Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/356

 98 STAT. 2728 Federal Register, publication.

PUBLIC LAW 98-542—OCT. 24, 1984

section 6). Those evaluations shall be published in the notice section of the Federal Register. (p),pj^g standards and criteria required to be established in regulations prescribed under this section shall include provisions governing the use in the adjudication of individual claims of the Administrator's evaluations made under subparagraph (B). (2)(A)(i) In prescribing regulations under this section, the Administrator (after receiving the advice of the Advisory Committee and of the appropriate panel of the Scientific Council of the Veterans' Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards regarding the diseases described in subparagraph (B)) shall make determinations, based on sound medical and scientific evidence, with respect to each disease described in subparagraph (B) as to whether service connection shall, subject to division (ii) of this subparagraph, be granted in the adjudication of individual cases. In making determinations regarding such diseases, the Administrator shall give due regard to the need to maintain the policy of the United States with respect to the resolution of contested issues as set forth in section 2(13). The Administrator shall set forth in such regulations such determinations, with any specification (relating to exposure or other relevant matter) of limitations on the circumstances under which service connection shall be granted, and shall implement such determinations in accordance with such regulations. (ii) If the Administrator makes a determination, pursuant to this subparagraph, that service connection shall be granted in the case of a disease described in subparagraph (B), the Administrator shall specify in such regulations that, in the adjudication of individual cases, service connection shall not be granted where there is sufficient affirmative evidence to the contrary or evidence to establish that an intercurrent injury or disease which is a recognized cause of the described disease has been suffered between the date of separation from service and the onset of such disease or that the disability is due to the veteran's own willful misconduct. (iii) With regard to each disease described in subparagraph (B), the Administrator shall include in the regulations prescribed under this section provisions specifying the factors to be considered in adjudicating issues relating to whether or not service connection should be granted in individual cases and the circumstances governing the granting of service connection for such disease. (B) The diseases referred to in subparagraph (A) are those specified in section 2(5) and any other disease with respect to which the Administrator finds (after receiving and considering the advice of the appropriate panel of the Scientific Council established under section 6(d)(2)) that there is sound scientific or medical evidence indicating— (i) a connection to exposure to a herbicide containing dioxin, in the case of a veteran who was exposed to that herbicide during such veteran's service in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era, or (ii) a connection to exposure to ionizing radiation, in the case of a veteran who was exposed to ionizing radiation in connection with such veteran's participation in an atmospheric nuclear test or with the American occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, before July 1, 1946. (3) The regulations prescribed under this section shall include—

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