The Board denied service connection for lung disease, including as due to herbicide exposure, finding that the Veteran's interstitial lung disease was not related to his military service or herbicide exposure.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found it less likely than not that the Veteran's interstitial lung disease was caused by herbicide/agent orange exposure, citing a lack of causal relationship between desquamative interstitial pneumonia and herbicide exposure in medical literature.
- Claimed conditions
- Interstitial lung disease, Desquamative interstitial pneumonia
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 16, 2020
- Citation
- 20004048
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,549 · Granted: 26% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 20004048.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeal for service connection of interstitial lung disease, and the appeal is dismissed.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's death was caused by interstitial lung disease, which is presumed to be related to his service-connected exposure to Agent Orange. The Board granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death.
- Dismissed
Your appeal for service connection of interstitial lung disease has been dismissed due to the Veteran's death. The case will not be reconsidered until a new claimant is found eligible.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claim for service connection of interstitial lung disease and lung nodules to obtain a clarifying medical opinion, as the previous VA examination was found to be inadequate.
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