CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal are urging the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to use a new database to identify World War II veterans who were exposed to mustard gas.
Both senators wrote to Secretary Robert McDonald Wednesday asking him to use the National Public Radio database that identifies 3,900 veterans exposed to mustard gas, in contrast to VA data pegging the number of exposed veterans at 610.
The NPR database was compiled during six months of research and made public Tuesday.
Shaheen and Blumenthal suggested in their letter that VA department work to contact and extend benefits to the veterans exposed to mustard gas during wartime experiments.
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