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VA proves it doesn’t care about troops exposed to burn pits
The VA recently announced that it added three presumptive conditions allowing Veterans exposed to burn pits to receive benefits. As long as they have developed one of those specific conditions.
The newly-added presumptive conditions are: asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis.
Many feel that the additions amount to scraps. Rosie Torres, the executive director of Burn Pits 360, a major nonprofit organization affecting legislative change for exposure victims, voiced her concerns about the change.
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Torres told First Coast News, “I just feel like it’s just kind of like a little snack to placate the populace, and it’s not fair.”
It appears as though the VA is attempting to appease the movement for greater benefits, while ignoring the more serious conditions resulting from exposure.
Burn pits have been a major topic since the effects of their use have been realized. The pits were used to dispose of hazardous waste using jet fuel, and many of the burned materials yielded crippling results.
Some of the materials burned in the pits included: ammunition, amputated body parts, animal carcasses, batteries, chemicals, human waste, medical waste, plastics, rubber, and more. If this list makes it unclear, the pits were meant as a comprehensive disposal process for the various waste accumulated during military functions.
Exposure to the fumes from these hazardous materials has resulted in conditions such as: neurological disorders, pulmonary diseases, rare forms of cancer, and various unexplained symptoms.
And yet, most of these conditions were ignored in the VA’s addition. Torres says that 23 illnesses in total must be included to prevent the addition from falling short of assisting all of those who have become sick from exposure.
And…
To top off the blatant disregard for worse conditions, benefits for the added conditions are only available to those who developed one of them within 10 years of leaving the service.
The other contingency is that the Veteran must have served in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Syria, and Uzbekistan during the Persian Gulf War, from September 19, 2001, to the present, or the Southwest Asia theater of operations from August 2, 1990, to the present.
In the same article for First Coast News, a representative for the Veterans Benefits Administration wrote to them, that “During these reviews, VA looks for various conditions. Cancers surveillance and certain immunologic conditions have a longer latency period which impacts the time frame as to when they will begin to present, this timeline can vary significantly based on the condition. Whereas acute concerns such as asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis can present sooner.”
From this statement, it seems that the VA is more concerned with timeliness than caring for the injured. Sounds about right.
