VA Plans to Expand Disability Benefits for Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange

VA officials have announced that they are planning to expand eligibility for Agent Orange disability benefits to more Vietnam-era veterans.

Agent Orange was used to kill heavy vegetation during the Vietnam War, but it also left hundreds of thousands of veterans and Vietnam civilians with horrific illnesses and death.

Old Army videos have shown shirtless soldiers wearing no protective equipment pumping the chemical from large barrels while they spray the vegetation along a river bank.

But human exposure goes beyond those who were in Vietnam. There were actually Agent Orange storage facilities all across the world, and this proposed VA rule change would expand presumptive medical conditions to those locations as well.

Here's a list of some of those locations where exposure could have happened in the U.S (you can see the full list here).:

• Alabama

• Florida

• Georgia

• Indiana

• Maryland

• Mississippi

• Montana

• New York

• Tennessee

• Texas

• Utah

Outside of the U.S., the list of locations includes Guam, Korea, Thailand, Laos, American Samoa, Johnson Atoll, Canada, Cambodia and Vietnam (to see the full list click here).

VA Secretary Denis McDonough had this to say about the rule change: “This proposed change would make it easier for Veterans exposed to herbicides who served outside Vietnam to access the benefits they so rightly deserve.”

He stated the decision is another step in the right direction.

Veterans who were in the locations listed should file claims related to exposure.

h/t WCPO