Starting Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding the list of cancers that some veterans can get benefits for if they served in designated locations. Those who served in specific locations during the Gulf War and later conflicts could particularly benefit.
The 2022 federal PACT Act established a process to reduce the need for veterans to prove a link between their illness and service.
After a recent review of studies that highlighted airborne pollutants as a major health risk in regions like Southwest Asia, Afghanistan, Djibouti and other regions, the VA says there’s a clear enough link for the list to include genitourinary cancers like bladder, kidney and ureter cancer.
According to the VA, those cancers can be tied to the tiny-but-harmful airborne particles where burn pits were filled with waste including oil, chemicals and plastics.
Evidence of burn-pit usage, along with high levels of fine particle pollution in the air, led the VA to also class Egypt, Jordan and Yemen as places where veterans have been exposed to toxic substances.
