For years, veterans and their families have told stories of
rare cancers, crippling respiratory illnesses, birth defects and more. Their
conditions have confounded doctors and experts. How are these young, previously
health troops and veterans falling so grievously ill? Why are they dying so
quickly?
For years those families have gone without official answers,
though they have their theories. Some say they know unequivocally -- it's toxic
exposure.
Now veterans have perhaps their first major signal that the
Department of Veterans Affairs plans to pursue the matter further. VA
researchers recently announced plans to conduct a major study on environmental
exposures during military service and the connection to illnesses in those
veterans. VA also plans to look at potential intergenerational effects of
military exposures, which may or may not include studying children of exposed
veterans.
VA Chief of Research Development Rachel Ramoni said VA
scientists have spoken with hundreds of veterans about the toxic exposures they
say they've experienced during deployments. Because of those conversations,
Ramoni said VA is planning "major investment in toxic exposures."
Veterans of multiple eras have been frustrated by the wait
times for VA recognition of and payout of benefits for different exposures,
including Agent Orange and Gulf War illness.
Veterans "for good reason have been irritated with us
as an organization because we have not done a lot of work, especially clinical
work, on military exposures," Ramoni said during a conference in
Washington, D.C. last week focused on veteran prostate cancer. "I have
apologized to them ... I have committed that, in (Fiscal Year 2021), we are
going to make major investments in toxic exposures. We are in the planning
phases for that now, but in (Fiscal Year 2021), we will start to roll that out.
That's something that will cut across all our research."
The scope of the study could also extend to veterans'
children, as VA intends to consider intergenerational effects of exposures,
Ramoni said.
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