VA's Secret List: Why Veterans Deserve to Know What Toxic Exposures Are Under Review

Senator Richard Blumenthal introduced legislation highlighting a troubling reality: the VA studies toxic exposure illnesses behind closed doors, leaving veterans in the dark about whether their conditions are even under consideration.

The CLARITY Act would require the VA to establish a public website showing which toxic exposure conditions the agency is studying. Currently, no such transparency exists. Veterans suffering from illnesses linked to burn pits, contaminated water, chemical exposure, or PFAS have no way to know if the VA is evaluating their conditions.

Why Transparency Matters

This isn't just about information—it's about veterans' ability to make informed decisions about healthcare and legal rights. When veterans don't know their condition is under review, they can't effectively advocate for themselves.

From a legal perspective, lack of transparency creates serious problems. Veterans pursuing FTCA cases for VA medical negligence need to understand the VA's position on their conditions. If the VA is studying whether a condition links to toxic exposure but hasn't publicly acknowledged it, that affects whether VA providers should have recognized and treated the condition differently.

Consider a veteran with a rare respiratory illness the VA is secretly evaluating for burn pit correlation. If VA physicians dismissed his symptoms without investigation, was that negligent? The answer might depend partly on what VA's internal research showed—research veterans and their attorneys cannot access.

The PACT Act Created Expectations

The PACT Act reshaped toxic exposure benefits in 2022, adding dozens of presumptive conditions and expanding eligibility for millions of veterans. It represented the government finally acknowledging that modern warfare creates toxic exposures causing serious illness.

But the PACT Act created expectations of transparency the VA hasn't met. Veterans reasonably assumed that if their condition was being studied, they'd know about it. Some families discover only years later—sometimes accidentally—that their illnesses were under VA review without any public record.

Historical Context Matters

The VA's handling of burn pit illnesses created current distrust. For over a decade, veterans with respiratory problems, rare cancers, and autoimmune conditions linked to burn pit exposure struggled for VA acknowledgment. The agency moved slowly, denied most claims, and required veterans to prove exposures the government never tracked.

That pattern created the pressure campaign producing the PACT Act. But the VA still operates reviews behind closed doors while veterans wait for answers that may never come publicly.

What Veterans Should Know

If you're suffering from an illness you believe stems from toxic exposure during service, don't assume the VA will tell you if they're studying the connection. The current system provides no transparency.

For recent VA medical care related to toxic exposure conditions, remember the two-year FTCA deadline. If VA providers failed to properly evaluate or treat your condition, that clock is running whether or not the VA publicly acknowledges your illness as service connected.