In addition to improving access to benefits for post-9/11 veterans exposed to burn pits, the sweeping toxic exposure legislation approved 84-14 by the Senate on Thursday will add two new conditions to the Department of Veterans Affairs' list of Agent Orange-related illnesses and expand benefits for veterans sickened by radiation or poisoned water in certain geographic locations.
The bill adds hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or MGUS, to the list of illnesses linked to Agent Orange exposure, allowing affected veterans to apply for health care and disability benefits with the VA without having to prove that their condition was caused by their service.
The legislation, expected to pass the House next Wednesday and be signed by President Joe Biden, also expands the geographic areas and service dates for eligibility for benefits, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam and American Samoa and their territorial waters, and Johnston Atoll or any ship that called on the atoll, on certain dates.
Read Next: ‘Forever Chemicals' Linked to Hundreds of Military Bases Are Unsafe at Any Level, EPA Warns
The move follows four years of lobbying by advocacy groups to add hypertension to the list of Agent Orange presumptive conditions, following a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine 2018 announcement of proving a link between high blood pressure and the herbicides used during the Vietnam War…
