No Decision Yet From VA on New Agent Orange Presumptive Diseases

The VA has not announced any decision on whether it will provide disability compensation for four diseases linked to exposure to Agent Orange by a scientific panel, breaking a pledge to make a decision by late June. Despite a promise in March from a Veterans Health Administration official that VA would decide within 90 days whether to add four health conditions — bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, hypertension and Parkinson's like symptoms — to a list of diseases presumed related to herbicide exposure, a VA spokesman said last week that none is forthcoming. "We have no announcements on Agent Orange presumptive conditions at this time," a VA spokeswoman said Wednesday, three months after a hearing in which a VA official told a senator the decision was pending. Read more on Military.com.