Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/353

 PUBLIC LAW 98-542—OCT. 24, 1984

98 STAT. 2725

Public Law 98-542 98th Congress An Act To require the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to prescribe regulations regarding the determination of service connection of certain disabilities of veterans who were exposed to dioxin in the Republic of Vietnam while performing active military, naval, or air service or to radiation from nuclear detonations while performing such service, to provide interim benefits for certain disabilities and deaths, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SHORT TITLE SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the "Veterans' Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act".

Oct. 24, 1984 [H.R. 1961]

Veterans' Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act. 38 USC 354 note.

FINDINGS 38 USC 354 note. SEC. 2. The Congress makes the following findings: (1) Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era and veterans who participated in atmospheric nuclear tests or the American occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, are deeply concerned about possible long-term health effects of exposure to herbicides containing dioxin or to ionizing radiation. (2) There is scientific and medical uncertainty regarding such long-term adverse health effects. (3) In section 102 of Public Law 97-22, the Congress responded to that uncertainty by authorizing priority medical care at Veterans' Administration facilities for any disability of a veteran who may have been so exposed (even though there is insufficient medical evidence linking such disability with such exposure) unless the disability is found to have resulted from a cause other than the exposure. (4) The Congress has further responded to that medical and scientific uncertainty by requiring, in section 307 of Public Law 96-151 and section 601 of Public Law 98-160, the conduct of 38 USC 219 note. thorough epidemiological studies of the health effects experi- 97 Stat. 1006. enced by veterans in connection with exposure both to herbi- 38 USC 219 note. cides containing dioxin and (if not determined to be scientifically infeasible) to radiation, and by requiring in Public Law 97-414, 21 USC 301 note the development of radioepidemiological tables setting forth the probabilities of causation between various cancers and exposure to radiation. (5) There is some evidence that chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, and soft tissue sarcoma are associated with exposure to certain levels of dioxin as found in some herbicides and that most types of leukemia, malignancies of the thyroid, female breast, lung, bone, liver, and skin, and polycythemia vera are associated with exposure to certain levels of ionizing radiation.

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