For military personnel facing immediate threats in a war zone, how the garbage is disposed of isn’t a primary concern. But years later, exposure to toxins could be front and center for those who develop respiratory diseases or cancers.
The U.S. Department of Defense estimates some 3.5 million military personnel were exposed to toxic chemicals during service in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Often that exposure involved “burn pits” — open areas where trash was piled, doused with diesel or jet fuel and set ablaze. The U.S. Veterans Administration has established a registry for which those who served in certain theaters of operation can opt in.
Burn pits can be anything from a small area where individual units burn garbage to huge ones that were operated by contractors using heavy machinery in Afghanistan and Iraq, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Jim Lorraine, retired, who had multiple deployments including Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait, during Operation Shield/Storm, and Somalia.
A single unit looking to move often would burn entire boxes of Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs) along with anything else not being taken along, said Lorraine, who is president and CEO of America’s Warrior Project, which works with military and local officials on veterans issues, including health and suicide prevention.
“At another site, I saw an enormous bulldozer,” he said. “That’s what hit me, the size of the bulldozer, and it was pushing trash in. Most recently in Iraq, there were some enormous burn pits, just acres in size.
“You notice it, and then, like I said, it was a desert environment. You always had a scarf, but you could smell it. They were burning plastic.”
It was around 2007 and 2008 that the military began to notice adverse health conditions reported by people who had spent time at Karshi-Khanabad (known informally as “K2”) in Uzbekistan, which was used as the launching point for the invasion of Afghanistan. A former Soviet-era air force base, the area turned out to have been contaminated with a variety of substances.
In one case “50 percent of the unit came down with cases,” said Lorraine, who at retirement was serving as deputy command surgeon for the U.S. Special Forces Command and investigating the illnesses. “Some of them were pretty debilitated. In Special Operations, we could see the clusters of it.
“It’s not just burn pits, it’s this mix of toxins you come into contact with in the combat zone. When you have a combination of these chemicals, what’s the effect going to be? In K2, it was a multitude. It was jet fuel, it was solvents, it was everything. What we noticed, these groups of people who started to come to us because they had cancer.”
Lorraine, who now lives in Aiken, S.C., and whose group started as the Augusta Warrior Project and expanded to include communities from Florida to Alaska, recommends that eligible service members sign up with the Veterans Administration’s registry at https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/burnpits/. The registry also covers exposure to sand, dust and particulate matter; general air pollution common in certain countries; and fuel, aircraft exhaust and smoke from well oil fires.
Lorraine, who was exposed to oil well smoke in Kuwait and to burn pits in other countries, has developed squamous cell cancer and respiratory issues, said there may be compensation available down the line for veterans who were disabled due to exposure to chemicals. If nothing else, veterans should make sure to get the best treatment available.
Veterans also may need to follow different screening regimens, such as having an initial colonoscopy a decade earlier than the recommendation for non-military patients, based on work done at Duke University, he said.
“What we’re saying, from heart disease to cancer to lung cancer, the likelihood is greater you’re going to develop it at a younger age than if you did not serve in the military,” Lorraine said. “For toxins, what’s the impact on lung cancer? What’s the impact on your heart? What’s the impact on lung cancer? We don’t know.
“The good news is the VA recognizes a problem. The good news is the VA is willing to provide health care. The good news is Congress is looking at how we compensate people after the fact.”
Veterans who have issues, including navigating through the system and obtaining needed benefits, can visit www.americaswarriorpartnership.org/the-network.
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