Veteran Families for Education and Awareness

08/19/2026

An Important 2009 Senate Hearing on Military Toxic Exposures

We recently obtained a copy of the October 8, 2009 U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hearing, “VA/DoD Response to Certain Military Exposures” (Hearing 111-437) and are making the video available on YouTube for future reference.

The hearing was previously available online, but the video was subsequently archived and disappeared from public access. While the official hearing transcripts and written testimony remained available online, the video itself was no longer readily accessible.

Chaired by Senator Daniel K. Akaka, the 2009 hearing examined how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD) identified, documented, researched, and responded to certain military toxic exposures.

The hearing covers several exposure issues that remain highly relevant today:

🔹 Camp Lejeune contaminated drinking water — including TCE, PCE, benzene, and vinyl chloride
🔹 Burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan — including respiratory and systemic health concerns
🔹 Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan — incinerator emissions affecting service members and dependents
🔹 Qarmat Ali, Iraq — hexavalent chromium/sodium dichromate exposure
🔹 The need for accurate exposure records, long-term medical monitoring, research, healthcare, and fair disability benefits

The testimony includes veterans, family members, physicians, scientific experts, and VA/DoD officials discussing the real-world health impacts of these exposures, gaps in exposure documentation and research, scientific uncertainty, and the challenges veterans and families faced in obtaining recognition, treatment, and compensation.

This hearing took place years before the PACT Act and many of the subsequent changes in how military toxic exposures are recognized and addressed. It therefore provides valuable historical context for understanding what was known, discussed, and presented to Congress at the time- and more importantly, what has, or has not, been addressed since.

If you are researching Atsugi, Camp Lejeune, Qarmat Ali, burn pits, or other military toxic exposures, this hearing is well worth watching.

📄 Official hearing transcript:
https://www.congress.gov/111/chrg/CHRG-111shrg53367/CHRG-111shrg53367.pdf

📄 Prepared written testimony:
https://www.veterans.senate.gov/2009/10/va/dod-response-to-certain-military-exposures

This video presents the October 8, 2009 hearing of the U.S. Senate ...

08/18/2026

For more than 17 years, VA has identified 1985–2001 as the exposure period for pollutants from the Shinkampo Incinerator Complex adjacent to Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan.

But what does the historical record actually show?

VFEA examined Navy records, congressional testimony, Japanese government documents, and other historical sources indicating that the incinerator complex began operating in 1980—five years before the exposure period currently used by VA.

The historical record also documents open burning, unauthorized waste disposal, and inadequate pollution controls during those early years, raising important questions about VA’s recognized exposure period and its implications for veterans who served at NAF Atsugi before 1985.

https://www.vfea.org/news/exposure-period

Historical records reveal that NAF Atsugi's airborne hazards began five years earlier than VA's official 1985 start date.

08/16/2026

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2026-08-13/red-hill-navy-water-hawaii-jet-fuel-22546183.html

The Navy awarded a $309 million contract to Hensel Phelps, a Colorado firm, to build a permanent water treatment plant for a well in Hawaii that has been shut down since late 2021.

08/16/2026

08/14/2026

Thank you to Shawn Lopez, one of the Veteran Families for Education and Awareness (VFEA) fellow Co-Founders and Board Members, for this comprehensive timeline of the NAF Atsugi Shinkampo Incinerator incident. The 46 year fight continues for our military and their families who were affected.

https://www.vfea.org/atsugi-incinerator-records?sfnsn=mo&fbclid=IwY2xjawTsFYRwZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAGJyaWQRMXUxcUhSNVJYdGVCSG1BRU5zcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEe9xm2Nm1z05KCLseCUHq36RoFPpcOUyHTdmqw9eAqmYMprJvIYqyyM6ioBao_aem_9ChBjR1bccIom5qFJcQdoA

Explore a timeline of key events of the NAF Atsugi incinerator exposure and archive of associated records with air sampling data, health studies, FOIA releases, VA documents, and more.

08/13/2026

Inspector Generals Report: Evaluation of DOW's Interim Actions to Promptly Reduce Risk and Mitigate the Spread of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) [Link to report in the comments]:

//www.dodig.mil/reports.html/Article/4572714/evaluation-of-the-dows-interim-actions-to-promptly-reduce-risk-and-mitigate-the/

Evaluation of the DoW’s Interim Actions to Promptly Reduce Risk and Mitigate the Spread of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Report No. DOWIG-2026-106)

08/11/2026

Military Aviation Cancer Study MACS Study Summary - Current Status - National Cancer Institute

CDAS allows the research community to submit research projects to request data, biospecimens, or images from cancer trials and other studies. Approved projects and publications may be viewed.

08/10/2026

We all know that traumatic brain injury is not always an isolated injury to the brain, especially when it is repeated.

More importantly (and what many do not know) is that repetitive blast exposure can trigger changes across the brain, immune system, nervous system and gut, and some of those changes may persist long after the initial exposure as a result of the inflammatory response rush.

Researchers from the University of Washington and Puget Sound VA studying repetitive blast-TBI found:

• Neuroinflammation was still present 3 months after repetitive blast exposure.

• Blast caused a significant inflammatory response throughout the body and brain.

• The gut microbiome changed within hours of injury (Leaky gut, IBS-like sx. etc.)

• Blast-exposed subjects developed increased risk-taking and alcohol-seeking behavior later on.

• Most interestingly, early vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) blunted key inflammatory signals after repetitive blast-TBI and reduced some of those later behavioral changes.

Why does this matter?

Because the vagus nerve (CN X) is one of the primary communication pathways between the brain, immune system, heart and gut. And it may represent a completely different way of approaching the secondary injury that happens after a blast, not simply treating symptoms months or years later.

This doesn’t mean VNS will fix all your problems, but it does mean we need to stop viewing TBI as something that happens once, inside the skull, and then ends.

The injury may be neurological. The consequences are systemic.

Save this one. Because VNS devices like nuropod / gammacore / pulsetto and nurosym could be a cost-effective game-changer for neuroinflammation and the gut-brain axis in TBI research 🧠

📸: Clandestine Media Group

08/06/2026

"The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated a national review in December 2024 to evaluate components of Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA’s) screening and evaluation processes for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in veterans who separated from active duty after September 11, 2001, (9/11), and received VA medical care."

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiated a national review in December 2024 to evaluate components of Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA’s) screening and evaluation processes for traumatic brain injury (TBI) in veterans who separated from active duty after September 11, 2001, (9/11)...

08/06/2026