Meijer welcomes positive step and calls for additional action for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during service
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI) today responded to the Biden Administration’s announcement that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is adding nine rare respiratory cancers to the list of presumed service-connected disabilities due to military environmental exposure. Any veteran who has or had one of the below listed cancers at any time during or after separation from military service may be eligible for compensation benefits.
The following list of cancers were added to the VA’s regulations through an Interim Final Rulepublished in the Federal Register on April 26, 2022:
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the trachea
- Salivary gland-type tumors of the trachea
- Adenocarcinoma of the trachea
- Adenosquamous carcinoma of the lung
- Large cell carcinoma of the lung
- Salivary gland-type tumors of the lung
- Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the lung
- Typical and atypical carcinoid of the lung
The VA will now begin processing disability compensation claims for veterans who served any amount of time in the Southwest Asia theater of operation beginning August 2, 1990, to the present, or Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, or Djibouti beginning September 19, 2001, to the present.
Original source can be found here.
