Afghanistan VA claims: burn pits, the PACT Act and what the Board grants

Is there a burn pit presumption for service in Afghanistan?

Yes. VA presumes exposure to burn pits and other airborne hazards for veterans who served in Afghanistan since September 2001, with no minimum time there (38 CFR 3.320; M21-1 VIII.ii.2.A). Since the PACT Act took effect in August 2022, the list covers asthma diagnosed after service, chronic sinusitis and rhinitis, chronic bronchitis, COPD, emphysema, constrictive bronchiolitis, granulomatous disease, interstitial lung disease, pleuritis, pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis, and many cancers: head, neck, respiratory, gastrointestinal, reproductive, kidney, brain and pancreatic cancers, lymphoma, melanoma and glioblastoma (38 U.S.C. 1120). Bladder and ureter cancers, leukemias, multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes and myelofibrosis were added in January 2025 (38 CFR 3.320a and 38 CFR 3.320b). There is no time limit after service.

How the Board decided Afghanistan claims

3,769 Board decisions from 2020 to 2025 with a service-connection claim name Afghanistan. The decision records burn pit exposure in 678 of them (18.0%). The list below shows every burn pit list condition and Gulf War illness condition claimed by 15 or more veterans, and the other conditions claimed by 100 or more.

Bar: share granted for Afghanistan veterans

Red mark: all veterans with the same condition

On the burn pit list (PACT Act)

VA presumes these for veterans who served in Afghanistan since September 2001, at any time after service.

• Sinusitis DC 6510 / 6511 / 6512 / 6513 / 6514

  36.9% · 82 of 222

  all veterans 22.1%On the burn pit list

• Rhinitis DC 6522 / 6523 / 6524

  52.5% · 73 of 139

  all veterans 27.7%On the burn pit list

• Asthma DC 6602

  62.2% · 61 of 98

  all veterans 25.0%On the burn pit list

• COPD DC 6604

  29.0% · 27 of 93

  all veterans 12.4%On the burn pit list

• Interstitial lung disease DC 6825

  35.0% · 7 of 20

  all veterans 20.5%On the burn pit list

• Digestive cancers DC 7343

  26.3% · 5 of 19

  all veterans 24.4%On the burn pit list

• Leukemia DC 7703

  62.5% · 10 of 16

  all veterans 34.2%On the burn pit list

Other conditions Afghanistan veterans claimed most

The most common other claims, and the Gulf War illness conditions.

• Sleep apnea DC 6847

  33.6% · 290 of 862

  all veterans 26.2%

• Knee DC 5257

  28.5% · 119 of 417

  all veterans 16.3%

• PTSD DC 9411

  48.1% · 189 of 393

  all veterans 27.1%

• Hearing loss DC 6100

  13.5% · 47 of 348

  all veterans 23.5%

• Back or neck strain DC 5237

  28.8% · 86 of 299

  all veterans 15.8%

• Migraine DC 8100

  35.8% · 106 of 296

  all veterans 24.6%

• Tinnitus DC 6260

  69.8% · 194 of 278

  all veterans 52.8%

• Shoulder DC 5201

  25.7% · 68 of 265

  all veterans 16.7%

• Back (degenerative arthritis) DC 5242

  44.0% · 92 of 209

  all veterans 28.1%

• Back (disc disease) DC 5243

  33.0% · 59 of 179

  all veterans 20.0%

• Acid reflux (GERD) DC 7206

  20.6% · 34 of 165

  all veterans 19.2%

• Ankle DC 5271

  19.7% · 30 of 152

  all veterans 16.6%

• Hypertension DC 7101

  19.5% · 29 of 149

  all veterans 19.0%

• TBI DC 8045

  27.1% · 38 of 140

  all veterans 13.9%

• Irritable bowel syndrome DC 7319

  33.1% · 45 of 136

  all veterans 23.7%Gulf War illness

• Nerve damage, legs DC 8520

  24.3% · 27 of 111

  all veterans 23.0%

• Hip or thigh DC 5253

  22.9% · 24 of 105

  all veterans 16.1%

• Chronic fatigue syndrome DC 6354

  12.0% · 11 of 92

  all veterans 9.0%Gulf War illness

• Fibromyalgia DC 5025

  23.4% · 11 of 47

  all veterans 16.0%Gulf War illness

One count per veteran per condition; a remand counts as not granted. Conditions with at least 15 veterans.

How did Afghanistan veterans do at the Board on burn pit claims?

On conditions on the burn pit list, the Board granted 42.6% of claims in decisions that name Afghanistan (281 of 659), against 23.4% for all veterans with the same conditions. Asthma, the most common lung claim on the list, was granted for 61 of 98 (62.2%).

Rhinitis was granted for 73 of 139 veterans (52.5%, against 27.7% overall), sinusitis for 82 of 222 (36.9%, against 22.1%) and COPD for 27 of 93 (29.0%, against 12.4%).

Afghanistan veterans did better across the board

The lift is not only on the burn pit list. PTSD was granted for 48.1% of Afghanistan veterans, against 27.1% for all veterans, and knee claims for 28.5%, against 16.3%. Afghanistan service is recent, so the records are often closer at hand; the decisions do not show why the shares are higher. Hearing loss went the other way: 13.5%, against 23.5%.

To compare fairly, each group's share is set against what all veterans' rates for the same conditions would predict:

Conditions in decisions that name Afghanistan	Granted	Expected from all veterans	Times as often
On the burn pit list	43.7%	22.7%	1.9 times
Gulf War illness (fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, IBS)	24.4%	17.5%	1.4 times
All other conditions	31.7%	22.9%	1.4 times

The burn pit list stands out beyond the general lift. The Gulf War illness conditions did about as well as the other conditions, measured the same way.

Do Afghanistan veterans qualify for the Gulf War illness presumption?

Since August 2022, yes. The PACT Act added Afghanistan to the Gulf War illness law, which covers undiagnosed illnesses and medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illnesses such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome (38 U.S.C. 1117; M21-1 VIII.ii.1.A). The regulation, 38 CFR 3.317, has not caught up yet. Afghanistan service also carries a presumption for nine infectious diseases, such as malaria and tuberculosis (38 CFR 3.317(c)). On fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and IBS together, the Board granted 24.4% of claims in these decisions (67 of 275), against 16.4% for all veterans.

Before and after the PACT Act

Decisions that name AfghanistanAll veterans, same conditions

2020

24.6%

16.4%

2021

34.4%

20.5%

2022

52.2%

24.3%

2023

51.1%

24.8%

2024

40.4%

27.6%

2025

44.8%

25.4%

Share of decided claims granted; a remand counts as not granted. One count per veteran. Burn pit list: 38 U.S.C. 1120, 38 CFR 3.320, 38 CFR 3.320a and 38 CFR 3.320b. The PACT Act took effect in August 2022.

On burn pit list conditions, the Board granted 29.5% of claims in decisions from 2020 and 2021 (122 claims) and 44.7% from 2023 to 2025 (468 claims). For all veterans with the same conditions, the shares were 18.4% and 25.9%. Decisions from 2022 sit across the change. Before the PACT Act, the regulation already covered asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis, but only within ten years of service.

Many also served in Iraq or the Gulf

Of 247 decisions that granted a burn pit list condition, 176 (71.3%) also name Iraq, Kuwait or another Southwest Asia place, against 45.6% of all Afghanistan decisions. Service there qualifies for the same burn pit presumption, so either deployment can carry the claim.

Why are Afghanistan burn pit claims denied?

Mostly for want of a diagnosis, not exposure. For 121 denials of burn pit list conditions, the Board's note named a missing current diagnosis in 50.4% of them, a missing medical link in 27.3% and the exposure or service in only 9.9%.

Read the decisions

Recent decisions, with the Board's reasoning as summarized by AI and checked against the decision text:

• A25108418, December 2025: sinusitis granted under the burn pit presumption (38 CFR 3.320); the records confirmed service in Afghanistan, and VA had already conceded the exposure.
• A25098581, November 2025: chronic rhinosinusitis granted on a direct basis; the symptoms became chronic during a deployment to Afghanistan from 2018 to 2019, and imaging later showed nasal polyps. The Board noted the presumption also applied.
• A25104668, December 2025: irritable bowel syndrome granted as a medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness for a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan (38 CFR 3.317).
• A25104331, December 2025: rhinitis denied; service in Afghanistan was confirmed and exposure presumed, but there was no current diagnosis of rhinitis.
• A25094041, October 2025: chronic bronchitis and asthma denied for a veteran who served in Afghanistan; the lung tests and the VA exam did not confirm either diagnosis.

What the data cannot tell you

The Afghanistan group comes from the places each decision names (Afghanistan, Bagram or Kandahar). Decisions that name it only in a quote of the law, or in a finding that the veteran was not there, are left out; that check is automatic and misses some. A mention is not proof of service there. The burn pit list is matched by rating code, and a code can also hold conditions that are not on the list. Many Afghanistan veterans also served elsewhere, and their grants may rest on that service. Service-connection claims only; rating appeals are left out. The burn pit flag and denial notes are AI-extracted. These are historical outcomes, not predictions.

For representatives

• Confirm the Afghanistan service first: discharge papers, deployment orders, post-deployment health assessments or the VA's toxic exposure record. No minimum time there is required.
• Get the diagnosis on record. Half of the burn pit denials here turned on it: a chronic sinusitis or rhinitis diagnosis from a treating provider, or lung function tests for asthma or COPD.
• For fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or IBS, cite the PACT Act change to 38 U.S.C. 1117; the regulation has not caught up.
• A veteran denied before August 2022 can file a supplemental claim under the new presumptions.