Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 102 Part 1.djvu/523

This page needs to be proofread.

PUBLIC LAW 100-000—MMMM. DD, 1988

PUBLIC LAW 100-321—MAY 20, 1988

102 STAT. 485

Public Law 100-321 100th Congress An Act To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide a presumption of service connection to veterans (and survivors of such veterans) who participated in atmospheric or underwater nuclear tests as part of the United States nuclear weapons testing program or in the American occupation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Japan, and who suffer from certain diseases that may be attributable to exposure to ionizing radiation, and other purposes.

Radiation-

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the Compensation Act of 1988".

May 20, 1988 [H.R. 1811]

Radiation-Exposed

SEC. 2 PRESUMPTION OF SERVICE CONNECTION RADIATION-EXPOSED VETERANS.

FOR

Veterans CERTAIN

(a) PRESUMPTION.—Section 312 of title 88, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: "(c)(1) For the purposes of section 310 of this title, and subject to the provisions of section 313 of this title, a disease specified in paragraph (2) of this subsection becoming manifest in a radiationexposed veteran to a degree of 10 percent or more within the presumption period (as specified in paragraph (3) of this subsection) shall be considered to have been incurred in or aggravated during the veteran's service on active duty, notwithstanding that there is no record of evidence of such disease during the period of such service. "(2) The diseases referred to in paragraph (1) of this subsection are the following: "(A) Leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia). "(B) Cancer of the thyroid. "(C) Cancer of the breast. "(D) Cancer of the pharynx. "(E) Cancer of the esophagus. "(F) Cancer of the stomach. "(G) Cancer of the small intestine, "(H) Cancer of the pancreas. "(I) Multiple myeloma. "(J) Lymphomas (except Hodgkin's disease). "(K) Cancer of the bile ducts. "(L) Cancer of the gall bladder. "(M) Primary liver cancer (except if cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated). "(3) The presumption period for purposes of paragraph (1) of this subsection is the 40-year period beginning on the last date on which the veteran participated in a radiation-risk activity, except that such period shall be the 30-year period beginning on that date in the case of leukemia (other than chronic lymphocytic leukemia). "(4) For the purposes of this subsection:

Veterans Compensation Act of 1988. 38 USC 101 note.