VA LINKS MORE PRESUMPTIVE CONDITIONS TO BURN PITS: LEUKEMIA & MYELOMA JOIN THE LIST
Burns pits are usually open waste disposal areas used by the U.S. military to dump common waste. These trash are being burned in the open air on a large scale. The types of items being burned in these areas vary; some include rubber, chemical, and human waste, or even food scraps, making the smoke from these pits highly toxic and can threaten health. With this danger, the VA added several burn pit presumptive conditions to its list, which may be good news to the service member.
Being exposed to these pits can generate short and long-term health issues. However, this can be worse if you have existing health conditions such as heart conditions or asthma.
VA Compensation Disability Requirements
Since being exposed to burn pits is a severe matter, Veterans Affairs is providing compensation to those who are exposed to these hazardous chemicals.
To be compensated, you must have a diagnosed illness or condition due to exposure to various water, soil, and air hazards. Plus, there must be proof that you have served in a location exposed to these hazards and did not receive a dishonorable discharge.
Some environmental hazards to which a service person may be exposed include:
- burn pits
- hexavalent chromium
- sulfur fire
- pollutants from a waste incinerator
Plus, getting a disability rating may allow you to receive your VA health care and other benefits.
To have a disability rating, you need to request your military service record. If you have multiple health conditions, it needs to be proven that they were caused by your service; this includes the burn pit presumptive conditions.
However, some conditions are automatically considered assumptive since these are established by regulation or law. For the burn pit and presumptive conditions, there have been 20 that were added based on the PACT Act, as this change expands the benefits to the Gulf War era and post-9/11 Vets.
VA Helps More Veterans Get Disability-Related Compensation
This may be good news for those who are experiencing various illnesses due to their burn pit exposures. The Department of Veterans Affairs decided to select acute and chronic leukemias and multiple myeloma as conditions that are linked to those who served in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf, and elsewhere.
This will provide the affected Veterans with faster access to compensation related to their disability.
With his last Veterans Day celebration as commander in chief, President Joe Biden made a huge announcement about the added burn pit presumptive conditions and other airborne contaminants according to the PACT Act.
The change follows a statement last week that was made by VA Secretary Denis McDonough that ureter and bladder cancer will be considered as presumptive illnesses.
Plus, Veterans who served at Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan during the early 2000s will qualify for expedited claims.
What Were the Added Burn Pit Conditions?
The update regarding those conditions will still need to go through the federal rulemaking procedure before it is finalized. A study by the VA will follow it for 15 months to better assess whether Veterans who served in those areas had higher chances of getting those cancers.
To better evaluate the health conditions of the service members, the VA founded its internal process in 2021 to decide whether those conditions are related to being in service.
Since then, it was concluded that rhinitis, nine rare lung cancers, asthma, sinusitis, ureter cancer, acute leukemia, chronic leukemia, bladder cancer, and multiple myeloma are under the category of service members who served during specific locales and time frames.
Having these burn pit presumptive conditions added to the list will help a lot of Veterans who are suffering due to their exposure to those hazardous chemicals.
Aside from the added burn pit presumptive conditions, the VA also announced that they wanted to make health care less costly for the Veterans who are enlisted in its health system. To do this, they will eliminate the copayment scheme for telehealth services provided in VA facilities.
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