As a result of the IOM's report Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2008, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki announced in October plans to add Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease and hairy-cell leukemia list of conditions presumed to have been caused by Agent Orange, a defoliant used widely during the Vietnam War. The proposal will make it substantially easier for thousands of veterans to claim that those ailments were the direct result of their service in Vietnam, thereby smoothing the way for them to receive monthly disability checks and health care services from the department.