After an initial announcement more than a year ago, veterans with eight medical conditions linked to Camp Lejeune will no longer have to fight for disability compensation.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced new rules Tuesday establishing presumptive service connection for eight medical conditions for veterans who served at Camp Lejeune. To qualify for benefits, a disability must be determined to be connected to a veteran's service.
“Establishing these presumptions is a demonstration of our commitment to care for those who have served our nation and have been exposed to harm as a result of that service,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. David J. Shulkin said. “The Camp Lejeune presumptions will make it easier for those veterans to receive the care and benefits they earned.”
The announcement comes after years of studies and talks with veterans and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The ATSDR maintains that from 1953 until 1987, water sources at Camp Lejeune were contaminated with several chemical solvents, including perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene, vinyl chloride, benzene and others. The agency said those chemicals, and prolonged exposure to them, increased the risk of certain health conditions.
Previously, veterans with these conditions have had to prove their connection to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune and go through a lengthy claims process with subject matter experts-- a process with problems News 6 has covered in the past.
The new presumption of service connection applies to active duty, reserve and National Guard members who served at Camp Lejeune for a minimum of a cumulative 30 days between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987, and are diagnosed with any of the following conditions:
• Adult leukemia
• Aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Parkinson’s disease
The VA told News 6 that the presumptive service connection will be applied to new and pending claims as of Tuesday. In cases where veterans that suffer from these conditions have previously been denied, the VA said those veterans can ask to have their cases re-evaluated.
Camp Lejeune veterans with one of 15 illnesses or conditions, as well as their families, can currently receive health care as a result of their exposure to the toxic water on base as part of the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012. That requires the VA to provide health care to those veterans, reimburse family members or pay providers for medical expenses for those who lived on base for more than 30 days between Aug. 1, 1953 and Dec. 31, 1987.