Citation Nr: 18152969 Decision Date: 11/26/18 Archive Date: 11/26/18 DOCKET NO. 16-54 122 DATE: November 26, 2018 ORDER Service connection for bladder cancer to include as due to exposure to herbicides is granted. FINDING OF FACT The weight of the evidence supports a finding that the Veteran’s bladder cancer was caused by his active service, to include as a result of exposure to herbicide agents during service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for bladder cancer have been met. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.307, 3.309. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from April 1969 to March 1971 to include service in the Republic of Vietnam. 1. Entitlement to service connection for bladder cancer to include as due to exposure to herbicides Service connection will be granted if the evidence demonstrates that a current disability resulted from an injury or disease incurred in or aggravated by active military service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. Service connection requires competent evidence showing: (1) the existence of a present disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Service connection may also be established under 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (b), where a condition in service is noted but is not, in fact, chronic, or where a diagnosis of chronicity may be legitimately questioned. The continuity of symptomatology provision of 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (b) has been interpreted as an alternative to service connection only for the specific chronic diseases listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309 (a). See Walker v. Shinseki, 718 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Service connection may also be established with certain chronic diseases based upon a legal presumption by showing that the disorder manifested itself to a degree of 10 percent disabling or more within one year from the date of separation from service. Such disease shall be presumed to have been incurred in service, even though there is no evidence of such disease during the period of service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1101, 1112, 1113, 1137; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309(a). While the disease need not be diagnosed within the presumption period, it must be shown, by acceptable lay or medical evidence, that there were characteristic manifestations of the disease to the required degree during that time. Service connection may be granted on a presumptive basis for certain diseases associated with exposure to certain herbicide agents even though there is no record of such disease during service, if they manifest to a compensable degree any time after service, in a veteran who had active military, naval, or air service for at least 90 days, during the period beginning on January 9, 1962 and ending on May 7, 1975, in the Republic of Vietnam, including the waters offshore, and other locations if the conditions of service involved duty or visitation in Vietnam. 38 U.S.C. § 1116; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309(e), 3.313. The Board notes that in this matter the RO has conceded exposure to herbicides as the Veteran had service within the Republic of Vietnam during the applicable time period. While bladder cancer is not one of the diseases specifically enumerated in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309, the National Academy of Sciences has recently released its latest Agent Orange report which added urinary bladder cancer to the list of diseases with limited or suggestive evidence of an association with exposure to herbicide agents. While the Secretary has not yet added bladder cancer to the list of presumptive diseases, the fact remains that the other diseases on this current list have all been added in the past. As such, the Board will resolve reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s behalf and grant service connection for bladder cancer. MATTHEW W. BLACKWELDER Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD J. Dworkin, Associate Counsel