PD-680 VA Disability Claims: Exposure, Nexus, and Ratings

A VA disability claim for PD-680 exposure is possible, but outside of Camp Lejeune there is no presumptive shortcut: you have to prove you handled the solvent in service, show a current diagnosis, and get a physician’s nexus letter tying the two together. PD-680 was the federal military specification for a petroleum-based dry cleaning and degreasing solvent used across every branch for decades, and the chemicals it contained — including trichloroethylene (TCE) and benzene — are the reason claims based on it can succeed.

Why PD-680 Matters as an Exposure Source

PD-680 is not itself a rated condition. It matters because of what was in it. Navy environmental documentation identified PD-680 Types I and II as containing hazardous constituents, volatile organic compounds, and carcinogens including benzene and chlorinated hydrocarbons.¹ When MIL-PRF-680 replaced the older specification in December 1999, the new rules set maximum concentration limits for TCE, tetrachloroethylene, and benzene.² The Board of Veterans’ Appeals has recognized that PD-680 contained TCE and that veterans who handled it were exposed to that chemical, which the National Toxicology Program classifies as a known human carcinogen.³

This is the foundation of any PD-680 claim. When medical evidence and BVA decisions discuss health effects, they usually discuss TCE and benzene rather than the solvent by name. Your claim will do the same.

Exposure was widespread. PD-680 was standard issue for cleaning aircraft parts, helicopter components, tactical and armored vehicles, small arms, artillery, communications electronics, fuel tanks, engines, and power systems.⁴ The military occupational specialties most likely to have involved routine contact include aircraft maintenance specialists, weapons specialists, avionics and radar technicians, jet engine mechanics, corrosion control technicians, communications equipment repairmen, and missile technicians.

Is There a Presumptive Shortcut?

For most veterans, no. The VA has established presumptive service connection for eight diseases tied to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, for veterans who served there at least 30 days between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987: adult leukemia, aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease.⁵ Veterans who qualify under Camp Lejeune do not have to individually prove causation.

For PD-680 exposure at any other installation, no equivalent framework exists. The PACT Act of 2022 expanded presumptions for burn pit and other toxic exposures, but volatile organic compounds like TCE and PCE remain only partially recognized under the Act; Camp Lejeune is treated as a special case.⁶ The VA reviews non-presumptive solvent claims case by case.⁷

The PACT Act did create one useful mechanism. Under 38 U.S.C. § 1168, if you file a claim for a non-presumptive condition and can show a current disability plus participation in a Toxic Exposure Risk Activity (TERA), the VA is required to provide a medical examination and obtain a nexus opinion.⁸ Recent BVA decisions have cited TERA memoranda confirming veterans’ exposure to flight line chemicals and solvents including PD-680, which triggers this examination requirement.⁹ Getting a TERA memorandum in your file is one of the strongest exposure-side moves available to a PD-680 claimant.

Conditions the VA Has Linked to the Chemicals in PD-680

Because the operative chemicals are TCE and benzene, the health conditions that support a PD-680 claim are the ones the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has associated with those agents.

Cancers with sufficient evidence of causation from TCE: kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and cardiac defects. Benzene has sufficient evidence for leukemias and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.¹⁰
Cancers at the “equipoise and above” evidence level for TCE: leukemia, liver cancer, and multiple myeloma.¹⁰
Neurological effects from chronic TCE inhalation: central nervous system depression, short-term memory loss, poor coordination, insomnia, personality changes including depression and anxiety, and damage to facial and peripheral nerves.¹¹
Kidney and liver disease, with end-stage renal disease at the equipoise level for TCE.¹⁰
Autoimmune conditions including scleroderma and lupus, and Parkinson’s disease at the equipoise level for TCE.¹¹¹⁰
Reproductive harm, including possible links to birth defects, miscarriage, and impaired fetal growth.¹¹

TCE is odorless at typical exposure levels, and the acute symptoms of intermittent exposure — dizziness, nausea, blurred vision, confusion — can look like alcohol intoxication and often were not documented as chemical exposure at the time. That gap in records is normal for these claims and does not disqualify you.

Proving Exposure

You file the claim itself through the VA’s online portal at va.gov/disability. The work is in the evidence. Exposure is the first thing you have to establish.

The BVA has accepted veteran testimony about using PD-680 as competent and credible evidence of exposure.³ The evidence types that tend to carry weight:

Service records and MOS documentation showing you served in a maintenance role where PD-680 was routine. Technical orders and maintenance manuals such as the Navy’s Aircraft Cleaning and Corrosion Control manual (NA 01-1A-509) reference PD-680 by name.¹
Buddy statements from fellow service members who can corroborate that you handled the solvent. Vague statements without specifics may be discounted.³
A TERA memorandum. In a 2024 BVA case, an October 2023 TERA memorandum confirmed a veteran’s exposure to “flight line chemicals/degreasers/solvents” including PD-680.⁹
Your own detailed personal testimony. In one case, a veteran described being “completely soaked” with the chemical and experiencing dizziness and nausea from fumes while working as an Aircraft Maintenance Specialist.¹²

The Nexus Letter

For a non-presumptive PD-680 claim, the nexus letter from a qualified physician is the single most important piece of evidence. The letter must say that it is “more likely than not” that your current condition resulted from your in-service exposure to PD-680 or TCE. Softer phrasing like “could have been” or “as likely as not” has been found insufficient.³

Wording alone is not enough. BVA decisions show that nexus opinions succeed when they engage with the individual veteran’s clinical situation. In a case granting service connection for prostate cancer linked to Camp Lejeune water, the Board favored a private oncologist’s opinion over a VA examiner’s because the private physician analyzed the veteran’s young age at diagnosis, the aggressive and metastatic nature of the cancer, and the absence of other risk factors. The VA examiner had relied on broad population-level data.¹³ In a 2025 decision granting service connection for multiple myeloma in an aircraft maintenance safety equipment mechanic, the Board credited a private oncologist who specifically cited IARC and National Toxicology Program literature linking benzene to multiple myeloma, while discounting VA examiners who did not address that literature.¹⁴

The reverse also holds. In a March 2020 remand, a private physician’s opinion supporting the claim was rejected as inadequate because the physician had not reviewed the claims file, did not account for the veteran’s MOS and specific exposure history, and relied too heavily on the veteran’s own statements.¹² Make sure whoever writes your nexus letter has your claims file, knows your MOS and dates of exposure, and ties their reasoning to your medical history rather than to general literature summaries.

How the VA Will Rate the Condition

There is no rating for “PD-680 exposure.” The VA rates whatever condition you have been diagnosed with, using its diagnostic code, once service connection is granted.

For any service-connected active cancer, the rating is an automatic 100 percent while the cancer is active. Six months after treatment successfully ends, the VA schedules a Compensation and Pension exam; if the cancer is in remission, the VA rates any residual symptoms rather than the cancer itself.³

Parkinson’s disease is rated under Diagnostic Code 8004, which carries an automatic 30 percent minimum. The VA then rates each symptom or residual separately — difficulty swallowing under DC 7203, speech problems under DC 8210, bladder incontinence under DC 7542 — and assigns whichever is higher, the 30 percent minimum or the combined symptom rating.

Secondary service connection can be significant. Once a primary condition is service-connected, other conditions caused by it can be claimed as secondary disabilities. In one BVA case, a veteran with service-connected Parkinson’s was granted secondary service connection for peripheral neuropathy in all four extremities, dementia, ADHD with anxiety, severe depression, sleep apnea, and erectile dysfunction, and also received special monthly compensation based on the need for aid and attendance.¹⁵

What BVA Decisions Show About Winning and Losing

BVA decisions are individually non-precedential, but the pattern across them is consistent.

Claims lose when the medical evidence is generic. In a January 2024 decision, the Board denied service connection for prostate cancer residuals in a veteran whose TERA memorandum confirmed PD-680 exposure. The Board found that a nexus between TCE-linked cancers (kidney, lung, liver) and prostate cancer had not been conclusively established in current medical literature. The veteran’s treatise evidence was outweighed by VA opinions that the link was less likely than not, and the Board noted that general medical treatises are “not specific enough to show nexus” compared to patient-specific opinions.⁹

Claims also lose when competing diagnoses explain the symptoms. In a 2012 case, a veteran who claimed headaches, kidney pain, tremors, and dermatitis from TCE exposure was denied after a VA examiner attributed the symptoms to anxiety, panic attacks, alcohol and drug dependence, migraines, and gastrointestinal conditions. The Board found the veteran’s treatise evidence outweighed by the clinical findings. The same veteran, notably, had previously been granted service connection for COPD linked to TCE, showing that within one claimant’s file some conditions may succeed while others fail.¹⁶

Claims win when the private medical opinion is tailored, engages the individual’s history, and rules out alternatives, as in the prostate cancer grant and the multiple myeloma grant discussed above.

VA Resources You Can Use Alongside the Claim

The VA maintains resources for veterans with solvent exposure concerns. Local VA Environmental Health Coordinators are listed at publichealth.va.gov and can connect you with registry evaluations and environmental health clinicians.¹⁷ The Veterans Exposure Team-Health Outcomes Military Exposures (VET-HOME) program provides military environmental exposure assessments by telehealth at 833-633-8846.

Registry evaluations are voluntary, free, and open to veterans not enrolled in VA health care. They track and monitor health for exposed veterans, but a registry evaluation is not a disability claim and does not establish service connection. A separate claim is still required.¹⁸

For conditions that are hard to diagnose or connect to service, the VA’s War Related Illness and Injury Study Centers can provide specialized evaluations.⁷ Searching the BVA’s online decision database for prior PD-680 or TCE cases with facts similar to yours can help identify which evidence and arguments have worked.³

1
EPA. NAVAIR PD-680 Solvent Replacement Documentation
2
IVMASA. MIL-PRF-680 Military Performance Specification
3
Stateside Legal. Applying for Disability Benefits
4
Defense Technical Information Center. Petroleum-Based Dry Cleaning and Degreasing Solvent Report
5
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Camp Lejeune Water Contamination
6
Coastal Review. PACT Act Ignores TCE, PCE Contamination on Military Bases
7
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Industrial Solvents
8
Federal Register. VA Adjudication Regulations for Disability or Death Benefit Claims Based on Toxic Exposure
9
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr 24002819
10
ATSDR. Health Effects Linked With TCE, PCE, Benzene, and Vinyl Chloride
11
California Department of Public Health. Trichloroethylene Fact Sheet
12
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr A20003562
13
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr 20003993
14
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr A25038276
15
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr 21008490
16
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. BVA Decision, Citation Nr 1200379
17
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Environmental Health Coordinators
18
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Registry Evaluation