Military burn pits

 

August 17, 2018



Vietnam veterans affected by Agent Orange continue their remaining lives with multiple health problems related to their exposure. The burning oil wells in Operation Desert Storm exposed many soldiers to thick clouds of toxic smoke that are now responsible for pollution-related diseases.

Most recently, the anti-terrorism presence in Afganistan and Iraq led to the creation of burn pits used by the U.S. military to dispose of trash. Garbage burning sans incinerator has been banned in the U.S. since the 1970s, but scores of veterans from Middle Eastern theaters are developing heart and lung problems, cancer and, according to Ken Olsen in The American Legion Magazine, “other strange diseases that medical experts believe are tied to their exposure to burn pits.”

According to Tammy McCracken, whose husband died from a brain tumor after returning home, “It’s (burn pit exposure) that's the new Agent Orange.” According to Remington Nevin, a preventative health specialist with the 82nd Airborne in Afganistan,“In the medical and scientific community, there is overwhelming agreement that exposure to burning trash is inherently harmful.”

Radiation, toxic defoliants, burning oil wells and burn pits have added to the list that makes the work of the VA more difficult as they continue to treat traumatic injury, post-traumatic stress and handicap needs of America’s finest. Let’s not use the tobacco company strategy of denial.

Victoria Cassano, an environmental medicine physician who treated Tammy’s husband, is quoted: “I think it’s worse to deny one veteran who should be compensated than it is to compensate a hundred veterans who shouldn’t be.”

 

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