Burn pit
[12] According to Leon Russell Keith, a military contractor stationed at Balad who testified at a Senate hearing in 2009, ash was everywhere, including on beds and clothes.
[14] Hazardous materials are burned in open piles at military installations in the United States, including the Radford Army Ammunition Plant in Virginia.
[8] According to an Air Force fact sheet[citation needed], "Burning solid wastes in an open pit generates numerous pollutants.
These pollutants include dioxins, particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, hexachlorobenzene, and ash.
[17] Anthony Szema, MD of Stony Brook School of Medicine stated that humans exposed to air pollution, especially particulate matter (PM), have high risk of death and lung disease (e.g.
In November 2009, the Veteran's Administration (VA) and the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) began an 18-month study to determine the long-term health effects of exposure to the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The report, Long-Term Health Consequences of Exposure to Burn Pits in Iraq and Afghanistan[3] noted U.S. Department of Defense air quality monitoring data measured levels of particulate matter (PM) higher than generally considered safe by U.S. regulatory agencies.
It also cited work linking high PM levels to cardiopulmonary effects, particularly in individuals at increased risk due to pre-existing conditions such as asthma and emphysema.
Currently, there has been research in the following areas to determine exposure to burn pit and health effects: According to the Army, proper waste management practices have reduced the spread of infectious diseases that contributed significantly to mortality and morbidity in military populations.
Report on Data from the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit (AH&OBP) Registry, April 2015[28] As of December 31, 2019, 186,051 veterans and active duty members have completed the questionnaire since June 2014.
[citation needed] US Army veteran and University of Pennsylvania graduate student Chad Baer has vocally asserted that claims of inclusive results are due to faulty research design.
Baer has asserted that technological advances have made longitudinal studies of all veterans feasible, except that this is not possible so long as the Department of Defense refuses to give VA researchers more complete data.
[29][30][31] Congressional action taken includes:[citation needed] A Minnesota mother, Amie Muller, was a victim of the exposure and her senator, Amy Klobuchar (MN-DFL), carried a bill called the “Helping Vets Exposed to Burn Pits Act”[citation needed] that was passed and signed into law by President Donald Trump (as H.R.
