veterans: va’s airborne hazards and open burn pit registry...

2A • SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2014 OMAHA WORLD-HERALDMAIN NEWS

brother, John, who served with himand also has been diagnosed withmultiple sclerosis — are convincedthey are sick because of noxiousstuff they breathed in during theirdeployments.

“It’s just a toxic battlefield,” saidDan Sullivan, president and CEOof the Sergeant Sullivan Center, anonprofit organization that supportsveterans with post-deploymenthealth problems. “You’ve got a bunchof toxic stuff floating around in an at-mosphere that picks everything up.”

There’s a fierce debate, though,over whether breathing noxiousfumes or dust is actually causingsoldiers to get sick. It is notoriouslytricky to link a specific case of illnessto a specific environmental cause.

That’s what government officialswith the Departments of Defenseand Veterans Affairs have argued foryears. They say their studies showlittle increase in respiratory prob-lems among Iraq and Afghanistanveterans.

Not enough is known to draw alink, they say.

“We really haven’t found anystrong evidence,” said Dr. R. CraigPostlewaite, the Defense Depart-ment’s deputy director for forcereadiness and health assurance. “Wedon’t know who was exposed, or howmuch they were exposed to. It’s ahuge void in the data.”

On the other side is a group ofscientists and advocates who believethe evidence is clear enough that themilitary should do more to protectservice members and compensatethose who are already sick. They saythe smoke from burning garbage isfilled with chemicals and heavy met-als that are known to cause respirato-ry disease and cancers. So is the sandthat covers desert bases.

“Human beings should breatheair,” said Dr. Anthony Szema, anassistant professor who specializesin pulmonology and allergies at theStony Brook University School ofMedicine in New York. “They shouldnot breathe in particles.”

For the past several years the burnpits have drawn the biggest shareof attention. In the early days of theIraq and Afghanistan Wars, militarycommanders had few options for dis-posing of trash. Wood, paper, medicalwaste, metal, plastics, even humanwaste — everything was bulldozedinto massive piles, doused with jetfuel and set ablaze. Later, the job oftrash disposal was turned over toprivate contractors, who continuedthe practice.

“It’s like you just take a town,shove it into a pit and burn it,” Flintsaid.

Internal memoranda warned ofhealth risks. A 2006 memo by anAir Force environmental officerdescribed the burn pit at Balad AirBase — where Flint also was based— as “the worst environmental site Ihave personally visited” and warnedof “an acute and chronic healthhazard to our troops and the localpopulation.”

In 2009, the U.S. Central Commandissued rules that cleaner methods ofwaste disposal must be used whenpossible. In Afghanistan, most U.S.bases now recycle or incineratetheir trash. But Afghan army unitscontinue to use open fire pits, whichmeans U.S. troops in some places stillbreathe in the noxious fumes.

The burn pits prompted a still-unresolved federal lawsuit againstKBR Inc. and its parent company,Halliburton, on behalf of several hun-dred former service members andcivilian workers who were exposedto the smoke on bases where KBRhandled waste disposal.

Connie and Dave Thomas ofColumbus, Nebraska, joined the suitafter the death of their son, MarineSgt. Klayton Thomas, in December2009 from an aggressive form of lungcancer. He was 25, an age at whichlung cancer is almost unheard of, anda physically fit nonsmoker.

His doctors immediately suspectedan environmental trigger. Thomastold them he had lived and workednear a burn pit at al-Taqaddum AirBase in Iraq two years earlier. Thesmoke there sometimes was so thickit darkened the sky, he told them.

“I’m positive, if he didn’t havethis exposure, he’d still be runningaround here,” Connie Thomas said.

Other research, though, suggeststhe problem may be much largerthan burn pits alone. It could be the

desert sand itself.Samples taken from a dozen bases

in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 and 2004are laden with microscopic particlescontaining what he calls a “toxicsoup” of heavy metals, bacteria,fungus and pollen, said Navy Capt.Mark Lyles, professor of health andsecurity studies at the Naval WarCollege in Newport, Rhode Island.

He and a team of researchersanalyzed the samples and found theycontained elevated levels of 37 heavymetals and 147 types of bacteria.Some of those substances, such as al-uminium, strontium, manganese andbarium, can cause or are linked toheart disease, respiratory problems,cancer and multiple sclerosis.

“I think the smoking gun is still thedust,” Lyles said.

In recent months Szema has pub-lished a new report detailing inflam-mation found in the lungs of miceexposed to sand collected from CampVictory, a large former U.S. basein Iraq near the Baghdad airport.

Microscopic particles of titaniumand iron, sharp as razors, caused theswelling.

Those exposed to dust from otherdesert locations outside Iraq didn’tshow the same damage.

A second study showed similardamage, and traces of titanium, inthe lungs of several sick soldiers whohad served in Iraq.

Szema also had conducted re-search earlier showing that servicemembers who served in Iraq andAfghanistan were 58 percent morelikely to develop asthma than sol-diers who hadn’t.

Nebraska National Guard Spc.Robert Montag, 28, doesn’t haveasthma, but he does suffer froma frequent, recurring cough thatcropped up during and after his twodeployments: a 15-month Iraq mar-athon with the same cavalry unit asJeff Flint in 2006-07, and a second toBagram Air Base in Afghanistan in2010 and 2011.

Montag lived and worked nearBalad’s infamous burn pit on the firsttour. But Bagram’s geography madehis second deployment particularlyhellish. Nothing seemed to sweep thesmoke away.

“I was coughing up black stuff,”said Montag, of Omaha. “We were sit-ting in a bowl in the mountains, andthe smog stays in it. You’re getting aface full of it all the time.”

Now he’s leaving the Guard after

11 years. He has been to the VAabout his continuing coughing andoccasional shortness of breath.

Whether Iraq and Afghanistan vet-erans are getting sick from burn pits,toxic dust or something else, peopleon all sides of the debate think theVA needs to learn more about what’scausing it.

“We’re almost concerned that thiscould be this generation’s AgentOrange,” said Jackie Maffucci, aneuroscientist and research directorfor Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans ofAmerica (IAVA), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that is pushingfor more research.

The total number of sick veteransis far from clear.

Szema’s research indicates about14 percent of service members whosaw action in Iraq or Afghanistandeveloped respiratory difficulties af-terward. That represents more than200,000 individuals.

There’s evidence the problem hasgotten worse. The number of mili-tary personnel reporting chest andbreathing problems jumped from 406per 10,000 in 2001 to 744 per 10,000by 2013, according to an analysis ofDefense Department data by USAToday.

In response to the uncertainty,Congress last year directed the VAto create a computerized database inwhich service members and veteranswho served in Iraq or Afghanistan

could report details about their ser-vice, exposure and symptoms.

The Airborne Hazards and OpenBurn Pit Registry came online inJune. Since then about 17,000 peoplehave completed the survey, and10,000 more have partially completedit. About 1.9 million service membershave served in the region.

“We’re a little surprised that nota lot of veterans have registered,”Postlewaite said.

The registry is open to veteransand active-duty service memberswho have served in Southwest Asiasince 1990 — including veterans ofthe Gulf War, many of whom havesuffered combat-linked health prob-lems.

The VA hopes to learn more aboutwhat hazards service members wereexposed to overseas and use the datain future studies.

Jeff Flint hasn’t signed up yet, buthe plans to.

“They started this up pretty fast,”he said. “Somebody’s doing some-thing about it.”

Flint said the stress of the deploy-ment, and the health problems thatfollowed, have cost him his marriageand his full-time job with the Nation-al Guard.

He could live with the unceasingcough. But multiple sclerosis hit himhard. The disease causes the immunesystem to attack the insulating cov-ers of nerves in the brain and spinalcord. It’s incurable and gets worsewith time, though it rarely is fatal.

“When I first got MS, I couldn’tgrasp a piece of paper between myfingers,” Flint said. “I couldn’t tie myshoe or buckle my pants. I hid it fromeveryone for a month.”

Medicine has restored some ofFlint’s strength. He can dress himselfand get around on his own. But hecollects disability from the VA be-cause he can no longer work. It’s notclear whether he’ll be able to workagain in the future.

“I don’t plan anything,” he said. “Ijust live day by day.”

Contact the writer:402-444-1186, steve.liewer@owh.com

Veterans: VA’s Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry gathers informationContinued from Page 1

REBECCA S . G R AT Z / THE WORLD -HERA LD

Nebraska National Guard Spc. Robert Montag of Omaha, left, and retired Sgt. Jeff Flint of Fremont at the National Guard Titan Readiness Center near Mead, Nebraska. Thetwo men served in the same cavalry unit in Iraq in 2006-07 as part of their deployments. And both lived and worked near burn pits during their time overseas.

U . S . A I R FORCE

Old uniforms are tossed into a burn pit at Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2008 to keep them from being used by enemy forces. A 2006memo by an Air Force environmental officer described the Balad pit as “the worst environmental site I have personally visited.”

“I was coughing up black

stuff. We were sitting in

a bowl in the mountains,

and the smog stays in it.

You’re getting a face full

of it all the time.”Nebraska National GuardSpc. Robert Montag

REGISTRY AVAILABLE

The Airborne Hazards and Open BurnPit Registry is open to veterans andactive-duty service members whohave served in Southwest Asia since1990. To sign up, visit the VeteransAdministration website: https://veteran.mobilehealth.va.gov/AHBurnPitRegistry/#page/home

October 12, 2014Vol. 150, Edition 3

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