Coleen Boyle on Minneapolis autism research presented at IACC meeting on 1/14/14.

[proverbialwisdom]

2. "So what was Coleen Boyle’s role in Agent Orange?" And who was Admiral Zumwalt?

Last edited Wed Jan 15, 2014, 01:07 PM - Edit history (2)

Best case interpretation: "LESSONS LEARNED." (That is, leadership may be enhanced by the firsthand experience that eventually errors are exposed.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmo_Zumwalt

In his eulogy President Bill Clinton called Zumwalt "the conscience of the United States Navy"[6]

6. "William J. Clinton: "Remarks at Funeral Services for Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., in Annapolis, Maryland," January 10, 2000". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved November 28, 2013.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/09/agent-orange-corporatism-government-coleen-boyle-and-autism.html

September 24, 2013
Agent Orange, Corporatism, Government, Coleen Boyle…. and Autism?
By Dawn Loughborough

“What’s past is prologue.”

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The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 1983 became responsible for the prevalence counting for Viet Nam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, a jungle defoliant chemical, made by Monsanto and Dow chemical companies, associated with causing complex multi-system diseases.

Viet Nam Veterans were denied acknowledgment of and compensation for debilitating illnesses after they were exposed to Agent Orange in the jungles of Viet Nam. In fact, it was not until an Admiral Zumwalt testified via classified hearings in Congress in 1990 that Veterans started to see scientific studies confirming their illnesses and compensation relief from the health outcome atrocities they experienced through exposure to this chemical.

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The CDC was asked to report on prevalence numbers. The process the CDC went through was to determine who had been exposed and when. Later these studies were used to determine those who would be compensated for health related issues caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

According to Admiral Zumwalt’s 1990 testimony, which is now unclassified, the studies were abysmal. Admiral Zumwalt’s testimony stated that the CDC diluted results to deny claims of veterans and the Agent Orange prevalence method was manipulative against Viet Nam Veterans seeking justice. He stated:

“After reviewing the scientific literature related to the health effects of Vietnam Veterans exposed to Agent Orange … I conclude that there is adequate evidence for the Secretary to reasonably conclude that … there is a relationship between exposure to Agent Orange and the following health problems: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, … bone cancer, soft tissue sarcoma, birth defects, skin cancer, porphyria cutanea tarda and other liver disorders, Hodgkin’s disease, hematopoietic diseases, multiple myeloma, neurological defects, auto-immune diseases and disorders, leukemia, lung cancer, kidney cancer, malignant melanoma, pancreatic cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, nasal/pharyngeal/esophageal cancers, prostate cancer, testicular cancer, liver cancer, brain cancer, psychosocial effects and gastrointestinal diseases.

I further conclude that the Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards has not acted with impartiality in its review and assessment of the scientific evidence related to the association of adverse health effects and exposure to Agent Orange.”

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The admiral continued:

“Unfortunately, as hearings before the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee on July 11, 1989 revealed, the design, implementation and conclusions of the CDC study were so ill conceived as to suggest that political pressures once again interfered with the kind of professional, unbiased review Congress had sought to obtain.”

He went on to describe how the prevalence counting methods were changed and re-issued, how veterans were re-grouped creating further delays and confusion around identifying prevalence and how the numbers were manipulated to describe specific outcomes. The CDC said the company-specific records were unreliable, however, military records and peer reviewed data by the American Legion showed a reliable exposure classification system essential to epidemiologic studies of Vietnam Veterans.

The CDC studies protected the industry over the veterans and up until Admiral Zumwalt’s testimony negated compensation and health justice for our veterans.

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So what was Coleen Boyle’s role in Agent Orange? In 1984 she joined the CDC as part of the prevalence reporting team for Agent Orange on the VES Mortality Study Staff. In 1987, this study staff said that there was not a causal connection between Agent Orange exposure and health outcomes of veterans.

“As part of the Agent Orange staff, Dr. Boyle served as the principal investigator for the Vietnam Experience mortality studies and as senior epidemiologist for a large, multi-centered cancer case-control study.”

After the date of the congressional hearing with Admiral Zumwalt, Coleen Boyle was listed as part of a study that looked at the prevalence of Viet Nam veterans who had children with spina bifida called “The Embryo Study”. The study showed that those men who had reported a higher exposure to Agent Orange had a higher than normal likelihood of fathering children with spina bifida.

In 2001, Dr. Boyle transferred from Viet Nam Veterans to Children. She was named the Associate Director for Science and Public Health for the then newly created National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at CDC. In October 2004, Dr. Boyle was appointed the Director of the Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, NCBDDD. Dr. Jose Cordero, director of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disability, announced that Dr. Coleen Boyle had accepted the position of director. Dr. Boyle joined the Interagency Autism Coordinating Council (IACC) as a Federal member in 2010.