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Agent Orange Information and Updates
There has been a huge amount of news, rulings and information regarding Agent Orange related illnesses. Many changes within VA rules have been put into effect this year. Please check these other pages in our web site and blog for the latest information.
- Agent Orange category on our blog
- Veterans Health Page
- VA News Page
Feel free to give us feedback on our blog.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 30, 2010
VA Publishes Final Regulation to Aid Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange
VA Health Care and Benefits Provided for Many Vietnam Veterans
WASHINGTON – Veterans exposed to herbicides while serving in Vietnam and other areas will have an easier path to access quality health care and qualify for disability compensation under a final regulation that will be published on August 31, 2010 in the Federal Register by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The new rule expands the list of health problems VA will presume to be related to Agent Orange and other herbicide exposures to add two new conditions and expand one existing category of conditions.
“Last October, based on the requirements of the Agent Orange Act of 1991 and the Institute of Medicine’s 2008 Update on Agent Orange, I determined that the evidence provided was sufficient to award presumptions of service connection for these three additional diseases,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “It was the right decision, and the President and I are proud to finally provide this group of Veterans the care and benefits they have long deserved.”
The final regulation follows Shinseki’s determination to expand the list of conditions for which service connection for Vietnam Veterans is presumed. VA is adding Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease and expanding chronic lymphocytic leukemia to include all chronic B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia.
In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and who have a “presumed” illness don’t have to prove an association between their medical problems and their military service. By helping Veterans overcome evidentiary requirements that might otherwise present significant challenges, this “presumption” simplifies and speeds up the application process and ensure that Veterans receive the benefits they deserve.
The Secretary’s decision to add these presumptives is based on the latest evidence provided in a 2008 independent study by the Institute of Medicine concerning health problems caused by herbicides like Agent Orange.
- More -
Final Regulation 2/2/2
Veterans who served in Vietnam anytime during the period beginning January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides.
More than 150,000 Veterans are expected to submit Agent Orange claims in the next 12 to 18 months, many of whom are potentially eligible for retroactive disability payments based on past claims. Additionally, VA will review approximately 90,000 previously denied claims by Vietnam Veterans for service connection for these conditions. All those awarded service-connection who are not currently eligible for enrollment into the VA healthcare system will become eligible.
This historic regulation is subject to provisions of the Congressional Review Act that require a 60-day Congressional review period before implementation. After the review period, VA can begin paying benefits for new claims and may award benefits retroactively for earlier periods. For new claims, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the effective date of the regulation or to one year before the date VA receives the application, whichever is later. For pending claims and claims that were previously denied, VA may pay benefits retroactive to the date it received the claim.
VA encourages Vietnam Veterans with these three diseases to submit their applications for access to VA health care and compensation now so the agency can begin development of their claims.
Individuals can go to a website at http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/AO/claimherbicide.htm to get an understanding of how to file a claim for presumptive conditions related to herbicide exposure, as well as what evidence is needed by VA to make a decision about disability compensation or survivors benefits.
Additional information about Agent Orange and VA’s services for Veterans exposed to the chemical is available at www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange.
The regulation is available on the Office of the Federal Register website at http://www.ofr.gov/.
# # #
| IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Release | June 11, 2010 |
No. 10-14 |
Statement by VVA President John Rowan:
VVA Calls for Support of the Decision by VA Secretary
To Declare Presumptive Agent Orange/Dioxin
and
VVA Calls on the President and Congress to Fund Research Now,
And Not Wait for an Army to Die
Click Here to Read the Full Text
Agent Orange
VA to fast track Agent Orange Claims
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 9. 2010
Secretary Seeks Fast Track to Process Claims
Focus on 200,000 Veterans Expected to File Claims under New Agent Orange Presumptives over Next Two Years....(Read Full Press Release).
VA Delay May Stall Benefits for Vietnam Vets
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Mar 2, 2010 9:40:58 EST
Three veterans groups have threatened the Veterans Affairs Department with a lawsuit if VA does not publish regulations by March 12 about three Agent Orange-related diseases that the Institute of Medicine has deemed should be presumed connected to military service. (Read full post)
SALINITY and SHIPBOARD DESALINISATION PROCESSES (Agent Orange Related)
Wise words from a retired US Navy Chief Petty Officer (even Marines listen to NAVY CPOs) Source: NAVEDTRA 14331 Engineman 3 . Chapter 15 excerpt: Salinity, which is caused by chemical salts in seawater, is undesirable. Chemical salts in boiler feedwater will cause corrosion of the tubes. In addition, the normal operating temperature of a naval distilling plant may not be high enough to completely sterilize the distillate. Therefore, any carryover (or leakage) of seawater is a potential health hazard. (Read full text)
Agent Orange Information
For information on applying online visit this http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov/vonapp/main.asp .
Here is another link for more information: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/
Agent Orange Update
Costly Agent Orange-Heart Disease Link Looms
Tom Philpott | December 31, 2009
The cost of war -- on veterans’ health and taxpayer wallets -- will loom a little larger in the new year when the Department of Veterans Affairs issues a final rule to claim adjudicators to presume three more diseases of Vietnam veterans, including heart disease, were caused by exposure to Agent Orange.
The rule, expected to be published soon, will make almost any veteran who set foot in Vietnam, and is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemia or ischemic heart disease (known also as coronary artery disease), eligible for disability compensation and VA medical care. The exception would be if credible evidence surfaces of a non-service cause for the ailment.
Katie Roberts, VA press secretary, said no estimates will be available on numbers of veterans impacted or the potential cost to VA until after the rule change takes effect sometime in 2010. But the National Association for Uniformed Services was told by a VA official that up to 185,000 veterans could become eligible for benefits and the projected cost to VA might reach $50 billion, said Win Reither, a retired colonel on NAUS’ executive board.
NAUS also advised members that VA, to avoid aggravating its claims backlog, intends to "accept letters from family physicians supporting claims for Agent Orange-related conditions." It said thousands of widows whose husbands died of Agent Orange disabilities also will be eligible for retroactive benefits and VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.
"This is huge," said Ronald Abrams, co-director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. NVLSP has represented veterans in Agent Orange lawsuits for the last 25 years. The non-profit law group publishes the "Veterans Benefits Manual," a 1900-page guide for veterans’ advocates to navigate the maze for VA claims, appeals and key court decisions.
Abrams said he can’t guess at how many more thousands of veterans previously denied disability claims, or how many thousands more who haven’t filed claims yet, will be eligible for benefits. But numbers, particularly of those with heart disease, will be very large, he suggested.
All of the veterans "who have been trying to link their heart condition to a service-connected condition won’t have to do it now if they’re Vietnam vets," Abrams said. For VA, it will mean "a significant amount of money -- and many, many, many people helped."
The excitement over expansion of benefits for Vietnam veterans, and worry by some within the Obama administration over cost, flows from an announcement last October by VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. He said three categories would be added to the list of diseases the VA presumes were caused by Agent Orange. Veterans with the presumptive Agent Orange ailments can get disability compensation if they can show they made even a brief visit to Vietnam from 1962 to 1975. With a presumptive illness, claim applicants don’t have to prove, as other claimants do, a direct association between their medical condition and military service.
Shinseki said he based his decision on work of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies. VA contracts with IOM to gather veterans’ health data and investigate links between diseases and toxic herbicide used in Vietnam to destroy vegetation and expose enemy positions.
In a speech last July, Shinseki, former Army chief of staff and a wounded veteran of Vietnam, expressed frustration that "40 years after Agent Orange was last used in Vietnam, this secretary is still adjudicating claims for presumption of service-connected disabilities tied to its toxic effects." VA and the Defense Department should had conducted conclusive studies earlier on presumptive disabilities from Agent Orange, he suggested.
The scientific method and the failure to advocate for the veteran got in the way of our processes,
Shinseki bluntly concluded.
In last October’s announcement he said VA "must do better reviews of illnesses that may be connected to service, and we will. Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence."
When a disease is added to VA’s list of ailments tied to Agent Orange, veterans with the disease can become eligible for retroactive disability payments, back to the date original claims were rejected, if after 1985.
Joe Violante, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, praised Shinseki’s decision. But he said VA faces a "logistical nightmare" in trying to find veterans turned down on earlier on claims. A VA official told Violante, he said, that cost of the search could be part of that nightmare.
Chairman of government affairs for Vietnam Veterans of America until last October was John Miterko. He said he wasn’t surprised that Shinseki added ailments to the Agent Orange presumptive list including heart disease.
"If you look at the Vietnam veteran population, the diseases we’ve contracted and the mortality rate, the only group dying faster rate are the World War II veterans," Miterko said. We’re picking up diseases by our ‘60s that we shouldn’t be getting until our late ‘70s, early ‘80s. So his adding other diseases, heart disease in particular, isn’t a surprise.
Both Shinseki and his predecessor, James Peake, former Army surgeon general, had long military careers and served in Vietnam. That’s a hell of a bonus for us,
Miterko said. Both of them have shown much more empathy, much more understanding. They would have seen many of their own peer group suffering from the effects of exposure to Agent Orange.
Miterko doesn’t believe anyone can estimate how many veterans will benefit from the new presumptive diseases. VA will continue to process claims individually, he said, and likely won’t be accepting Agent Orange as the cause of heart disease for someone "who has smoked for 40 years and is mobidly obese. Common sense is going to have to prevail as well."
VA Recognizes Agent Orange Link to More Diseases
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Washington, D.C. - infoZine - American Forces Press Service - Research found that three illnesses – B cell leukemias, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease -- possibly are associated with Agent Orange exposure. Those conditions join a list of related diseases for which Vietnam War veterans already receive compensation, such as prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, soft-tissue sarcomas, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma.
Veterans who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975 may qualify for monthly disability compensation and do not have to provide proof they were exposed to Agent Orange to qualify for health benefits.
"We must do better reviews of illnesses that may be connected to service, and we will," VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said in statement released last month. "Veterans who endure health problems deserve timely decisions based on solid evidence."
The U.S. military used Agent Orange herbicides in the Vietnam conflict from 1961 to 1971 to clear foliage that provided enemy cover. VA officials estimate that about 2.6 million military personnel who served in Vietnam were affected.
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, House Veterans Affairs Committee chairman, released a statement today calling for additional support of the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009. The bill expands eligibility for presumptive conditions to veterans who were not directly "boots on the ground," such as sailors and pilots.
Current law suggests that location of service in Vietnam affects some of the qualifications for Agent Orange compensation.
"Time is running out for these Vietnam veterans," Filner said. "Many are dying from their Agent Orange-related diseases, uncompensated for their sacrifice. If, as a result of service, a veteran was exposed to Agent Orange, and it has resulted in failing health, this country has a moral obligation to care for each veteran the way we promised we would."
About 800,000 Vietnam veterans are estimated to be alive today and eligible for treatment for Agent Orange-related illnesses. According to VA's Web site, the department presumes all military members who served in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange. Also, some children of female Vietnam veterans may qualify for compensation, based on birth defects associated with the chemicals.
