OTHER EXPOSURES:

ASBESTOS:

You may be eligible for disability compensation based on asbestos exposure if you meet both of these requirements.

Both of these must be true:

You have a health condition that’s caused by exposure to asbestos, and

You had contact with asbestos while serving in the military

How do I know if I have a health condition caused by my contact with asbestos?

If you worked in certain jobs or with certain products, ask your doctor about getting tested for illnesses that affect your lungs.

Get tested if you’ve worked in these areas:

Mining

Milling

Shipyards

Construction

Carpentry

Demolition (knocking down old buildings)

Get tested if you’ve made or worked with products like these:

Flooring

Roofing

Cement sheet

Pipes

Insulation

Clutch facings and brake linings (called friction products)

MUSTARD GAS OR LEWISITE EXPOSURE:

You may be eligible for disability compensation if you have a disability believed to be caused by contact with mustard gas or lewisite and your military record shows you had contact with mustard gas or lewisite.

Both of these must be true:

You volunteered for research involving chemical and biological testing between 1942 and 1975, and

You have an injury or disease directly caused by your participation in this testing

If you were in the Army and served in these places:

Bari, Italy

Bushnell, FL

Camp Lejeune, NC

Camp Sibert, AL

Dugway Proving Ground, UT

Edgewood Arsenal, MD

Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC

Ondal, India

Rocky Mountain Arsenal, CO

San Jose Island, Panama Canal Zone

If you were in the Navy and served in these places:

Bari, Italy

Camp Lejeune, NC

Charleston, SC

Great Lakes Naval Training Center, IL

Hart’s Island, NY

Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, MD

Naval Research Laboratory, VA

Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC

USS Eagle Boat 58

Some service members who took part in testing in these places:

Finschhafen, New Guinea

Porton Down, England

IONIZING RADIATION EXPOSURE:

You may be eligible for disability compensation if you didn’t receive a dishonorable discharge and you meet these requirements.

Both of these must be true:

You have an illness that’s on our list of illnesses believed to be caused by radiation or that doctors say may be caused by radiation, and

Your illness started within a certain period of time (as shown along with the list of illnesses)

Note: You can find a list of radiation-related illnesses on the National Archives Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) website. Review radiation-related illnesses on the eCFR website

And you must have had contact with ionizing radiation in one of these ways while serving in the military:

- You were part of atmospheric nuclear weapons testing

- You served in the postwar occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki

- You were a prisoner of war (POW) in Japan

- You did tasks like those of a Department of Energy (DOE) employee that make them a member of the Special Exposure Cohort (For more details, check 42 U.S.C. 7384L(14)

You may also qualify for disability benefits if you served in at least one of these locations and capacities:

- You were part of underground nuclear weapons testing at Amchitka Island, Alaska

- You were assigned to a gaseous diffusion plant at Paducah, Kentucky

- You were assigned to a gaseous diffusion plant at Portsmouth, Ohio

- You were assigned to a gaseous diffusion plant at Area K-25 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Cleanup of Enewetak Atoll, from January 1, 1977, through December 31, 1980

Cleanup of the Air Force B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons off the coast of Palomares, Spain, from January 17, 1966, through March 31, 1967

Response to the fire onboard an Air Force B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons near Thule Air Force Base in Greenland from January 21, 1968, to September 25, 1968