The PACT Act and Burn Pit Exposure

Legally Reviewed by: Josh Conklin

You served near a burn pit, and now you’re dealing with a cough that won’t quit, a cancer diagnosis you never expected, or a VA denial letter that doesn’t match what Congress promised. If that’s left you angry, or just worn down from fighting an agency that’s supposed to be looking out for you, you’re not overreacting.

The PACT Act rewrote the rules for dozens of respiratory conditions and cancers linked to burn pits and other toxic exposure. You no longer have to prove your service caused the illness. You only have to prove you served in a qualifying place, during a certain time, and that you’re sick now.

Capovilla & Williams has spent years untangling VA paperwork for veterans who served through the smoke and are still paying for it. Whether the VA denied you years ago or you’re filing for the first time, our VA disability team can answer your questions.

Key Takeaways

• The PACT Act presumes service connection for a long list of burn pit-linked cancers and respiratory diseases, so you no longer have to prove exposure caused your illness the way you would have before 2022.
• Old denials aren’t final. If the VA turned down a burn pit claim before the presumption existed, a change in law lets you ask for another look.
• Presumptive doesn’t mean automatic. You still need a current diagnosis and proof you served in a qualifying location during a qualifying period.
• Your disability rating depends on medical evidence, not just eligibility, so a thin file can leave real money on the table even after approval.
• Capovilla & Williams’ in-house investigators track down service records, deployment orders, and buddy statements to support VA disability claims.

If you have a respiratory condition or cancer, you deserve to know where you stand. Contact our VA disability team directly to discuss your legal options.

What the PACT Act Changed for Burn Pit Claims

Before August 2022, a veteran with a burn pit-linked respiratory illness had to submit medical opinions connecting the diagnosis to a specific overseas exposure, often years after leaving service and with incomplete records to back it up. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or PACT Act, removed that burden for a defined list of conditions. If you served in a qualifying location during a qualifying period and now have one of the listed illnesses, the VA presumes your service caused it.

That shift is bigger than it sounds. 1,839,107 PACT Act claims were approved between August 10, 2022 and July 5, 2025. That volume tells you two things. First, the door is open wider than it used to be. Second, the VA is moving fast enough that a mistake in a first filing gets compounded rather than caught. Speed cuts both ways when an agency is processing claims at that scale.

Conditions That Now Qualify as Presumptive

The presumptive list has grown several times since 2022, and it already covers more ground than many veterans expect walking in. The PACT Act currently covers:

• Asthma, chronic bronchitis, and chronic rhinitis or sinusitis
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and constrictive bronchiolitis
• Respiratory cancers, including cancer of the larynx, trachea, and lung
• Head, neck, and reproductive cancers, including nasopharyngeal cancer and cancer of the bladder, ureter, or cervix
• Kidney and gastrointestinal cancers
• Blood cancers added in early 2025, including leukemia, multiple myeloma, and myelodysplastic syndromes

The list is still evolving, and VA has added conditions on a rolling basis rather than all at once. If your diagnosis doesn’t match this exact wording, file anyway. Doctors describe the same underlying illness differently, and VA medical staff weigh the diagnosis on its merits rather than disqualifying a claim because the terminology doesn’t match the list perfectly.

Where and When You Had to Serve

Location and dates matter as much as the diagnosis itself. The presumption is tied to specific deployments and specific windows, and serving one month outside that window can turn an automatic grant into a fight you shouldn’t have to have.

Southwest Asia and Gulf War Service

The VA generally has two location categories that may qualify for the PACT Act, and they include:

• Post-9/11 (since 9/11/2001): on the ground or in the airspace above Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Yemen
• Gulf War era (since 8/2/1990): on the ground or in the airspace above Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, or the United Arab Emirates, or in the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, or the neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia

If your orders show time in any of these theaters, that piece of the puzzle is likely already covered.

Additional Toxic Exposure Locations

Congress and the VA have added other sites tied to open burn pits, airborne hazards, and contaminated water since the PACT Act was enacted. The geographic list expands as new evidence comes in. A location that didn’t qualify when a veteran first filed years ago may qualify now. Given how often this changes, verifying your specific dates and duty stations against the current list, rather than an old printout or a buddy’s experience, is worth doing before you assume you don’t qualify.

Additionally, the law’s reach goes beyond burn pits and post-9/11 deployments. The PACT Act itself, enacted in August 2022, had already expanded Agent Orange presumptions for Vietnam-era veterans to include qualifying service in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam, American Samoa, and Johnston Atoll.

Separately, the PACT Act requires the VA to provide every veteran enrolled in VA health care a toxic exposure screening at enrollment and again at least once every five years, whether or not a disability claim is ever filed.

Filing a New PACT Act Disability Claim the Right Way

Filing correctly the first time matters more than filing fast, since a rushed claim built on thin evidence often becomes a slower claim once the VA sends it back for more information. If you are seeking PACT Act benefits, you can:

1. File an Intent to File the same day you decide to move forward, since it locks in your effective date while you gather everything else.
2. Get a current diagnosis from a VA or private provider, not just old symptoms from your time in service.
3. Pull your DD-214 and any orders or travel vouchers showing exactly where and when you served.
4. Submit VA Form 21-526EZ online, by mail, or through an accredited representative.
5. Answer every VA request for information by the deadline stated in the letter, since a missed deadline can restart the clock.

Working with a burn pit exposure claim attorney from the start can help you complete these steps correctly the first time.

What to Do If the VA Already Denied Your Claim

Thousands of veterans filed burn pit claims years before Congress created the presumption. They often got denied because they couldn’t produce a medical opinion tying their illness to a deployment nobody had records for, and quietly accepted that as the final word. It wasn’t, and it still isn’t.

If your condition now appears on the presumptive list, you can file a Supplemental Claim citing the change in law, and the VA has to evaluate your case under the current rules rather than the rules that led to your denial the first time. This is a genuine second chance.

Most articles on this topic stop at “the presumption means you don’t need a nexus letter” and leave it there. The real reason a re-filed PACT Act claim still gets denied has almost nothing to do with eligibility. It’s a missing current diagnosis, a service record that doesn’t clearly show the qualifying location, or a claim filed before the medical evidence caught up to the legal change. These are fixable problems.

That’s the gap a Veterans disability benefits attorney close together, rather than leaving a veteran to re-request the same incomplete file and hope for a different result. Capovilla & Williams tracks down deployment orders, unit rosters, and the buddy statements that fill in the gaps the VA’s own records tend to leave open.

If the VA already turned you down and your condition is on the current presumptive list, get in touch with Capovilla & Williams before your window to appeal that decision closes.

Getting the Rating You Actually Deserve

A presumptive condition still gets rated the same way every other disability does, based on how much it limits your life, not just whether you technically have it. Two veterans with an identical diagnosis can land at very different percentages depending on pulmonary function test results, treatment history, and how clearly the file documents flare-ups, hospital stays, and missed work.

That gap is where cases get won or lost long after the presumption already did its job of getting the claim in the door. VA rates disability from 0% to 100% in 10% increments based on the evidence a veteran and their providers submit. A thin record on a technically-approved claim can leave someone underrated for years before a Supplemental Claim or Higher-Level Review ever catches it. Attorney Josh Conklin, who leads the VA disability team at Capovilla & Williams, has built his practice around this type of problem, making sure the evidence matches the reality of what a condition costs a veteran day to day.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a PACT Act burn pit claim take to process?

Most Supplemental Claims and initial claims move on a similar timeline to other VA disability claims. The VA generally aims to complete Supplemental Claims in about 125 days. Complex claims with multiple conditions or missing records can run longer. If you’re past that window with no update, it’s worth checking your status rather than assuming it’s still moving.

Can I refile if my burn pit claim was denied years ago?

Yes, and you should if your condition is now on the presumptive list. A Supplemental Claim lets you point to the change in law itself as new and relevant grounds for review. You don’t need to start from zero, since your old file is still part of the record.

Do I need a nexus letter for a presumptive condition?

No, that’s the entire point of the presumption. You still need a current diagnosis and proof of qualifying service, but you don’t need a doctor to write a separate opinion linking your illness back to burn pit smoke.

What rating will I get for a PACT Act condition?

It depends entirely on severity, not on the diagnosis alone. A mild case of chronic bronchitis and a case requiring regular oxygen use won’t land at the same percentage, so the strength of your medical evidence matters as much as the diagnosis itself.

What are the most common conditions on PACT Act related claims?

As of July 2025, the five most common conditions were: 1) hypertensive vascular disease, 2) allergic rhinitis, 3) maxillary sinusitis, 4) bronchial asthma, and 5) chronic bronchitis.

What if my exact diagnosis isn’t listed as presumptive?

File anyway. VA medical staff can still find a connection based on your specific facts, and the presumptive list keeps expanding as more evidence comes in.

Capovilla & Williams: A Veterans Disability Law Firm

You came here because something about your burn pit exposure, your diagnosis, or your denial letter didn’t add up, and that instinct was right. The PACT Act closed a gap that should have closed years earlier, but it didn’t erase the paperwork, the deadlines, or the documentation that still decides what rating a veteran receives.

Capovilla & Williams built its VA disability practice around veterans who served through exactly this kind of exposure, and the firm’s motto, Vincit qui patitur, “he who endures wins,” describes the process as much as it describes the men and women who go through it. Whether you’re filing for the first time or asking the VA to review something it got wrong years ago, our team can advise you of your rights and, if appropriate, build a file that reflects what you’re dealing with.

Contact our firm today to talk through your specific service history and diagnosis, in confidence and at no cost to start.