Veteran advocates are urging Navy and Coast Guard personnel who served in Vietnam to review an updated list of vessels that were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange.

The Department of Veterans Affairs recently released the new list of vessels that operated in the rivers and deltas of Vietnam. Additions include all Coast Guard vessels with the hull designation WPB (patrol boat) and WHEC (high-endurance cutter).

Veterans whose military records confirm they served aboard one of these ships can have their VA benefits claims expedited, according to the Fleet Reserve Association, which represents enlisted members of the sea services. Agent Orange has been connected to certain kinds of cancer and other ailments.

To view the full list, visit www.fra.org/news.

Last October, the VA announced 3 new AO presumptions – ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and B-Cell Leukemia.  Sen. James Webb, D-Va., says he will use a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing — rescheduled now for Sept. 23 — to have Secretary Shinseki explain his decision to compensate Vietnam veterans, and many surviving spouses, for three more ailments including heart disease.

VA projects that the decision will cost $13.4 billion in 2010 alone, as it will qualify a few hundred thousand more veterans for service-connected disability compensation.

Those veterans, it now appears, will have to wait at least a few more months before claims can be paid. And there is at least some doubt now they will be paid. That will depend on whether Webb and enough of his colleagues are dissatisfied with the science behind Shinseki’s decision.  Webb has said that presumptions have expanded to include “common disease of aging.” This action has frozen the interim regulation on these 3 new AO presumptions that were published in March 2010.  A final rule is needed and that now can’t happen until the fall at the earliest.  

The number of veterans receiving disability benefits for a sleeping disorder has increased 61% in the past two years and now costs taxpayers more than $500 million per year, according to Veterans Affairs data.  Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC has seen an increase in appeals for this disability.  At present, there is not a good reason why 20% of veterans suffer from sleep apnea and only 5 % of the population.  Could it be the respiratory exposures from service?  To read a USA Today article on this topic click on the link below.

http://www.vawatchdog.com/10/nf10/nfjun10/nf060710-2.htm