VetsFirst is pleased to report that the Department of Veterans Affairs has decided to assist ailing Vietnam veterans by extending presumptive service connection for veterans that were exposed to Agent Orange who are afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, B-cell leukemia (including hairy cell leukemia) and ischemic heart disease.
The VA’s decision means that veterans who served within the geographic boundaries of the Republic of Vietnam (including inland waterways) and in the Korean demilitarized zone (DMZ) during the Vietnam era will be able to establish service connection for these three diseases without the need to provide medical evidence of an association between their disease and their military service. The new presumption of service connection in these cases will eliminate the need to submit such evidence in claims for VA benefits and health care and will speed up the adjudication process for these claims.
Agent Orange is the military designation for a blend of herbicides that contained dioxin, an extremely toxic chemical that was widely used in 
Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 during the war. The U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides to destroy jungle foliage that enemy troops could hide in. Agent Orange was also used to clear vegetation from the Korean DMZ during the same time.
Because claims for VA benefits generally require veterans to submit medical evidence of a causal relationship between a current disability and military service, and because many veterans have difficulty finding doctors who were willing to provide that kind of medical opinion, the Agent Orange Act of 1991 set up a procedure to simplify and speed up the claims process for these approximately 2.6 million veterans. It essentially replaced the requirement for medical evidence of a link between military service and a current disease with twin presumptions that Vietnam veterans who served in-country were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides, and that certain diseases that they may currently have were caused by their exposure. In order for a disease to qualify for the presumption, the U.S. Institutes of Medicine (IOM) must determine that there is at least “limited or suggestive” scientific evidence of an association between exposure to Agent Orange and that disease. Once the IOM makes such a determination, the VA has a limited time to decide whether to afford presumptive service connection to the disease in question.
Based on a recent IOM report that found “limited or suggestive evidence” of an association between Agent Orange exposure and the later development of Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease, as well as “sufficient” evidence of an association between Agent Orange exposure and B-cell leukemia,
VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki decided to add these three new diseases to the Agent Orange presumptive list.
Interestingly, the VA has made no announcement as to whether it would afford presumptive service connection to hypertension, even though the IOM found that there was “limited or suggestive” evidence of an association between hypertension and herbicide exposure. It is possible that the VA is hesitant to do so because of the massive number of Vietnam veterans who suffer from hypertension and the enormous cost of providing them with VA disability compensation. The VA faced a similar dilemma when it considered adding Type 2 diabetes to the Agent Orange presumptive list.
Other illnesses previously recognized as presumptively service- connected to herbicide exposure include:
- Acute and Subacute Transient Peripheral Neuropathy
- Amyloidosis
- Chloracne
- Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
- Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2)
- Hodgkin’s Disease
- Multiple Myeloma
- Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
- Prostate Cancer
- Respiratory Cancers
- Soft Tissue Sarcoma (other than Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and Mesothelioma)
If you are an in-country Vietnam veteran or served near the Korean DMZ during the Vietnam War, and you have Parkinson’s disease, a B-cell leukemia, ischemic heart disease or any of the conditions listed above, please contact us immediately at http://helpdesk.vetsfirst.org/. We are available to answer your questions and to assist you in filing a claim for VA benefits and health care 24/7.
