Is the VA defrauding atomic veterans of medical care and compensation for their SC injuries

Is the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) defrauding atomic veterans and their families of medical care and compensation for the veteran’s service-connected (SC) injuries?

Over one hundred thousand military personnel and veterans were exposed to highly classified radioactive material from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons or subjected to DoD or VA’s radiation research. See: military personnel and veterans exposed to radioactive material (RAM)

The Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) recognizes only an external exposure to ionizing radiation and will acknowledge only a handful of cancers as qualifying as a service-connected injury. Because the VBA refuses to recognize the full scope of radiation-induced injuries caused by exposure to radioactive material (RAM), the veterans and their families are denied medical care and compensation for the veteran’s service-connected (SC) injuries.

External Ionizing Radiation

• Very few military personnel and veterans were exposed to external ionizing radiation levels high enough or long enough to cause long-term health problems, except those who maintained the early-generation Navy reactors with inadequate shielding.
• A film badge is used to measure an estimated dose of external ionizing radiation for purposes of personnel monitoring. The film badge may contain two or three films of differing sensitivities, and it may also have a filter that shields part of the film from certain types of radiation.

Contamination with RAM

• Contamination with RAM can result in external (dermal contact) AND internal (inhalation, ingestion, or dermal absorption) exposure.
• Internal doses have commonly been considered “worse” than external doses. This results from the emission of energetic radiation by internally deposited RAM. This problem is compounded by the length of time that the radionuclides stay in the body.
• A whole-body counter is a device used to accurately identify and measure the radioactive material in the human body. The counter uses ultrasensitive radiation detectors, electronic counting equipment, and heavy shielding to keep out naturally existing background radiation.

There have been hundreds of well-documented deaths that were the result of an individual’s exposure to RAM. Eben McBurney Byers, Marie Curie, the Radium Girls, and Alexander Litvinenko are just a few examples of those who died due to external and internal exposure to RAM. Yet, the VA ignores the science and refuses to acknowledge the harmful and often fatal results of this environmental exposure.

Feres Doctrine

Because of this ongoing fraud, did the U.S. government lay the foundation for overturning the Feres Doctrine, since Feres v. United States, 340 U.S. 135 (1950), requires that the VA provide compensation and medical care for injuries incurred during military service?

International Classification of Diseases codes (ICD-10)

The International Classification of Diseases codes (ICD-10) for radiation-exposure-related illnesses are recognized by the National Library of Medicine, Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institute of Health (NIH), World Health Organization (WHO), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA), but not by the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).

The following illnesses can be caused by exposure to ionizing radiation (external) or exposure to radioactive material (RAM) through inhalation, ingestion, or dermal absorption/contact (external AND internal).

Radiation-induced disorder – CD10 Codes vs. Veterans Administration (VA)

A partial list of military personnel and veterans exposed to radioactive material (RAM).

• DoD Radiation research veterans
• Atomic test veterans
• Aircraft radiation decontamination veterans
• Bikini Atoll and Enewetak Atoll, atomic cleanup veterans
• Broken Arrow cleanup veterans (Palomares, Spain)
• GW I veterans (from the release of RAM when Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons enrichment facilities (calutrons) were blown up)
• DU veterans

• International Classification of Diseases – Read Codes (ICD-10 codes)
• Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine – Clinical Terms (CNOMED-CT)
• External exposure to ionizing radiation
  Exposure occurs when all or part of the body is exposed to a penetrating radiation field from an external source. Like a chest X-ray, the body can absorb this radiation during exposure or pass it completely through. Note that exposure to a radiation field does not cause an individual to become radioactive; the radiation exposure ceases as soon as the individual leaves the field.
• External/Internal contamination with radioactive material (RAM)
  The other type of radiation injury involves being contaminated with radioactive material (RAM). Contamination means that radioactive material in gases, liquids, or solids is released into the environment and contaminates people externally (such as on the skin) and internally (by absorption, inhalation, and/or ingestion). Contamination by radioactive material can lead to the incorporation of radioactive material into the body. This can result from the uptake of radioactive material by body cells, tissues, and target organs such as bone, liver, thyroid, or kidney. Radioactive materials are distributed throughout the body based on their chemical properties. For example, Iodine-125 is concentrated in the body’s thyroid gland, like non-radioactive iodine.
• Department of Energy (DOE) classified radioactive material (RAM)
  Restricted Data (RD), Formerly Restricted Data (RD), and Transclassified Foreign Nuclear Information (TFNI)
• Department of the Air Force classified radioactive material (RAM)
  The term “91(b”” ref” rs to RAM covered under Section 91(b) of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA) of 1954.

Reference:

• DOE-STD-1121-2008, Internal Dosimetry – DOE Standards
• NRC – Basic Concepts of Internal Dosimetry
• 38 CFR § 3.311 – Claims based on exposure to ionizing radiation