VA C-123 Agent Orange Denial - Physicians' Opinions Only?

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The VA's Public Health folks, and especially Mr. Tom Murphy who is their Director of Compensation, have aggressively countered every argument we've put forward about our Agent Orange exposure aboard our C-123 aircraft. With their most recent action, denying my own Agent Orange application, the VA dismissed the opinions of noted scientists because these experts weren't physicians.

Interesting. Particularly so, because the VA's position where they've twisted the acknowledged contamination of the C-123 into a hypothesis that exposure to aircrew was unlikely, they turned to a scientist, and not a physician, do develop their position. Dr. T. Iron, a very recent University of North Carolina grad (where our daughter graduated also!). While very hard to locate in Google Scholar, Dr. Irons's specialty seems to be fish toxicology and she hasn't published much since receiving the doctorate in 2011. 

So the VA relied on Dr. Irons to, one would hope, examine with an open mind the issue of C-123 dioxin contamination and aircrew exposure. And Dr. Irons concluded it was an unlikely situation so the VA has decided to prevent access by exposed veterans based on the literature Dr. Irons reviewed.

I sure hope we can trust Dr. Irons to have gained a comprehensive grasp of dioxin-related health issues in this first year with the VA. 

Secret Journal of the VA's Public Health Service :)

But amazing that the VA denies the expertise of four other PdDs whose research confirms aircrew exposure...denies the exposure because these PhDs aren't physicians. 

But neither is Dr. Irons! Clearly, then, the VA accepts VA PhD judgements only if the PdD works for the VA and opposes veterans issues!

Please try Google Scholar for a search on Dr. T. Irons who is barely a blip on the toxicology radar. Then,  compare it to a search for Dr. Jeanne Stellman, for whom Scholar reports hundreds upon hundreds of publications, references, authorities. Dr. Stellman, who has for decades been the go-to expert scholar sought out by the National Academy of Sciences, the US Congress, the Federal courts, government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Sciences, the Canadian government and even the USAF.

Dr. Jeanne Stellman, Professor Emerita Columbia
University Mailman School of Public Health

...suddenly famous toxicologist Dr. Stellman (PhD) lacks the credentials to have her judgement accepted as readily as recently-graduated toxicologist Dr. Irons (PhD)?

It is interesting to note that Dr. Irons, in preparing the poster presentation at the 2011 Society of Toxicology conference, cited authors who asked that their studies not be used regarding aircrew exposure. Interesting that Irons ignored the already published findings by Dr. Stellman, Dr. Fred Berman at Oregon Health Sciences University, and Dr. Tom Sinks, deputy director of the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry...ignored them because only materials supporting the VA's position were to be used! One wonders why the SOT accepted such a poster presentation!

We are also left wondering why the VA develops a toxicology-based argument against aircrew exposure, and then twists it to rule invalid the opinions of the best scientists in the field of toxicology and accepts instead a literature by a recent graduate just settling into the responsibilities of the new VA job.