Long-Term Health Consequences of Exposure to Burn Pits in Iraq and Afghanistan (2011) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Summary
Summary
Pages 1-10
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
Risk assessment studies released in May 2008 and June 2009 stated that burn pits posed an "accept able" or "safe" health risk to personnel stationed at JBB. Nevertheless, articles in the popular press have generated widespread public concern about the pits by claiming that the JBB burn pit "may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors, and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste." The articles helped to trigger congressional hearings and proposed legislation requiring further study of the potential health effects of exposure to burn-pit emissions on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.
|
From page 2... ...
At its first meeting, the committee decided that its approach to its task would include gathering data from the peer-reviewed literature; requesting data directly from the DoD, the VA, and other experts in the field; reviewing government documents, reports, and testimony presented to Congress; and reviewing relevant NRC and IOM reports and other literature on veterans' health issues, specific chemicals of concern, waste incineration and combustion processes, and approaches to cumulative risk assessment. The committee also held two public sessions to hear from veterans, representatives of the DoD and the VA, and other interested parties.
|
From page 3... ...
In 2009, when three incinerators were operational at JBB, about 10 tons of waste was burned daily in the pit; the burn pit ceased operation as of October 1, 2009. A 2010 Army Institute of Public Health study of burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan reported that large bases burned waste that consisted generally of 5–6% plastics, 6–7% wood, 3–4% miscellaneous noncombustibles, 1–2% metals, and 81–84% combustible materials (further details on waste composition were not available)
|
From page 4... ...
The burn pit is likely to have been a source of such pollutants, so the evaluation of air-monitoring data alone cannot provide a complete picture of the potential effects of burn pit emissions. The committee appreciates the air-monitoring campaigns conducted at JBB and elsewhere in the Middle East, but flaws in the sampling design and protocols prevent a thorough understanding of the nature and sources of the air pollutants detected at JBB.
|
From page 5... ...
• R eproductive and developmental toxicity. The data on single-pollutant exposures have little predictive value in connection with deployed personnel at JBB or other burn pit locations where exposures are to combinations of many pollutants from both burn pits and other local and regional sources.
|
From page 6... ...
C HEALTH EFFECTS ASSOCIATED WITH COMBUSTION PRODUCTS To determine the long-term health consequences of exposure to emissions from burn pits, the committee began by reviewing health studies of military personnel exposed to the pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, few such studies were available, so the committee decided to approach its review of the health effects by identifying populations that were considered to be the most similar to military personnel with regard to exposures to combus tion products.
|
From page 7... ...
SYNTHESIS The committee based its conclusions regarding the long-term health consequences of exposure to emissions from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan on three sources of information: data on air monitoring at JBB, healtheffects information on chemicals detected in more than 5% of the air-monitoring samples at JBB, and health-effects information on populations considered to be surrogates of military personnel exposed to combustion products from burn pits: firefighters, municipal incinerator workers, residents who live near incinerators, and veterans of the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War who were exposed to smoke from oil-well fires. The air-monitoring data suggest that the pollutants of greatest concern at JBB may be the mixture of chemi cals from regional background and local sources -- other than the burn pit -- that contribute to high PM.
|
From page 8... ...
Most critically, the database on the nature and extent of exposure to combustion products is incomplete. Given an awareness of the data gaps and analytic limitations in the studies reviewed for this report, the committee recom mends a prospective study of the long-term health effects of exposure to burn-pit emissions in military personnel deployed at JBB.
|
From page 9... ...
to the total JBB environment, recognizing that the burn pit emissions occurred in the presence of PM and other air pollutants from other sources. This broad definition of exposure can be assessed by comparing the health experience of military personnel deployed at the JBB during the period of burn pit operation to that of military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan at locations without a burn pit or that of military personnel not deployed to the Middle Eastern theatre during the same time.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.