MEMORIES OF AN ERA, REFLECTIONS OF OUR TIME ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Agent Orange All of the below information is from the Veterans Administration homepage on Agent Orange. Please see the “Works Cited” section for the address. Vietnam Veterans reported illnesses to the Veterans Administration (V.A.) that they ascribed to their exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam during their service. The V.A. eventually asked the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) to investigate the veterans’ reports. The first report issued on the studies’ findings that investigated these links was done in 1993, and updates were issued in following years, according to the Veterans Administration website. There are four categories that illnesses associated with Agent Orange fall into: “Sufficient evidence of an association”; “Limited/suggestive evidence of an association”; “Inadequate/insufficient evidence to determine whether an association exists”; “Limited/suggestive evidence of No association.” Four illnesses are classified in the first category: soft-tissue sarcoma; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; Hodgkin’s disease; chloracne. In a 2002 follow-up report, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was added to this category. Vietnam Veterans who are afflicted with illnesses in category one “don’t have to prove that their illness is related to their military service to qualify for V.A. disability compensation.… “(V.A. presumes that all Vietnam veterans were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides.).” Illnesses in category 2 to-date are: respiratory cancers; prostate cancer; multiple myeloma; porphyria cutanea tarda; acute and subacute transient peripheral neuropathy; and Type 2 diabetes. The only illness in this category that afflicts veterans’ children is spina bifida. Many other illnesses and diseases fall into the last two categories, particularly birth defects in veterans’ children. The V.A. says they will continue these studies, particularly these diseases and others developed by veterans as they age. Philosophy and Science Some sites or books that are helpful in space-time and philosophy are: • Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. Introduces a 14-year-old girl to the history of philosophy. The book’s website is not great, but there is good attention paid to it on wikipedia. • The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/ • The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: www.iep.utm.edu/ • Space.com. Has many links to other scientific sites as well: www.space.com		TEACHER PACKET CONTENTS Artist's Statement Lesson Plans Activities Additional Information Works Cited