The Chemical-Biological Warfare Exposures Site

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) play distinct roles in dealing with chemical and biological (CB) exposures. DoD identifies and validates veteran’s exposure to CB agents (What was he exposed to? When and Where was he exposed?) and provides the names of these individuals along with their exposure information to the VA. The VA then notifies individuals of their potential exposure, provides treatment, if necessary, for these individuals and adjudicates any claim for compensation.

This Web site is designed to provide Service members, veterans, their families and the public with information on what happened during CB testing conducted years ago that potentially affected the health of those who served. This Web site provides information on the tests conducted by DoD that possibly resulted in CB exposures only. For privacy reasons, it does not contain the names of the veterans exposed.

Since the end of World War II, DoD periodically evaluated the CB threat and the ability of U.S. forces to fight on a chemical and biological battlefield. In some programs Service members were present but not test subjects and in other programs they were volunteer human subjects. Testing of biological agents on human subjects ended in 1969; testing of chemical agents on human subjects ended in 1975. DoD is investigating these exposures that occurred as far back as 30 to 60 years ago.

All the names discovered by DoD reside in three databases – the World War II database, the Project 112/SHAD database, and the Cold War database. DoD shares these databases with the VA.

DoD plans to complete its active investigation of potential exposures by 2011. By that time, DoD will have visited all known locations believed to contain exposure data. However, it will energetically follow up on any information provided by veterans or other sources that may lead to the identification of additional potentially exposed veterans.