John Plahovinsak
The legislative battle to end the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) obvious discrimination against “Atomic” veterans was launched in the Halls of Congress by Representative Dina Titus on July 11, 2023.
The Providing Radiation Exposed Servicemembers Undisputed Medical Eligibility (PRESUME) Act (known as H.R. 4566) would eliminate the arbitrary VA practice of requiring specific radiation dose estimate levels before disabled veterans received their earned VA benefits for radiation-linked illnesses.
When the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act was signed into law on August 11, 2022, disabled veterans exposed to Agent Orange or the Open Burn Pits did not have to prove the level of their exposure before receiving their VA benefits.
“Atomic” veterans, who were exposed to degrees of radiation, must prove their dose level of radiation exposure before receiving VA benefits. In addition to the VA requiring radiation estimates from the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the disabled veterans must prove they were on-site at eligible locations worldwide.
When the PACT Act was implemented last year, more than 8,000 veterans who helped clean up radioactive sites became eligible to apply for monthly disability compensation benefits.
However, as of August 10, 2023, the VA has rejected eighty-six (86%) percent of the disability compensation claims. The VA processed 4,100 radiation-related claims in the last year. The VA denied approximately 3,500 claims and approved only 570 disability claims.
The VA said the denials in the first year of the PACT Act mostly came when the VA could not establish that the claimed conditions were clinically diagnosed, that they lacked the dose radiation level; that they were the result of veterans’ service or that they met the criteria for approval.
The discrimination against “Atomic” veterans blatantly occurs because the VA holds the “Atomic” veterans to a higher eligibility standard than civilians are held by other government agencies.
For specific example, the Department of Justice’s Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program compensates individuals with specific diseases presumed from nuclear tests, but it does not require claimants to prove causation or provide dose estimates, like the VA requires.
The VA recognizes that all cancers are possibly caused by radiation exposure. But the VA only considers some of types of cancer to be covered as so-called presumptive conditions.
These conditions include cancers of the bile duct, bone, brain, breast, colon, esophagus, gallbladder, liver, lung, pancreas, pharynx, ovaries, salivary gland, thyroid, small intestine, stomach and urinary tract.
To qualify for disability compensation, veterans must submit medical records showing they have been diagnosed with at least one of those above-listed illnesses, as well as service records that prove participation in one of about a dozen assignments in which there were radiation risks and the dose radiation level they received (as estimated by the DTRA).
According to H.R. Bill 4566 sponsor Representative Titus, it is “virtually impossible” to prove exposure through radiation dose estimates. The Congresswoman, an atomic historian, stated that the dose readings were inaccurate and the equipment used was faulty.
A 1985 General Accounting Office (GAO) Report (RCED – 86-15) entitled: Operation Crossroads: Personnel Radiation Exposure Estimates Should Be Improved, dealt with significant deficiencies with the Defense Department Film Badges (previously used to monitor personnel radiation exposure) and made seven (7) recommendations for improvement.
The Department of Defense chose to ignore these recommendations and the VA has chosen to use these deficient film badges and their dose rates as the basis to judge disabled veterans’ radiation-related disability compensation claims.
Enewetak Atoll islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, was the site where the United States conducted forty-three (43) nuclear tests from 1948 to 1958. Kenneth Brownell was one of the first soldiers of the 6,000 military personnel assigned to clean up the nuclear debris on Enewetak Atoll Islands in 1977.
According to Brownell, who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2001, the equipment utilized to conduct radiation checks was not initially available and most of it did not work properly when it arrived. “We can’t prove (to the VA) that we were exposed in any way,” he stated.
Many other veterans, such as the Air Force personnel who worked at clean-up efforts after a U.S. nuclear weapons-carrying bomber crashed off Palomares, Spain in 1966 agree with Brownell that they face impractical burdens to prove that they were exposed to a certain dose of radiation.
“The DAV proudly supports the PRESUME Act,” said DAV Deputy National Legislative Director Shane Liermann,” as it would remove the barriers established by dated VA regulations and provide equity with other government programs.
“We cannot continue to leave any of them behind,” said Representative Titus. “Our Country’s atomic veterans helped win the peace during the Cold War, and they must be able to access the highest standards of care available.”
My Opinion: I have just three (3) issues I have with the VA’s disapprovals of radiation-related submitted compensation claims, which necessitates the approval by Congress and enactment into law of the PRESUME Act.
First, I believe that no one in the upper echelons of the VA has read the GAO’s 1985 117-page Report on the deficiencies of monitoring the dose rate of radiation during Operation Crossroads. Perhaps, after reading the document, they would eliminate the VA requirement of specific radiation dose estimate levels.
I would recommend that the VA focus on page #62 of the GAO Report – Reporting Film Badge Error, specifically on “We (the GAO) believe the military services (given their familiarity with the data) should report film badge readings with error ranges to VA rather than have the VA develop this information.”
Second, the Department of Justice’s RECA Program does not require claimants (performing the same radiation clean-up tasks as the military) to provide dose estimates before granting compensation. Why should the VA discriminate against the military in this fashion?
Third, I have spoken to one Marine who was exposed to nuclear radiation during a test in Nevada in the 1950’s. His protection from the nuclear blast was his U.S.M.C. uniform and sunglasses. Other military personnel did not receive protective clothing before they started clean-up of nuclear debris.
There are more than 552,000 radiation-exposed veterans in the Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s database. About 46,000 of them have already died. The youngest atomic veterans now being over 60 years old. Kenneth Brownell, best summed it up by saying,” They’re waiting for us all to die.”
This is why Congress must pass H.R. 4566 the Providing Radiation Exposed Servicemembers Undisputed Medical Eligibility (PRESUME) Act.
BioSketch: John Plahovinsak is a 32-year retired Army veteran, who served from 1967 to 1999. He is the current Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Department of Ohio Hospital Chairman and Adjutant of DAV Chapter #63 (Clermont County). He can be contacted at: plahovinsak@msn.com.