If you’ve had a VA health care appointment in the last year or so, your care team probably completed a toxic exposure screening. Even as the screening has become a routine part of VA health care, there are still some common misconceptions. Let’s break down exactly what the screening is and what it isn’t.
The basics
Developed as part of the 2022 PACT Act, the toxic exposure screening launched at VA medical centers and clinics nationwide in November 2022. Since then, millions of enrolled Veterans have received their screening and discussed potential exposure concerns with their health care providers.
The screening averages about 5-10 minutes and typically occurs during routine health care appointments. During your toxic exposure screening, you and a VA clinician will have a conversation about toxic exposures you may have experienced during your military service. The clinician may connect you to additional support and resources if you answer “yes.”
As an enrolled Veteran, you will receive the screening at least once every five years. If you answer that you are unsure if exposures occurred, your care team will offer the screening every year to ensure your health has not been affected.
During your military service, you may have experienced several types of possible exposures or hazards, such as open burn pits and airborne hazards, Gulf War-related exposures, Agent Orange, radiation, Camp Lejeune contaminated water exposure and others. Please view this map or visit this website to learn more about known potential exposures.
Now that we have the basics down, let’s bust some common misconceptions.
Misconception vs. reality
Here are some common misconceptions around the screening and the reality to debunk them.
- Misconception #1: The toxic exposure screening is a comprehensive exam.
- Reality: The purpose of the toxic exposure screening is for enrolled Veterans to self-report potential exposures to toxins during their military service. Getting your screening starts a conversation about your exposure concerns, so that any future symptoms or clinical evaluations you need can be considered alongside your exposure history. No clinical diagnostic tests or physical exams occur as part of the screening. Still, the screening may trigger discussions that lead to early diagnosis of exposure-related conditions, if they occur.
- Misconception #2: Getting a toxic exposure screening could increase or decrease your VA disability compensation.
- Reality: The screening does not play a role in determining VA disability rating or compensation. Suppose you report an exposure during your screening. In that case, you will be offered connections and information on benefits, registry exams and clinical resources as appropriate, including information on how to file a claim.
- Misconception #3: The toxic exposure screening provides legal and medical verification of exposure.
- Reality: You will not receive any legal or medical verification of exposure as part of the screening. However, your response will be added to your VA medical record to include exposure concerns as a cornerstone of your care across your lifetime. This approach is called exposure-informed care.
- Misconception #4: The screening is only for older Veterans.
- Reality: The screening is for all Veterans enrolled in VA health care regardless of age. If you are not enrolled, apply now.
- Misconception #5: You don’t need the screening if you’ve already joined a VA environmental health registry.
- Reality: The toxic exposure screening is not part of VA’s environmental health registries and does not serve as a registry evaluation. Learn about the differences between registries and the screening here.
- Misconception #6: You don’t need to get your toxic exposure screening if you are already service-connected.
- Reality: Regardless of your service-connection status, receiving the screening helps include your exposure concerns at the forefront of your health care. This allows your health care team to provide exposure-informed care throughout your lifetime.
You can ask about the toxic exposure screening at your next VA health care appointment. Contact your local VA facility and request a screening if you do not have an upcoming appointment.
To continue busting misconceptions, check out these additional resources:
- “Toxic Exposure Screening at a Glance” infographic
- “Fast Facts About the Toxic Exposure Screening” fact sheet
- “Ask about the toxic exposure screening at your next appointment” video
- “Enrolled Veterans: Have you received your toxic exposure screening?” video
For more information about the PACT Act, visit VA.gov/PACT.
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Misconception #7 The VA gives a hoot.
Reality: The VA will do anything possible to disassociate itself from your actual exposure and your medical claims. (See #2 and #3).
I’ve read these several comments and agree 100% on what they have to say.. I’d like to add that the disclaimers that are used have the smell of double talk! So pact act is the real misconception, and the reality is that nothing is going to change except that the government has bought themselves more time to keep denying claims. Toxicologists are the absolute authority on hazardous chemicals and they also can provide scientific evidence, proof and facts of long and short term effects of hazardous substances.. Also important is the shelf life of these poisonous substances which are significantly notable. In 1969 fort Gordon Georgia stored a Rainbow of the colors of Agents Orange,Blue and white. This information wasn’t admitted by the government, Generals etc.. This was exposed by the local news media something that would have been well hidden from the soldiers and never been admitted by the military. It’s disgusting to know that this is all about money that REALISTICALLY doesn’t even belong to the decision makers! Money that’s being hoarded for lord knows what purpose. If we can have a president spend trillions of dollars without full justification of who, what, why and where this went!! This system is nothing short of corrupt, incompetent, criminal and broken. Stop Lying to Us! We All Know You Do! The Evidence Is There for All to See! And your disclaimers are an embarrassment to our intelligence! For every veteran that puts in a claim the military has found a reason to Discredit it a hundred times over…
Again I am back, I also wanted to say no wonder so many Vets. are taking their own lives. No one cares.
Us veterans living overseas like me in Spain need help 7O years -old COPD and a 4th degree. The VA has never helped me,
The point is we need the science of forensic Pathology while the person is alive. Industrial medicine. Not the weak malaise of general medicine as compared to general population.
Toxic Exposure is a game of exotics, what if squared. Unlike forensic medicine where they use different rules and are hands on. They have to find a answer and that day.
It’s time to trade up and marry these two disciplines rather than apart. Because mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph should be in this picture. Rather than standard blood labs being enough. There not.
The proof is in the pudding. They say they found trace DDT, then it’s from the 60s and prove they even tried. That should surface in any person around in the 60s. Big part of the population.
A specialty clinic is what we need after general medicine and the WRIISC failed to find anything. Walk in, make a request, do some labs, biopsy tissue, and go home. Rather than 15 minute exams twice a year.
Veterans from 1990 to present have had a raw deal with Iraq. It’s time to do more than shrug us off with deployment health and the somatic train from 1995.
Genome and fatty body tissue. The last answers are in there.
Ive got a ongoing all out fight with VA executive branch over the very
nature of the PACT act, and Toxic Exposures. Even talked with Senate
VA staff for 30 minutes about it this week. The problem with the zero
rating which I pointed out as the first critic of the PACT act more than
a year ago. VA is so proud of its zero ratings. Like it means something.
There are two primary fallacies involved here. That VA will service connect
without hard evidence. and that VA is looking for that evidence. Ive put it to
the test at all levels from registry programs and exams to all out claim. VBA
and regional could not help me when I filed the claim, all they could help
with was terminal cancers. The rest excludes 1990-1991 or locations.
Im speaking to VA committees, VA executive staff, and such going on two
years ( the failing burn pit registry ). But, my number one beefs are that we need
a specialty clinic to look for tissue samples. A Toxic Exposure Pathology center
that could extract adipose fatty tissue and mass spectrometer the samples to
see what its content is. Like foreign matter from the war. The other is a specialty
that cant contact the DODSR ( Department of Defense Serum Repository ) to get
my 1989 HIV blood sample for genomic sequencing. Then current blood draw
and compare the two. Then and now. What changed. Been fighting that one since
2000, and this week with Quinn Lopez at DODSR.
Im on top of these things because of my own health. Only, I have answers including
molecular chemistry as I do my own research. As I know that Choelcalif would benefit
all veterans, vitamin D. 4,000 IU daily. Among other things. Im now testing Gamma-Amino
Butyric Acid and Allulose to see if they help with Glutamtate receptors and hyper
lipidemia. As my research points to mild enzyme imbalances.
The people ignoring me do not have better. Im largely opposed by people who just
want everyone to fail. Cancel culture. Been doing this 26 years and Im still here.
Of which I took up with VA executive staff today and the pending RAC meeting next
week in Phoenix Arizona. Who I have said largely the same thing the last two years
over and over. In similar ways going on 22 years.
Veterans have to pull together into a voting body. Make a pitch as a joint group. Then
you should amend PACT act 2022 to expand its services, and deal with a specialty
clinic such as a Toxic Exposure Pathology Center. Other wise your looking at years
and years of this circular argument over evidence. Ive lived it for 26 years.
Kirk, you nailed it imo. I was hesitant at best to get involved with the PACT Act enrollment and evaluation to start with and it appears my initial reluctance was justified by the end results. My initial concern with PACT Act enrollment and evaluation was that it would be an exercise in futility and results would not be forthcoming. My concern is that the Act was written in such a way to appease rather than provide support to needy veterans with lingering ailments caused by exposure to toxic chemicals caused by the open burn pits for disposing wastes and feces in base camps and fire bases in the area of operation. “They” caused this problem with their methods and as far as I can tell positive results for VA members is very limited.