Agent Orange

The Agent Orange Act of 1991 established a procedure for adding diseases to the list of disabilities presumptively associated with herbicide exposure. The procedure requires the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs to consider reports received from the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) and all other sound medical and scientific information and analysis on the health effects of herbicide exposure before making a decision on presumptive service connection. In its latest report, Veterans and Agent Orange, Update 2008 (2009), IOM reviewed new studies and determined that there is “limited or suggestive” evidence of an association between herbicide exposure and the subsequent development of Parkinson’s disease and ischemic heart disease. The IOM also determined that hairy cell leukemia and all chronic B-cell leukemias belong in the category of “sufficient evidence of an association.” This assessment by IOM contributed to the Secretary’s decision to add these diseases to the presumptive list and publish the required notice in the Federal Register.