Veterans Affairs has processed more than a million claims since the PACT Act passed, but veterans still face difficulties accessing benefits.
It’s been nearly five years since Gina Cancelino lost her husband—U.S. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Cancelino—to his battle with cancer.
She, like many other military spouses and family members, struggled to understand what caused her husband’s illness when it first manifested. Eventually, they began to realize it likely had to do with the open-air burn pits the U.S. military used for years to dispose of plastics, electronics, refuse, and medical waste during deployments throughout the Middle East and parts of Africa.
Gina Cancelino began her search for answers even before her husband’s death and filed multiple claims for benefits as a surviving spouse after his death. She saw one claim denied in the spring of 2021, and another in July 2022 before the Department of Veterans Affairs approved her third request in January 2023.
What changed between her second and third claims was that Congress had passed and President Joe Biden had signed the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act in August 2022.
A Journey of Advocacy
The PACT Act’s passage followed years of advocacy by some of the very same veterans and family members directly affected by illnesses from exposure to burn pits and other sources of toxins. One group at the forefront of this advocacy effort has been Burn Pits 360.
Retired U.S. Army Reserve Capt. Le Roy Torres and his wife Rosie Lopez Torres formed Burn Pits 360 after Mr. Le Roy returned from a 2007 deployment to Iraq with difficulty breathing. He was eventually diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis and brain injuries resulting from exposure to toxins, but he and his wife faced challenges getting the VA to accept that his illness was service-connected and that the department had an obligation to support him.
“What really forced us into this journey of advocacy was just basically us dealing with our own injustice,” Rosie Lopez Torres told The Epoch Times in a recent phone interview.
By Ryan Morgan
