TITLE: VA Plans to Expand Agent Orange Disability Benefits to Cover Exposure in a Dozen New States
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/02/12/agent-orange-benefits-would-be-expanded-under-va-plan-veterans-exposed-12-states-parts-of-canada.html
EXCERPT: The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to expand eligibility for Agent Orange disability benefits to Vietnam-era veterans who served at 129 locations in the U.S. during specific time frames, as well as parts of Canada and India, officials announced Friday.
Ahead of a notice published Monday in the Federal Register, VA officials also said they plan to widen eligibility for veterans who were sickened by herbicides used after World War II in the Demilitarized Zone in Korea in the 1950s and in areas off the shores of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said the move will make it easier for veterans who were exposed to the toxic defoliant to get benefits and care for service-connected conditions.
"Our goal is to provide every veteran -- of every era -- with the VA health care and benefits they deserve, and this is another step in the right direction," McDonough said in a statement released Friday.
The proposal would allow the VA to automatically extend presumptive status to veterans who develop an Agent Orange-related health condition from assignment to a location named on the Defense Department's list of areas where tactical herbicides were tested, used or stored within specific dates.
It adds locations in 12 states within the U.S., as well as Kumbla, India, in 1945 and 1946, and Gagetown, New Brunswick, in Canada, in June 1966 and June 1967. It also creates broader timelines for other locations that include Cambodia, Thailand, Guam and Laos, based on the DoD's 2019 list, which was published by the VA in 2020.
The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, and dates that range from 1945 to 1977, depending on state and location.
The full list of the states and specific locations and times is available on the VA website, as is the list of overseas locations.
A presumption of exposure means that the VA automatically accepts a condition as tied to military service, lowering the requirement for the veteran to prove that their illness or injury is military related and allowing for a more streamlined course to receive benefits.
"The purpose of this regulatory change is to ensure consistency across VA adjudications, in accord with the most up-to-date information garnered by DoD," VA officials wrote in the release.
The new rule codifies and defines some of the requirements on presumptive conditions listed in the Blue Water Navy Act and the PACT Act, both of which expanded benefits to veterans sickened by exposure to contaminants while deployed to combat operations.
It expands the territorial waters off Vietnam and other locations to include an island, Phu Quoc, that previously was omitted as automatically qualifying for benefits. It also would expand the dates of eligibility for veterans who served in the Korean Demilitarized Zone from April 1, 1968, to Aug. 31, 1971, to Sept. 1, 1967, through Aug. 31, 1971.
And it clarifies conditions that fall under the umbrella term of Parkinsonism, a health condition related to herbicide exposure, to include progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, corticobasal degeneration, vascular Parkinsonism and dementia with Lewy bodies.
TITLE: Agent Orange damages the brain like Alzheimer's
https://www.futurity.org/agent-orange-alzheimers-brains-toxins-3179722-2/
EXCERPT: Government reports show that exposure to Agent Orange also caused birth defects and developmental disabilities in babies born to Vietnamese women residing in the affected areas. Over time, studies showed that exposure to Agent Orange was associated with an increased risk of some cancers as well as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Research also revealed associations between Agent Orange exposures and later development of nervous system degenerative diseases, and significantly higher rates and earlier onsets of dementia. However, in the absence of a proven causal link between Agent Orange and aging-associated diseases, there has been a need for studies that improve understanding of the process by which the herbicide affects the brain.
“Scientists realized that Agent Orange was a neurotoxin with potential long-term effects, but those weren’t shown in a clear way,” [Suzanne] De La Monte says. “That’s what we were able to show with this study.”
The analysis was conducted by De La Monte and Ming Tong, a research associate in medicine at Brown; both are also associated with Rhode Island Hospital, an affiliate of the Warren Alpert Medical School. The research builds upon their recent studies of exposure to Agent Orange chemicals on immature human cells from the central nervous system showing that short-term exposure to Agent Orange has neurotoxic and early degenerative effects related to Alzheimer’s.
The researchers investigated the effects of the two main constituents of Agent Orange (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid) on markers of Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration using the samples from the frontal lobes of laboratory rats. The mature, intact brain tissue samples included a full complex array of cell types and tissue structures.
The scientists treated the samples to cumulative exposure to Agent Orange, as well as to its separate chemical constituents, and observed the underlying mechanisms and molecular changes.
They found that treatment with Agent Orange and its constituents caused changes in the brain tissue corresponding to brain cell degeneration, and molecular and biochemical abnormalities indicative of cytotoxic injury, DNA damage, and other issues.
TITLE: Agent Orange linked to Alzheimer’s — and there’s good chance you’ve been exposed
https://studyfinds.org/agent-orange-alzheimers/
EXCERPT: Disturbingly, the researchers noted that millions of Americans have had some degree of exposure to Agent Orange-related chemicals 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. Even though it was banned in the U.S. in 1971, experts say the chemicals stuck around in the environment for decades. Even worse, because use was largely uncontrolled, some commercial weed killers and other pesticides containing the chemicals could have continued to be used.
“These chemicals don’t just affect veterans; they affect our entire population,” said De La Monte. “That’s why it’s so important to look into the effects of these chemicals. They are in the water; they are everywhere. We’ve all been exposed.”
Considering the vast usage of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T over decades, De La Monte estimates that one in three Americans has biomarker evidence indicating past exposures. De La Monte argues that current pesticide policies fail to account for the alarming impacts of Agent Orange-related ingredients on human brain health. Even with growing recognition of the harms 2,4-D, experts say concern hasn’t been strong enough to cause federal agencies to ban its use.
De La Monte plans additional investigations using human brain tissue to evaluate how wartime chemical exposures may trigger latent neurodegeneration in aging veterans. By focusing on early neuropathological changes, researchers aim to trace how substances like Agent Orange can impact brain health over decades.