Vets Urged to Get Radiation Care By Associated Press

August 7, 2001

WASHINGTON -- Thousands of veterans exposed to cancer-causing radiation during atomic tests conducted decades ago could find it easier to get compensation under a new regulation aimed at giving them the same treatment as civilians.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is to publish Wednesday in the Federal Register a proposed rule covering vets who were stricken with cancers of the lungs, colon, bone, ovary, and brain and central nervous system and who were present at certain atomic bomb exercises, served at Hiroshima and Nagasaki during post-World War II occupation in Japan or were prisoners of war in Japan.

So-called 'atomic vets' already receive compensation for 16 types of cancer, including leukemia, thyroid, breast, stomach, liver and esophagus.

The new regulation adds the five new diseases and expands places they may have been exposed to make their benefits comparable to what civilians have been receiving since last summer, said Veterans affairs spokesman Jim Benson.

The five illnesses are being added to veteran affair's so-called presumptive list -- meaning if a veteran is found to have the disease and the veteran served in those locations, it is presumed the illness is related to service time.

"It's a perfect example of justice denied way too long," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Minnesota Democrat who pushed to extend the benefits.

Officials expect to receive some 92,000 claims from surviving vets and 48,000 from dependents. They have estimated the cost of the program over 10 years at $769 million.

Last year, Congress made it easier for more civilian employees to get payments from exposure in Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Tennessee, Alaska and other sites. The proposed regulation would extend that to veterans.

Publishing the regulation opens a 60-day comment period after which officials could incorporate comments or amend the rule. It is then subject to another 90-day comment period before becoming final. Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Answers

I just have to wonder if I get something, my first husband was in Nam, and exposed to agent Orange, and I aways used to joke that I was "allergic" to him..I'd have reactions from "being intamate" with him..if you "know what I mean. we thought maybe it was laundry soap, or bath soap, ect...but even the dr. could not figure it out.

Hummmp!!! think it was all in my mind?????heheheh

Seriously, I really think he had that stuff in his system, and I had a reaction to it.

(Move then you ever wanted to know, hey????)

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

SAR, maybe ask your doctor about your concern.

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001

Don't ask your doctor. If you do, then he'll make a note in your chart and it will be there forever.

Check out vet bulletin boards online and see if other spouses experienced the same thing or something similar.

Call a doctor office, one that specializes like OB-GYN, and ask anonymously if there is anything to that sort of concern.

don't let them make a record of you yet. Otherwise you'll be watched and monitored...

[Gee, am I being too paranoid here?]

-- Anonymous, August 08, 2001