Anticipating that roughly 200,000 Vietnam War veterans will file disability claims because of exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange, the Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an initiative to seek input from private-sector advice in order to resolve those claims in a timely manner. The VA expects the influx of new claims because of decision VA health officials made last year, which determined that veterans who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, or B-cell leukemias can claim that their maladies can be traced to Agent Orange exposure. The VA hopes that the input will enable the department to process claims more quickly than the 90 days it now takes. More information is available online at www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/.
