Military Exposed to Toxic Fumes From Burn Pits Set to Get Bipartisan Boost

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Friday planned to roll out what could be the most ambitious attempt ever tried to treat American war fighters poisoned in deployments overseas.

The bipartisan bill, modeled on both Agent Orange legislation and the 9/11 health act, aims to help unknown thousands of veterans who got sick after being exposed to toxic substances from massive open fire pits where the military burned its garbage, as well as other sources.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates some 3.5 million service members were exposed to the toxic trash plumes in Iraq, Afghanistan and other battlegrounds, and maintains a burn pits registry through which nearly 236,000 veterans have reported exposures. President Joe Biden believes that toxic smoke is responsible for the brain cancer that killed his son Beau in 2015.

Yet the VA and the military deny the vast majority of claims for retirement and health benefits from ill veterans, leaving them to cope with disability and mounting medical bills on their own until they die.

The reasons range from simple denials that noxious fumes caused illnesses to the classic problems even the sickest veterans encounter when they confront enormous snarls of red tape at the VA and Department of Defense.


https://www.govexec.com/defense/2021/03/military-exposed-toxic-fumes-burn-pits-set-get-bipartisan-boost/172969/