Exposure library

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A plain-language encyclopedia of what your service may have exposed you to — built on the government's own record. Tap any exposure or body system to learn where it comes from, what it does in the body, the conditions the VA already links to it, and what to ask your clinician. This is documentation for your record — not medical advice or a treatment plan.

Heavy metals

The 16 metals the app tracks — where they store and what they do.

Lead
A heavy metal in ammunition primers, firing-range air, fuels, paints, and industrial work.
Cadmium
A heavy metal in batteries, pigments, plating, welding fumes, and burn-pit smoke.
Depleted uranium (DU)
A dense metal used in armor-piercing rounds and tank armor — both radioactive and a heavy metal.
Arsenic
A metalloid in contaminated water, pesticides, treated wood, and combustion/burn-pit smoke.
Mercury
A heavy metal in some instruments, dental amalgam, batteries, and certain industrial processes.
Hexavalent chromium (Cr-VI)
A highly toxic form of chromium from welding, plating, paints, and the Qarmat Ali site (Iraq, 2003).
Manganese
An essential trace metal that is neurotoxic in excess — from welding fumes and some munitions.
Tungsten
A dense metal in newer armor-piercing rounds and heavy alloys.
Cobalt
A hard-metal component of tool steel, alloys, and some munitions.
Nickel
A metal in plating, alloys, welding fume, and coins/hardware.
Aluminum
A light metal from dust, some munitions, and processing.
Antimony
A metal in ammunition primers and flame retardants — often paired with lead.
Beryllium
A lightweight metal in aerospace alloys, electronics, and some weapons systems.
Vanadium
A metal in fuel-combustion residue, steel alloys, and some particulate.
Thallium
A highly toxic metal found in some ores, electronics, and legacy rodenticides.
Barium
A metal in some ordnance, flares, and industrial dust.

Chemicals & contaminants

Burn pits, jet fuel, solvents, PFAS, dioxins, asbestos, radiation, and more.

Burn pits
Open-air burning of mixed waste with jet fuel — a delivery system for nearly every toxicant at once.
Jet fuel (JP-8) & fuels
The military's primary jet fuel — and a hydrocarbon solvent that became fuel for the burn pits.
Solvents (benzene, TCE, PCE)
Industrial degreasers and cleaning solvents — TCE, PCE, and benzene — common in maintenance and contaminated water.
Dioxins (Agent Orange family)
Persistent toxicants from herbicides like Agent Orange and from burning plastics in burn pits.
PFAS / AFFF (forever chemicals)
'Forever chemicals,' largely from AFFF firefighting foam used in training and crash response.
Particulate & silica
Fine sand, dust, and silica — the everyday air of a desert deployment.
Asbestos
Heat-resistant fibers built into ships, older buildings, brakes, and insulation.
Ionizing radiation
Radiation from atomic-test participation, nuclear work, and depleted-uranium environments.
Nerve agents & organophosphates
Chemical-warfare nerve agents and the pesticides/pills used in the Gulf War.

Organs & systems

What these exposures do to bone, marrow, brain, kidney, lungs, and more.

Bone
Your structural frame — and the body's long-term storage bank for calcium and for several toxic metals.
Bone marrow
The factory inside your bones — especially the pelvis, spine, and breastbone — where stem cells make red blood cells, white (immune) cells, and platelets.
Brain
The control center — and one of the most energy-hungry, vulnerable organs to toxic and blast injury.
Kidney
The body's filtration plant — which means it takes the brunt of many toxic exposures.
Liver
The body's main chemical-processing organ — it breaks down chemicals, including the ones service exposed you to.
Lungs
The first organ to meet anything you breathe — smoke, dust, fuel vapor, and fibers.
Nervous system & nerves
The wiring that carries signals to your hands, feet, organs, and brain.
Thyroid
The small gland that sets your body's tempo — energy, weight, mood, and temperature.
Heart & blood vessels
The pump and the pipes — sensitive to inflammation, metals, and chronic stress.
Skin
The body's largest organ and outer barrier — and a visible record of some toxic exposures.
Building your exposure timeline →
Deck logs, NARA requests, the burn pit registry.
Women veterans & service →
Deployment roles, MST care, and where the real resources are.
Your C&P exam, demystified →
What it is, who examines you, and how to prepare.
A primer for your clinician →
Print it and hand it over — what a DBQ and a nexus opinion are.

Drafted from the government's and science's own record — VA presumptive lists (PACT Act, 38 CFR, Camp Lejeune), ATSDR ToxFAQs, IARC, and NTP. Sources are cited on every page, and this library has not yet been reviewed by a named clinician or toxicologist. This is documentation to bring to your clinician and VSO — not a diagnosis, a treatment plan, or a determination of service connection. Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1.