In Vietnam." In previous statements,. Dow had ,claimed that the dioxin content in its herbicides was insignificant. Scientists disagree about whether these are safe levels of dioxin exposure, and whether dloxins enter the luinian food chain and are stored In the body's fatty tissue. Using a solution far less toxic than that found In either Agent Orange or the 2,4,5-T herbicides used in the United States today. Dr. James Allen of the University of Wisconsin found that "low-level consumption even as low as five parts per trillion of dioxin in the diet was capable of causing an Increased incidence of tumors In experimental animals." Though Maude de Victor did not know it, American environmentalists have been fightIng against the use of contaminated defoliants ait home and abroad for years. While Vietnam was being defoliated, there was a sharp corresponding Increase in the use of the same herbicides by state and local agencies. Since I960, the U.S. Forest Service has made increasing use of defoliants containing 2,4,5-T in national parks and forests across the country-. • For years this spraying program went unnoticed and unprotested, but in 1974 a group of citizens to- northern Wisconsin banded to- E2507 gether as the Chequamcgon Concerned Citizens to fight the spraying of the two national forests near their homes. John Stauber, one of the group's founders, recalls. "We collected over two thousand signatures against the spraying In a short period. We really caught the Forest Service by"surprise; they weren't used to dealing with opposition." Wisconsin's Attorney General entered the dispute and won a Federal court injunction against spraying on grounds thftt no proper environmental impact statements baa been filed, in early 1977, th» injunction was withdrawn after the state and the National Forest Servive agreed on some ecological safeguards. Around the country, groups have formed in a number of states to organize opposition to the continued use of herbicides. In February 1978, representatives from sixteen state groups met in Washington and formed thei Citizens National Forest Coalition to coordinate and direct the fight against uncontrolled use of herbicides. Its goal was to win •• a national ban on all products containing 2,4,5-T and to seek an "ecologically sound and Integrated forest management system." One of the most active coalition members, the Citizens Against Toxic Spraying (CATS), has initiated a major court suit in Oregon which has stopped, for the time being, herblcUIal spraying on Federal lands in that state. . , , . Barry Commoner, the distinguished environmental scientist, believes the burden of proof should rest with manufacturers of the herbicides—and with Government agencies that sanction use of the chemicals—to demonstrate beyond-reasonable doubt that they are safe. He told WBBM, "It may well be found [thatj soldiers who were exposed to dioxin In Vietnam accumulated [it] in their body fat with no symptoms . . . except Immediate skin symptoms. Let's say ten years later they become sick and lose weight. They would break down that,fat, releasing the dioxin into the body, and then symptoms would appear." Commoner has proposed that when Vietnam veterans are interviewed for the 1980 Census, questions about possible dioxin exposure be included. "It is simply another cost of the war In Vietnam which we are going to have to pay, even this late," he says. Michael Adams, a twenty-niue-ye.ar-old resident of Evanston, Illinois, is already payIng the price. Ho served hi Vietnam ten years ago as a combat engineer with the Twentyfifth Infantry Division, and one of his duties was to clear forested areas for base camps In the Central Highlands. Often his unit sprayed Agent Orange on the dense vegetation, using hand-pumps, and several times he watched as refitted C-123 aircraft sprayed defoliants on his unit's area of operation. Mike Adams believes he was exposed to the toxic herbicide during these operations. Soon after he returned from Vietnam, large pimple-like sores began to form on his face. An Army medic told him they were "razor bumps" that could easily bo removed, but the sores have persisted and ore probably a form of chloracne, a common symptom of dioxin exposure. After his discharge in 1971, Adarns began to experience numbness in his arms and shoulders. He had difficulty sleeping, and in the past two years he has lost more than- sixty pounds. He also believes he has undergone a personality change: "Before I went to the 'Nam, I was an easy going, cheerful type; now, I often feel on edge and will blow up over Just any little thing," he says. Milton Ross, a twenty-nine-year-old computer programmer from Matteson, Illinois, who served two tours in Vietnam, Is also paying the price. Not only does he suffer from some of the symptoms of dioxin poisonIng, but his six-year-old son, Richard, con- �CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions oj Remarks celved n'tfcr Ross's return from overseas, was born with the last Joints of his fingers and toes either deformed or missing. Ross and his first wife had a study made of their own genetic histories for possible explanations of their son'8 condition. The research uncovered no genetic disorders on either side, Ross, who served with the Fifth Special forces In the Central Highlands, told us, "Although I wasn't Involved In the spraying operations, I was sprayed upon. The possibilities for exposure were unlimited. They sprayed a lot around the perimeter at Kon Turn, and often the wind would blow the clouds right over our cainp." Ross has not been able" to work since January, when he •was hospitalized for a suspected heart condition, another possible consequence of dloxin exposure. After he was Interviewed on WBBM, Boss began hearing from other Chicago area veterans who also suspect they may be victims of Agent Orange. They are considering the formation of an organization that will bat'tle the VA for disability benefits. Maude de Victor estimates that the Chicago VA has now received more than 500 calls, mostly from Illinois, from veterans reporting difficulties and requesting information and disability claim forms. Both Milton Ross and Maxide de Victor charge the VA Is dragging its feet on these claims. "They've refused to examine these men; they haven't even called them in," Ross complains. "I've gone over their heads to Washington and they tell me there'll be some results in a couple of months." "The VA doesn't even have any rating criteria for chemical disabilities," Maude de Victor points out. "They're not doing any•thing on these cases because they don't have 'any standards for evaluation. Each case Is either denied outright or 'diarled'—that is, placed In a computer where It's programmed to pop up every sixty days for re-review." ' Meanwhile, do Victor is suffering the common fate of whlstleblowers. She has been excluded from staff meetings. "VA doesn't tell me anything any more," she says.* of taxable Income and tax liability by introducing the "zero bracket amount" concept into the tax law. Under the zero bracket amount rules the standard deduction is no longer a deduction to compute taxable income. Instead it is incorporated into the tax rate schedules. This was accomplished by changing the definition of taxable income and recomputing the tax rate schedules. These changes were' intended to have no (or only minimal) effect on taxpayers' tax liabilities. Certain conforming changes were necessitated by this action, one of which was to conform the pre-1977 and post-1976 definitions of taxable income for purposes of computing base period income for income averaging. Two basic methods for making this conforming adjustment were available. The method chosen requires that the '/ero bracket amount be added to taxable income for taxable years beginning before December 31, 1976, in order to make pre-1977 base period taxable income comparable to current year taxable income. This adjustment phases out after 4 years. The result of this approach is an understatement of averageable income, and the potential of a.n increase in,, tax liability for taxpayers electing income averaging. This occurs because, in the course of the income .averaging computations, the base period income is factored up 120 percent. Since -the 'zero bracket amount is added to base period income, it too is factored up by 120 percent. Consequently, when 120 percent of average base period income is deducted from current year income to compute averagable income, avera gable income is lower by 20 percent.of the zero bracket amount. An alternative method would have been to add the xero bracket amount to 120 percent of average base period inBILL TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM come, rather than adding it before mul• WHICH THE ZERO BRACKET tiplying by 120 percent. This approach AMOUNT CREATES FOR TAX- would, however, require subtracting the . PAYERS UTILIZING . INCOME zero bracket amount from taxable income of. any base period year beginning AVERAGING • . after December 31,1976. Thus, this alternative method would require .adjust; . HON. JOSEPH L. FISHER ments in all future years. OF VIRGINIA The method chosen was the simplest, in that it would have required adjust• IN THE HOUSK OF REPRESENTATIVES ments in base period income for only a ' • :.-: Thursday, May 11, 1978 '- • .4-year phase-in period, while the other "• Mr..FISHER. Mr. Speaker, Repre- .method would have required adjustsentative STEIGER and I have Introduced ments to be made in all subsequent years. legislation designed to rectify the prob- The disadvantage of the method chosen lems which the zero bracket amount has is that it can increase the tax liability caused Individual taxpayers seeking to of a taxpayer who uses the income averUtilize the income averaging provisions aging provisions. .' available under the Internal Revenue • The amount of the tax increase can Code. range from just a few dollars to over The income averaging provisions of $1,000, depending primarily on the numthe Code (section 1301 to 1305) are in- ber of tax rate brackets the taxpayer bended to mitigate the adverse effect of "jumped" because of the increase in his our progressive tax rate schedule on the income. Further, the conforming change tax liability of taxpayers whose income can prevent a taxpayer's qualification for fluctuates widely from year to year. income averaging under a $3,000 de miniWithout the income averaging provi- mus rule contained in the income averag: sions, a taxpayer with no taxable income ing provisions. tor 4 years and $100,000 taxable income Mr. STEIGER and I propose to amend • in the fifth year would pay more tax the income averaging provisions to prothan a taxpayer with $20,000 taxable in- vide for use of the alternative method of come in each of the 5 years. conforming the income averaging rules to " The Tax Reduction and Simplificati6n the zero bracket amount. The alternative 'Act of 1977 simplified the computation. method will require that the zero bracket May 11, 1978 amount be added to 120 percent of average base period income. In order to compute average base period income for years after 1976, taxable income will have to be reduced by the taxpayer's zero bracket amount. While this method is somewhat more complex than current law, it is a much more equitable approach and more clearly preserves the tax savings available under the income averaging provisions as they existed prior to enactment of the Tax Reduction and Simplification Act of 1977,» COLLEGE COSTS INCREASE PASTER THAN AFTER TAX INCOME HON. ALBERT H. QUIE OP. MINNESOTA IN THE HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES Thursday, May 11, 1978 « Mr. QUIE. Mr. Speaker, the financial burden of sending a son or daughter to college is increasing annually for this Nation's low- and middle-income fam'ilies. The House has been responsive to the needs of these families with children in postseeondary schools. In March, the Education and Labor Committee reported H.R. 11274, the Middle Income -Student Assistance Act, which provides $1.4 billion in increased student grants, loans, and work-study money. Yesterr day, the Rules Committee granted a rule 'on H.R. 12050, the Tuition Tax Credit Act, which provides a tax credit for 25 percent of tuition paid by a taxpayer up •to a maximum credit of $250 in 1980. Both of these bills will assist in insur.ing that no one would be denied the opportunity for a college education for financial reasons alone. I believe Congress should continue to be committed to sharing the burden of college costs. I was therefore initially disturbed by a Congressional Budget Office study released last weekend which stated that college costs, while increasing faster than the cost of living, have been offset by an even larger rise in family incomes. The CBO study implied that increased financial aid to college students and their .parents was not necessary. . . Conversations with constituents and -members of the higher education community had led me to believe that the financial burden of sending students to college was in fact increasing. I therefore asked the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress to review the CBO's findings and to de•termine whether discretionary income had risen faster in relation to college costs. The findings of the CRS study, which are set forth in the tabfe below, refute the implications of the CBO study that college costs today are not more costly than 10 years ago. The CBO study failed to consider the effects of the increased burden of taxes on discretionary income. \Vhile the national median income has increased 78.8 percent during the period 1967-76, after tax income has risen only 66.8 percent • during that same period. Tills increase in discretionary income, the money from � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Alvin L. Young Collection on Agent Orange Description An account of the resource <p style="margin-top: -1em; line-height: 1.2em;">The Alvin L. Young Collection on Agent Orange comprises 120 linear feet and spans the late 1800s to 2005; however, the bulk of the coverage is from the 1960s to the 1980s and there are many undated items. The collection was donated to Special Collections of the National Agricultural Library in 1985 by Dr. Alvin L. Young (1942- ). Dr. Young developed the collection as he conducted extensive research on the military defoliant Agent Orange. The collection is in good condition and includes letters, memoranda, books, reports, press releases, journal and newspaper clippings, field logs and notebooks, newsletters, maps, booklets and pamphlets, photographs, memorabilia, and audiotapes of an interview with Dr. Young.</p> <p>For more about this collection, <a href="/exhibits/speccoll/exhibits/show/alvin-l--young-collection-on-a">view the Agent Orange Exhibit.</a></p> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Box The box containing the original item. 178 Folder The folder containing the original item. 5238 Series The series number of the original item. Series VIII Subseries I Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Edwards, Don Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Congressional Record Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 11 1978 Title A name given to the resource VA Action Needed on Agent Orange ao_seriesVIII