Hunton Andrews Kurth Lawyers Provide Key Analysis of Disability Compensation Standard for Military Veterans’ Burn Pit Exposure

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP lawyers Jason P. Brown and J. Pierce Lamberson assisted the National Veterans Legal Services Program with its analysis of the military’s standard for determining which diseases caused by exposure to toxic burn pits in southwest Asia qualify service members for disability compensation. 

Brown and Lamberson contributed vital research and analysis for “Five Decades of VA Service Connection Presumptions,” a white paper released by NVLSP and advocacy group BurnPits360 that found that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs currently uses an unduly high standard for service connection presumptions for burn pit exposure. Because it is often difficult for veterans to marshal historic medical evidence, service connection presumptions allow veterans to receive disability compensation without obtaining a medical opinion linking a current disability to their military service.

Until the mid-2010s, the military routinely used open-air burn pits to incinerate waste at southwest Asia sites, including in the Persian Gulf region and Afghanistan. The pits would contain chemicals, medical supplies, paint, plastic water bottles, batteries and other refuse that created toxic fumes. The poor air quality is believed to be linked to veterans’ respiratory illnesses and rare cancers.

The white paper reviewed almost 50 years of service connection presumptions created by statutes or regulations and found that Congress and the VA have historically decided whether a disease merits a presumption of service connection using a “statistical association” test, rather than a more demanding causation or etiological standard.

NVLSP plans to use the paper’s findings to urge Congress and the VA to employ the proper standard in analyzing the connection between veterans’ exposure to burn pits’ toxic emissions and various diseases, and thus broaden the scope of illnesses that qualify a military service member for disability compensation and medical reimbursements.