200,000 veterans exposed to burn pits, chemicals apply for expanded health benefits

A flood of veterans from across Long Island and throughout the country exposed to toxic burn pits and Agent Orange overseas have filed benefit claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs following last summer’s passage of a bill that dramatically expands health care benefits, federal officials said.

Since President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act — considered by experts to be the most significant expansion of veteran benefits in more than three decades — into law on Aug. 10, more than 213,000 claims have been submitted, according to Veterans Affairs figures available last week.

Federal officials could not provide a breakdown of applicants for New York State or Long Island. But experts believe the impact on Long Island's veteran population will be immense. The Northport VA Medical Center, just one of the health care providers where veterans can be evaluated for eligibility, has screened more than 5,400 veterans.

The bill extends benefits to service members from Vietnam, the Gulf War and post-9/11 era conflicts who have cancers and 22 other severe illnesses linked to burn pits, airborne pollution, Agent Orange and other pollutants.

Validation for sick vets

The measure, projected to cost about $277 billion over the next 10 years, also would reform how the department determines who suffered exposure to pollutants while in the military.

Veterans can still receive benefits if they have a condition that's not on the list, but the burden is on them to prove the link to burn pits, and the VA in the past has denied the majority of those claims.

Patrick Donohue of Islip spent six months with the Army's 101st Airborne Division near a burn pit in Afghanistan, inhaling pollutants from plastics and human and medical waste that he said caused a noncancerous brain tumor. It took six years for Donohue to prove to the VA that his brain tumor was linked to burn pits.

Now a veteran’s attorney and advocate with Project 9 Line, which helps former military members transition back into civilian life, Donohue represents about 50 clients that filed PACT Act claims, including many in their 80s and 90s.

“There’s so much awareness now about this bill that we have guys and girls who for 50 or 60 or even 70 years have never filed for benefits and are now filing claims,” Donohue said. “And now the stage is set for the younger guys and girls who are now filing their claims. Luckily a lot of them don’t have these extreme conditions. And hopefully never will, but if they ever do, they’ll be aware of it and already in the system.”

Tom Ronayne, Suffolk County's Veterans Services director, said the PACT Act also opens the doors for individuals whose claims were previously denied and for widows or surviving dependents of vets who died from illnesses now covered in the bill. 

"This provides a validation to a lot of these veterans who can look back and say 'I wore the uniform. I wore that flag on my sleeve. I went where I was told to go and did the job that I was asked to do,' " said Ronayne, whose office has helped nearly 300 vets file PACT Act claims. "As a result … many of these men and women that have carried these illnesses for many decades can look in the mirror and say 'this wasn't something I did. This wasn't something that just happened to me.' This was no different from being wounded and being seriously injured as a part of your service."

An estimated 3.5 million veterans may have been exposed to burn pits, including hundreds that were used in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries where the United States had a military presence. Among the items burned on military bases, experts said, were chemicals, plastics, human waste, computer equipment, paint, metal, petroleum, Styrofoam and rubber.

Some Senate Republicans voted against the measure, citing cost and concerns that some money could be used for issues unrelated to veterans' health care.

'A real tragedy'

To date, more than 959,000 veterans have received the VA’s new toxic exposure screenings required to file a PACT Act claim — with nearly 40% reporting a potential illness covered by the bill, the department said.

Locally, the Northport VA Medical Center plans to provide the screenings for the nearly 20,000 vets who obtain primary care at the hospital. Since August, Northport has screened more than 5,400, vets with about 40% showing signs of at least one of the illnesses covered in the PACT Act, said April Esposito, chief of the business office at Long Island's only VA hospital.

"This is the single largest expansion of veteran health eligibility in many, many years," Esposito said. "This is a tremendous opportunity for us to bring our veterans here and get them the health care that they really need. And it certainly opens the door to veterans that may not have met eligibility requirements years ago who can now revisit that eligibility and now be able to enroll in our health care system."

Michael Bocchini, deputy director of the New York State Division of Veterans Services, said his office has been helping vets from across the state, including Long Island, file the necessary PACT Act paperwork.

“It's a real tragedy,” Bocchini said of the number of veterans sickened by burn pits.

He added: “They knew 10 years ago these burn pits were going to cause problems down the road. It’s just hard to measure how bad it will be for this generation."
The VA began processing most PACT Act claims on Jan. 1. Claims for terminally ill veterans began being processed on Dec. 12, the department said. Veterans with cancer, those over the age of 85, those experiencing homelessness or financial hardships, or Medal of Honor or Purple Heart recipients will be prioritized first, officials said.

To prepare for the influx of PACT Act claims, the VA said it has been aggressively hiring and training new staffers and contractors, including legal specialists, to process claims.

“Frankly, I had my doubts about the VA’s capability and ability to roll this out,” said Tom Porter, executive vice president of government affairs for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a group based in Manhattan. “But for right now they’re doing an amazing job. I don’t think a year ago I would have said that about the VA.”

Robert Ackerman, of Centereach, served in the Coast Guard in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. Decades later, he continues to suffer with post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing issues, sleep apnea, hypertension, thyroid cancer, malignant melanoma and gastro reflux issues that he attributes to Agent Orange exposure.

Last year, Ackerman filed for PACT Act benefits to assist with his medical bills.

"I wish I had done this 25 years ago," Ackerman said. "I am already 79 years old, and a lot of these [presumable conditions] should have been granted a long, long time ago."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.