A mysterious illness has been found to afflict veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan that is specific to soldiers who were assigned to work in close proximity to burn pits. A crippling lung disease has been linked to burn pit activity.
Deployed Troops and Health Risks
Over 1.5 million American troops were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan around the first decade of the 21st century. While many of these troops returned with amputations and other visible injuries. However, other troops suffered from unknown health hazards, such as burn pits.
Expected Health Risks of Burn Pits
The U.S. military used open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan to burn various items, including batteries, chemicals, arsenic, heavy metals and body parts. Other waste materials were disposed at various military bases in the middle eastern countries. Some of these pits were responsible for disposing of several hundred tons per day.
Breathing fumes from burn pit fires is believed to have damaged the health of many veterans. The exposure is believed to cause constrictive bronchiolitis, which can lead to brain lesions and the formation of cysts throughout the body. Lung complications are also common for burn pit victims. It is believed that thousands of veterans have become sick and are dying from inhaled smoke from the burn pits at the bases.
Registry for Tracking Burn Pit Victims
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs was given one year in 2013 to create a national registry to track victims who may have suffered health consequences due to burn pit activity. The registry is voluntary, but more than 180,000 people have signed up. However, of the 12,000 claims that have been filed to the Veterans Affairs, only 2,500 have been accepted.
One such rejected claim was from a woman who believed her pancreatic cancer was caused by burn pit emissions in Iraq. Her congressman supported her and is trying to get help from the legislature in ensuring that veterans benefits are paid to victims without having to wait for years for studies to be concluded. He relates the current issue to Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War. This herbicide was sprayed to kill jungle foliage and many veterans developed illnesses many years later. The VA widely denied these claims and veterans continued to fight for benefits for decades. He wants to ensure that veterans who were exposed to burn pit exposure to receive their benefits before they die.
Lawsuit Against Burn Pit Contractors
A victims’ lawsuit against contractors responsible for overseeing burn pit activity was filed. However, the Supreme Court rejected it.
Response about Burn Pit Dangers
A report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction aggressively attacks the health effects the burn pits may have caused. It states that it is inexcusable that troops who were at risk of serious injury and death by protecting the United States were placed at further risk due to harmful emissions from open-air burn pits. Additionally, the report notes that millions of dollars were expended on special incinerators in order to properly dispose of waste, but many of these sat idle beside the active burn pits.
An Air Force expert also issued a warning about the burn pits and expressed his surprise that the burn pits were allowed to operate without restriction over a course of several years.
The Department of Defense has also funded a five-year lung study on the possible effects of the burn pit exposure. An occupational medicine doctor and pulmonologist is the principal investigator for the study and says that she has already found that many veterans developed a variety of diseases after they were deployed. However, she notes that these diseases could be due to other factors, such as exposure to desert dust, intense sandstorms and diesel exhaust instead of the burn pits.
The U.S. Central Command in April 2019 reported nine burn pits that created toxic smoke. It also reported that 13 burn pits currently burn waste that is not hazardous, but that this is subject to change over time. A Department of Defense spokesperson said that the Department is concerned that toxins from burn pits may pose health risks and that they are assessing potential long-term impact of exposure to these emissions.
