Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Will Process All Camp Lejeune Claims At Louisville VA

December 17, 2010 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been working to streamline their disability claim processing to make it faster and more accurate at the same time. One way the VA is doing this is by processing every disability claim related to Camp Lejeune's contaminated water at a single location. That location will be the Louisville, Kentucky VA.

The main reason for taking this step is to keep all the Camp Lejeune claims together to ensure consistency in both the handling procedures and decision making processes. The disability claims processors will face multiple illnesses associated with the toxic water so a stable and reliable process by VA will be necessary to handle the claims.

Certain diseases have been more prevalent among those exposed to Camp Lejeune's contaminated water, such as:

• Male breast cancer;
• Cancers;
• Leukemias; and
• Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

A 2009 report could not find enough evidence to link the toxic chemicals in Camp Lejeune's water to these various diseases. The Agency for Toxic substances and Disease Registry could not accept that as a viable conclusion. Its Director called the study insufficient for not including benzene, which is a known carcinogen, and flat out wrong, noting Camp Lejeune's water was "undoubtedly a hazard."

Consistency is possibly the most important factor in processing these disability claims. To date, approximately 200 claims have been filed with the VA related to Camp Lejeune's toxic water, and only 20 have been approved. Processing all of these specific disability claims in a central location will allow for the claims to be evaluated in the same way and looked at for the same evidence.

Starting in February of next year, the VA will use an electronic system to track every Camp Lejeune water-related claim. No longer will claims be decided on a case-by-case basis. The VA does not plan on re-evaluating previously denied claims, despite advocates attacking the system used to decide those claims. Only time will tell how the VA handles this situation.