Here’s what they found: veterans with longer cumulative exposure to burn pit sites faced modestly increased risk of developing respiratory illnesses like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as hypertension and ischemic stroke, compared to those deployed to bases without burn pits.
“While the elevated risk levels were modest for each individual, there are millions of veterans who may have been exposed during their deployments,” said David Savitz, the study’s co-lead investigator and professor of epidemiology, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology at Brown. “Any increase in rates of these serious chronic diseases among such a large population is highly significant from a public health perspective.”
The burn pits released complex mixtures of toxic pollutants including particulates, chemicals and carcinogens rarely found in urban air, according to the study. Assessing exposure levels and health impacts, however, has been extremely challenging due to a lack of monitoring data and the absence of detailed records from the military.
“This study provides some of the first solid evidence of an association between burn pit exposure and long-term health consequences using objective measures of deployment location and disease diagnosis from medical records,” explained Dr. Amal Trivedi, study co-lead investigator and professor of health services, policy and practice and of medicine at Brown. “It underscores why continued monitoring and study of these veterans is so crucial.”
While this study focused on the Afghan and Iraq Wars beginning in 2001 and 2003, respectively, the U.S. military has employed open-air burn pits to dispose of waste in various overseas operations for decades. Environmental and health experts have long raised alarms about the potential risks to troops as well as to local civilian populations residing near burn pit sites.
With millions of U.S. veterans having potential exposure, the new findings add urgency to understanding the full scope of the problem and to ensuring appropriate screening, prevention efforts and care for those affected. The researchers say their study should serve as a model for further examining health impacts of military environmental hazards.
