PD is among 8 diseases VA "...determined to be service-connected to consuming contaminated drinking water at..." Camp Lejeune NC from 1953 to 1987. The other 7 diseases are kidney cancer, liver cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, scleroderma, and aplastic anemia or other myelodysplastic syndromes. This info is from a December 17, 2015 MilitaryTimes.com article found here --
VA to change disability claims rules for Camp Lejeune veterans The article further indicates that VA considers these 8 diseases to be of "presumptive status". The status of "presumptive" basically means that you won't have to fight to receive VA disability compensation.
I "thought" I was following this closely, but I just learned of this article today. Fortunately, a friend had signed up "some where" to receive updates, and she just emailed the above link to me today.
Indeed, it is very strange that I am just now learning about this update. I joined the roster at https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/ and I've been in contact with my congressman and my senator...and I even created accounts to receive legislation updates at --
http://www.govtrack.us and at -- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.114s2888 (Janey Ensminger Act of 2016 S. 2888) but now I can't even get this 2d site to load.
The original law is H.R.1742 (Janey Ensminger Act) and it covers 15 diseases, but not PD. There was, however, a 2009 National Research Council (NRC) committee review that advised adding PD to the original list of 15 diseases (Characterization of Neurobehavioral Effects - Review of VA Clinical Guidance for the Health Conditions Identified by the Camp Lejeune Legislation - NCBI Bookshelf).
So, please pass this on to other Camp Lejeune veterans that are among us here at NeuroTalk. Many thanks.