The VET PFAS Act: Florida Veterans Can Finally Get the Medical Support They Deserve | Florida

Florida is home to twenty-one military bases, at least seventeen of which are listed by the Department of Defense as known sources of toxic per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) in groundwater on and off-site. PFAS has been known to contaminate drinking water sources at and near military installations, posing a significant health risk to humans and non-humans living nearby.

While everyone who comes into contact with PFAS is exposed to the dangers these chemicals pose, military personnel and their families are impacted exponentially. People who work and live in such harmful environments for years regularly drink PFAS-contaminated water and breathe PFAS-contaminated air.

Military firefighters are most affected because they come into direct contact with the toxic substance. They work with aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), a fire extinguisher with high levels of PFAS.

Until now, veterans who wanted to file a claim for toxic exposure on a military base had to provide medical evidence that their condition had progressed or worsened during the years they served on a military base. Filing a claim involves complicated bureaucratic procedures that often prevent them from receiving veterans’ (VA) disability benefits.

The PFAS Act for VETERINARY addresses this problem, which is mainly caused by the mismanagement and neglect of the US military.

Ubiquitous PFAS contamination and lasting health effects on veterans

PFAS is a large group of synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1950s to produce various consumer products, protective equipment for firefighters, and AFFF. AFFF is a Class B firefighting foam invented in 1967 by the U.S. Navy and 3M Company to protect against fuel and other flammable liquids.

Since then, it has been widely used by firefighters, particularly the military, to extinguish fires at plane crash sites. Waste is usually disposed of in landfills at these facilities.

AFFF can contain up to 98% PFAS, making it a highly effective surfactant. At the same time, it poses a serious threat to the health of firefighters. PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because they degrade slowly, if at all. They are water-soluble, highly mobile, persist in the environment for an unknown period of time, and accumulate in living organisms. Long-term exposure to PFAS causes serious diseases such as decreased fertility, weakened immune systems, changes in liver enzymes, and increases in cholesterol levels. Exposure to PFOA and PFOS, the two most common types of PFAS, has been linked to several types of cancer.

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death among firefighters nationwide.

Numerous medical studies have shown that they have a higher risk of being diagnosed with cancer than the general population.

Recently, scientists from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, the University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, discovered a link between elevated PFAS concentration levels and testicular cancer in U.S. Air Force service members.

Because of the dangers, there has been a long-running environmental campaign to replace AFFF with PFAS-free alternatives. While the DOD plans to phase out AFFF by October 2024, there are hundreds of military sites contaminated with PFAS and other toxic chemicals across the U.S., many of which are in Florida, including Naval Air Station Cecil Field and Patrick Space Force Base.

Naval Air Station Cecil Field was established in the 1940s and became the largest military base in the Jacksonville area in the 1950s. The base was decommissioned in 1999. It currently operates as a joint civil-military airfield and industrial park. In 2018, PFAS monitoring and sampling detected 988,600 ppt of PFOA and PFOS in groundwater on the base.

Patrick Space Force Base, located on the east coast of central Florida, was built in 1940. The base is now used for launching rockets. In 2017, the level of PFOA and PFOS in groundwater was 4,338,000 ppt.

The PFAS levels detected at the two military bases are dramatically higher than the safe exposure limit of 70 ppt that the DOD operates under. The situation has become even more concerning since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reaffirmed the potential carcinogenic nature of PFAS chemicals in March 2023, groundbreakingly setting the limit for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water at 4 ppt each.

Considering that the EPA has declared PFAS to be hazardous even in the smallest amounts, the situation of veterans and those still serving on military sites is alarming. While firefighters are directly exposed to PFAS, anyone stationed on military bases was and is at risk of developing illness, primarily cancer, because exposure is unavoidable. Yet, responsible parties are reluctant to take responsibility for the contamination, making it difficult to file compensation claims.

The VET PFAS Act, Legal Relief for Veterans

Despite existing scientific data showing that virtually no level of PFAS exposure is safe and can lead to adverse health outcomes, veterans who plan to file a toxic exposure claim must navigate a burdensome bureaucratic process. However, the VA denies most claims. Veterans must provide medical evidence that exposure to toxic chemicals, including PFAS, during military service caused their illness.

In many cases, this is not easy. Most veterans were unaware of the health risks while serving in the military. In other cases, it can take years for symptoms to develop or for medical advice to be sought. The situation is made worse because only specific diagnoses qualify veterans for compensation, even though exposure to PFAS can lead to a range of health problems.

The VET PFAS Act, introduced in the Senate on July 17, 2023, establishes that illnesses related to PFAS exposure are presumptive service-connected disabilities for veterans and their dependents stationed on military installations where they were exposed to PFAS. The law gives them the right to hospital care and medical services even if there is insufficient medical evidence.

The VET PFAS Act has been consistently overlooked since 2018. If voted into law, it could be a milestone in the ongoing fight to bring convenience and justice to the nation’s veterans and their dependents living with the disease by sparing them the hassle of bureaucratic red tape and high legal and medical bills. For many veterans suffering from serious illnesses, it would be the only legal way to obtain the VA health care and disability compensation they have been wrongfully denied.

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Jonathan Sharp is a Chief Financial Officer responsible for case evaluation, financial analysis, and asset management at Environmental Litigation Group, PC. Environmental Litigation Group is a law firm headquartered in Birmingham, AL that represents civilian and military firefighters exposed to toxic chemicals, particularly PFAS.