It killed heavy vegetation during the Vietnam War and it left hundreds of thousands of veterans and Vietnam civilians with a lifetime of illness and eventual death. Now, a proposed rule change could expand who is medically covered for their exposure.
Agent Orange was one of many defoliants used during the war. While war videos often show airplanes dispersing the defoliant in a mist over the jungle, some Army videos show soldiers pumping the defoliant from large barrels while they spray the heavy vegetation along a river bank.
Those soldiers are shirtless with no protective gear.
But human exposure to the chemical went beyond those spraying the defoliants in Vietnam and those on the ground either breathing it in or being covered in it as it landed.
There were Agent Orange storage facilities around the globe and the Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing a rule change to expand presumptive medical conditions with those locations.
The list of locations are within Canada, Vietnam, Cambodia, Johnson Atoll, Guam, American Samoa, Korea, Laos, and Thailand. Within the United States locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Utah are included.
As part of this, the VA proposal codifies with the provisions in the PACT Act and Blue Water Navy Act of 2019, along with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2021.
“This proposed change would make it easier for Veterans exposed to herbicides who served outside Vietnam to access the benefits they so rightly deserve,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough.
He said the decision is another step in the right direction.
Veterans who were in these locations are encouraged to file claims tied to exposure.
As time goes by the proposal indicates that it is being written in such a manner that if locations are added in the future, veterans associated with military service at those locations will be presumed to have been in contact with Agent Orange.
The proposal reads in part, “DoD will continue to maintain and update the list of locations where certain herbicide agents were used, tested or stored, VA proposes to implement a regulatory presumption of exposure that can evolve with the most current DoD list.”
“This presumption would alleviate the need for a Veteran to have to prove actual involvement with certain herbicide agents, so long as that Veteran's circumstances of service would reasonably have placed the Veteran at certain sites on certain dates.”
Here’s a list of US locations.
Here’s a list of locations outside the US.
You can read the full proposal from the Department of Veterans Affairs by clicking here.
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