Andrew Myatt was prepared to present his life for his nation serving within the Military. After 9/11 he was deployed to Iraq, the place he carried out harmful missions like looking for improvised explosive gadgets to disarm and destroy. 

However the 24-year Military veteran by no means thought the best threat to his well being would present up years later. 

Myatt has a uncommon type of leukemia, which medical doctors say was almost certainly attributable to publicity to toxins throughout his deployments. The toxins had been from burn pits, which had been the primary manner troops disposed of rubbish, usually utilizing jet gasoline to ignite flames. 

“The very last thing you are enthusiastic about is, you recognize that the smoke I stroll by or the solvents I put in my automobile goes to kill me,” Myatt mentioned. 

He utilized for well being protection 3 times by means of the Division of Veterans Affairs and was denied every time. For years, that is been the truth of veterans who could not show to the VA that their well being situations had been linked to burn pit publicity. 

In August, President Biden signed the PACT Act, increasing VA healthcare eligibility for veterans who had poisonous exposures through the Vietnam Struggle, Gulf Struggle and post-9/11 wars. The PACT Act takes the burden of proof off veterans, routinely linking bronchial asthma, some cancers and different sicknesses to burn pit publicity. 

An estimated 4 million veterans who had been deployed within the final 30 years had been uncovered to burn pits, in keeping with VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who’s urging veterans who could have been affected to file claims with the division. 

Practically 260,000 claims have been filed and 66,000 advantages issued because the laws was signed into regulation, the VA informed CBS Information. No less than 1.4 million veterans have been screened for poisonous publicity. 

“We have a protracted technique to go and we cannot relaxation right here on this constructing till we have reached each a kind of vets, made certain they know what they qualify for, we get them signed up and we get that course of going,” McDonough mentioned. 

McDonough mentioned the VA is within the technique of figuring out what VA amenities want with a purpose to present care to probably thousands and thousands of extra sufferers. 

“We’re working a course of, an evaluation facility by facility, to say, what do they at present want there?” he mentioned. “What’s going to extra vets coming in because of this regulation want? And we’re out hiring very aggressively to fill these wants.” 

Whereas Myatt applauds the hassle, he mentioned for some veterans it is too little too late. 

“Understanding that these 3.5 million service members had been uncovered unnecessarily and we might have higher mitigated towards that and managed it, and never figuring out what number of of them died, died needlessly after they got here again due to that’s, it is disheartening,” he mentioned.

After submitting his fourth declare earlier this month, Myatt was lastly accepted for protection by means of the VA, after it dominated that his most cancers was a results of his deployments. 

Regardless of proof that exhibits the toxins from burn pits can hurt troops, the Protection Division has but to ban them. A spokesperson for the division mentioned it “at present doesn’t function any open air burn pits,” however it’s “at present monitoring 6 open air burn pits which might be positioned in/close to United States personnel within the nations of Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Niger.” 

“Our efforts to scale back burn pit use contain elevated communications with host nations and companions, requesting using different waste disposal strategies and making investments in applied sciences which will flip waste disposal into usable energy and power for the warfighter,” the spokesperson mentioned. 

Veterans can file a declare at VA.gov/PACT. 

Norah O’Donnell

Norah O’Donnell is the anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Night Information.” She additionally contributes to “60 Minutes.”