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I'm not sure about the increase since 2000 (could be better detection methods), but the military is known to use a bunch of toxic chemicals. On the motorcycle

I'm not sure about the increase since 2000 (could be better detection methods), but the military is known to use a bunch of toxic chemicals. On the motorcycle forums I frequent I have heard more than a few times about how "The stuff we had when I was in the Army/Navy/AF would have cleaned this up in seconds." And they were only talking about the degreasers and lubricants, not the munitions or other chemicals that were hanging around the base. Read about Agent Orange if you want to be pissed off for the rest of the day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange#U.S._veterans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange#U.S._veterans

dv_dt 7y ago
Maybe they were referring to this. Great solvent, not so great for human health. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichloroethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichloroethylene
- madengr 7y ago
  They used to use this shit at my employer, back in the 80’s, for cleaning circuit boards. Forbid the use of gloves due to electro static discharge. People often complained it would burn their hands. At least they now use d-limonene, which is a food addictive derived from orange skin oil.
- tyingq 7y ago
  Can confirm this was used by enlisted electronic techs in the USAF in the 1980's. Similar for also questionable, but less lethal organic solvents like MEK. Gloves were specifically forbidden, and breathing gear wasn't present. I was young and didn't know better. Got several govt letters later asking me to opt out of lawsuits in exchange for free VA services.
scruple 7y ago
I could write a novel about this. My father was exposed to and handled Agent Orange in Vietnam. An uncle, as well. My uncle passed in 2007, riddled with cancers, fighting the VA every step of the way. That man served nearly 35 years before retiring. Their generation coined the phrase "Delay, deny, and hope that we die." due to their experiences with the VA. I decided not to be a helpless by-stander when it was my fathers time to contend with the VA. I took nearly 3 years off of my life and moved back home to help him. He was eventually able to successfully obtain a disability rating and was able to get prior/existing health issues linked to his exposure, which secured disability back pay to the 90s. All of this, his experience and the back pay, specifically, is something of an outlier, as we understand it. As we understand it, most folks don't have the resources to navigate the system successfully. It wasn't a massive financial windfall, but it meant that my parents future was financially secure (their finances were in ruins by the mid-00s) and once he was mobile again, with his health issues under control and with an effective management plan in place, I was able to get back on with my own life. There are also inter-generational effects with Agent Orange, but they're not very well understood (to my knowledge). That frightens me today, especially now that I've had my own children. There's a whole other dynamic there, too, in that I also served, and that I've been exposed to burn pits and a lot of diesel fumes and high RF environments and some solvents and etc... I feel like it's an inevitability in my own life's story that I'll eventually have to contend with the VA, as well.
- linuxftw 7y ago
  Imagine the effect on the poor Vietnamese :( My Grandfather was killed by the stuff too. He had a condition that wasn't one of the conditions that the VA established as linked to it. I've found some other cases online of other service members that had what he had. The other game the VA plays is they'll dispute you were ever even exposed to it in the first place.
  - scruple 7y ago
    > Imagine the effect on the poor Vietnamese :( I do, very frequently, in fact. I have many friends who are Vietnamese today (I live in Orange County, CA), and they have many stories about extended family in Vietnam and elsewhere about birth defects and such. My wife's mother is Vietnam-born Chinese. She came to the US as a refugee. They have family that was exposed as innocents caught in the middle of the conflict, just trying to escape with their lives. There are countless generations of people in Vietnam, and now abroad, that will never be properly acknowledged, let alone compensated, for what we did to them. And, in some cases, what is still happening to them today, as the byproducts of the herbicide can still be found in their food supply.
    - linuxftw 7y ago
      > let alone compensated, for what we did to them Not 'we.' The war criminals running the government.
      - afthonos 7y ago
        We don’t get to wash our hands of this. Particularly when we have neither brought them to justice nor recognized any transnational authority’s jurisdiction to do so.
        linuxftw 7y ago
        Maybe you're culpable, but not me. I've never voted for any politician that voted for the Iraq war, and I wasn't around for Vietnam. I advocate for the peaceful dissolution of the federal government because I believe it's unfixable and unaccountable. I believe the de-facto two-party system is illegitimate.
ta-1038171 7y ago
IME, they're referring to SimpleGreen, undiluted. So say my military buddies. I don't doubt they use toxic chemicals though... My father used to tell stories about the injections he got in the Navy. He's since passed from cancer.
- dx87 7y ago
  I don't know what it was, but the stuff we used for rifles wasn't related to Simple Green. It was a clear liquid that apparently causes neurological issues and you're supposed to wear safety equipment while using it because it can be absorbed through the skin. They didn't tell us that though, and just let everyone clean our rifles in it with our bare hands.
kaycebasques 7y ago
Sounds like my dad's cancer was also caused by his military duty. I think he got a letter informing him that there was a statistically significant increase in cancer rates among the people who had been stationed at camp X on dates Y through Z.
tyingq 7y ago
Absolutely true. Was an electronic tech in the USAF in the 80's. We were routinely given access and direction to use a lot of (now) scary organic solvents without proper guidance, protection, etc.
debt 7y ago
I’ve heard the microwave radiation exposure(to communicate with the drones in terrain that wouldn’t allow it) during the Iraq War endured by drone pilots was obviously way higher than legally allowed within the United States at least. Definitely high enough to cause cancer.
- ajxs 7y ago
  I was always under the impression that microwave radiation, being non-ionizing, does not increase cancer-risk with exposure.
  - debt 7y ago
    I don’t think they were only using microwaves.
    - maccard 7y ago
      You specifically called out microwaves in your precious comment.
  - hevi_jos 7y ago
    The fact that ionizing radiation causes cancer because it resonates with DNA bonds does not mean that other kinds of radiation could not cause other types of cancer. Other kind of radiation will resonate with bigger molecules and could do things like denaturalize them. Have you ever fried an egg. You are denaturalizing a protein that is liquid and becomes solid, and you have done that just with heat alone. You can actually denaturalize an egg in the microwave oven, and there are certainly lots of health problems when the microwave oven leaks microwaves. When you denaturalize something in the body, it stops working as it should. This creates a cascade of things that stops working as they should.
    - copperx 7y ago
      Did you mean denaturing proteins?

dv_dt 7y ago

Maybe they were referring to this. Great solvent, not so great for human health. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichloroethylene https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichloroethylene

madengr 7y ago
They used to use this shit at my employer, back in the 80’s, for cleaning circuit boards. Forbid the use of gloves due to electro static discharge. People often complained it would burn their hands. At least they now use d-limonene, which is a food addictive derived from orange skin oil.
tyingq 7y ago
Can confirm this was used by enlisted electronic techs in the USAF in the 1980's. Similar for also questionable, but less lethal organic solvents like MEK. Gloves were specifically forbidden, and breathing gear wasn't present. I was young and didn't know better. Got several govt letters later asking me to opt out of lawsuits in exchange for free VA services.

scruple 7y ago

I could write a novel about this. My father was exposed to and handled Agent Orange in Vietnam. An uncle, as well. My uncle passed in 2007, riddled with cancers, fighting the VA every step of the way. That man served nearly 35 years before retiring. Their generation coined the phrase "Delay, deny, and hope that we die." due to their experiences with the VA. I decided not to be a helpless by-stander when it was my fathers time to contend with the VA. I took nearly 3 years off of my life and moved back home to help him. He was eventually able to successfully obtain a disability rating and was able to get prior/existing health issues linked to his exposure, which secured disability back pay to the 90s. All of this, his experience and the back pay, specifically, is something of an outlier, as we understand it. As we understand it, most folks don't have the resources to navigate the system successfully. It wasn't a massive financial windfall, but it meant that my parents future was financially secure (their finances were in ruins by the mid-00s) and once he was mobile again, with his health issues under control and with an effective management plan in place, I was able to get back on with my own life. There are also inter-generational effects with Agent Orange, but they're not very well understood (to my knowledge). That frightens me today, especially now that I've had my own children. There's a whole other dynamic there, too, in that I also served, and that I've been exposed to burn pits and a lot of diesel fumes and high RF environments and some solvents and etc... I feel like it's an inevitability in my own life's story that I'll eventually have to contend with the VA, as well.

linuxftw 7y ago
Imagine the effect on the poor Vietnamese :( My Grandfather was killed by the stuff too. He had a condition that wasn't one of the conditions that the VA established as linked to it. I've found some other cases online of other service members that had what he had. The other game the VA plays is they'll dispute you were ever even exposed to it in the first place.
- scruple 7y ago
  > Imagine the effect on the poor Vietnamese :( I do, very frequently, in fact. I have many friends who are Vietnamese today (I live in Orange County, CA), and they have many stories about extended family in Vietnam and elsewhere about birth defects and such. My wife's mother is Vietnam-born Chinese. She came to the US as a refugee. They have family that was exposed as innocents caught in the middle of the conflict, just trying to escape with their lives. There are countless generations of people in Vietnam, and now abroad, that will never be properly acknowledged, let alone compensated, for what we did to them. And, in some cases, what is still happening to them today, as the byproducts of the herbicide can still be found in their food supply.
  - linuxftw 7y ago
    > let alone compensated, for what we did to them Not 'we.' The war criminals running the government.
    - afthonos 7y ago
      We don’t get to wash our hands of this. Particularly when we have neither brought them to justice nor recognized any transnational authority’s jurisdiction to do so.
      - linuxftw 7y ago
        Maybe you're culpable, but not me. I've never voted for any politician that voted for the Iraq war, and I wasn't around for Vietnam. I advocate for the peaceful dissolution of the federal government because I believe it's unfixable and unaccountable. I believe the de-facto two-party system is illegitimate.

ta-1038171 7y ago

IME, they're referring to SimpleGreen, undiluted. So say my military buddies. I don't doubt they use toxic chemicals though... My father used to tell stories about the injections he got in the Navy. He's since passed from cancer.

dx87 7y ago
I don't know what it was, but the stuff we used for rifles wasn't related to Simple Green. It was a clear liquid that apparently causes neurological issues and you're supposed to wear safety equipment while using it because it can be absorbed through the skin. They didn't tell us that though, and just let everyone clean our rifles in it with our bare hands.

kaycebasques 7y ago

Sounds like my dad's cancer was also caused by his military duty. I think he got a letter informing him that there was a statistically significant increase in cancer rates among the people who had been stationed at camp X on dates Y through Z.

tyingq 7y ago

Absolutely true. Was an electronic tech in the USAF in the 80's. We were routinely given access and direction to use a lot of (now) scary organic solvents without proper guidance, protection, etc.

debt 7y ago

I’ve heard the microwave radiation exposure(to communicate with the drones in terrain that wouldn’t allow it) during the Iraq War endured by drone pilots was obviously way higher than legally allowed within the United States at least. Definitely high enough to cause cancer.

ajxs 7y ago
I was always under the impression that microwave radiation, being non-ionizing, does not increase cancer-risk with exposure.
- debt 7y ago
  I don’t think they were only using microwaves.
  - maccard 7y ago
    You specifically called out microwaves in your precious comment.
- hevi_jos 7y ago
  The fact that ionizing radiation causes cancer because it resonates with DNA bonds does not mean that other kinds of radiation could not cause other types of cancer. Other kind of radiation will resonate with bigger molecules and could do things like denaturalize them. Have you ever fried an egg. You are denaturalizing a protein that is liquid and becomes solid, and you have done that just with heat alone. You can actually denaturalize an egg in the microwave oven, and there are certainly lots of health problems when the microwave oven leaks microwaves. When you denaturalize something in the body, it stops working as it should. This creates a cascade of things that stops working as they should.
  - copperx 7y ago
    Did you mean denaturing proteins?