Well if MDS is really your body not making enough red blood cells (& he also had the same thing with white blood cells and platelets) you could suspect exposure to benzene which causes aplastic anemia. Or if just a red blood cell problem (not enough red blood cells) & the 'pattern' is there ... then maybe you know what should be suspect! Idiopathic most likely.

The medical profession does not know what causes it. You hear that on about every autoimmune thing there is out there, too. Don't know. Don't know. Don't know what causes the fatigue of Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction SYNDROME, either. I suspect there are more SYNDROMES than actual diagnosis these days.

Don't know what causes the soft tissue sarcomas and the Non Hodgkin's Lymphomas that is on the FOR SURE list of harm to our Vietnam vets, either?

So in US Rep Robert Matsui's case, is one of these underlying his condition? ... & a probable cause of harm? And what were his exposures to either?

And Pres FDR was barely 63 when he died:

Born Jan 30, 1882 and died April 12, 1945

And my dad died at age 62 from a supposed 'heart attack'

Now that I remember many things that happened in my nuclear family, and now that I know the 'pattern of harm' of 2-butoxyethanol, I suspect his 'heart attack' was more likely something along the lines of autoimmune hemolytic anemia. He was on board the Navy ships in WWII where those big guns fired back the fumes of the 'rocket propellant' chemicals on everyone. And somewhere along the line he became a Chief in the Navy as a Fire Control Technician. I note that they are responsible for CLEANING those guns. Big red flag if you ask me.

But oh, well, at 62 that's the right age to die? Is that what our society thinks? Is that what doctors think? Sorry. I don't think so!