The Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs claims mounting evidence is inconclusive, that Middle East tours to Iraq and Afghanistan cause 10’s of thousands of cases of permanent respiratory injuries. While they acknowledge that there is a problem, they claim the injuries are usually temporary.
Try saying that to New York veteran Gary Durham. Prior to his 2003 deployment, Durham was running 6-minute miles. During and after his deployment to Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division, he noticed a significant decline in his endurance. Now, he can’t even mow the lawn without wheezing, 8 years later.
Thousands of veterans are having similar problems. According to the Millennium Cohort Study, veterans who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are much more likely to develop breathing problems than their non-deployed counterparts. 14 percent of all deployed veterans will develop some sort of significant breathing problem.
Dr. Robert Miller, of Vanderbilt University, has performed biopsies of numerous Army soldiers from Fort Campbell, KY. According to Dr. Miller, most of these problems are caused by irreversible scarring of the airways in those who suffer from the condition. The scarring makes breathing during moderate exercise extremely difficult, similar to breathing through a straw. The condition is called “constrictive bronchiolitis.” The condition is only found in people with lung transplants, rheumatoid arthritis and/or those who work with industrial chemicals suffer from the illness.
This condition is very rare in the population. Meanwhile, for those who serve in the U.S. military, you have a 10 percent likelihood of developing the illness if you don’t deploy. If you do, then you have a 14 percent chance of getting sick for the rest of your life.
Currently, Senate hearings and Pentagon studies are focusing on burn pits around bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, many researchers have concluded the problem is likely more complex than just smoke.
Perhaps these conditions are a result of experimental vaccines that cause arthritis and breathing problems when combined with chemical exposure… Who knows?! After all, I’m just a disabled veteran who was forced to take experimental vaccines, and who now has breathing problems, but what do I know.
Note: Once Dr. Miller reached his conclusion, the Army stopped referring sick soldiers to his practice.
Editors Note: DisabledVeterans.org is compiling database of stories from veterans suffering from these symptomsas a reference point for this illnesses. Veterans believing they suffer from this illness are asked to contact DisabledVeterans.org.
Its quite obvious that all these "lowest bidders" that built the bases, used chemicals and other materials that wouldn't pass safety standards from 1920.
How many people died due to faulty electrical work in the showers? And instead of having incinerators they burned all the trash in the open where people breathed in who knows what. And all the living quarters and other shit that was built on the cheap, we will probably never know (publicly) what was in those.
And just last week, we were reading how the government (and military leaders) want to cut retirement, and other benefits from the troops.
Glad we know how to treat our service members.
I actually think our enemy would treat them better then our corrupt leadership sometimes.
For those of you exposed to "Burn Pits" & Dioxin Chemical – Read Up on Agent Orange Exposure on the WEB. (Australian & New Zealand Studies)
Dr. Miller is correct on the internal "Lung Scarring", as it prevents "Air" from being absorbed into the blood stream.
You can have "Lung Volume", but the O2 will not be absorbed into the blood stream.
The VA Test is based on "Volume" and NOT Air Absorption – so you have to prove the lack of O2 Absorption in your Claim.
That means you will have to go to a Private Respiratory Physician & obtain the Medical Evidence to prove your Claim. (CATSCAN)
You should also consider Social Security Disability for severe Lung Disease, because that is what you have.
How do I know this? I have Severe Lung Disease from Agent Orange Exposure in RVN.
YES IT'S MORE THEN SMOKE. ITS CATANIMATED CORNS FROM THE US AND THINGS WE ARE SHIPPING,HIGH FRUTOSE CORN. ANYTHING MODIFIED IS KILLING US ALL…VACC. ALSO..ARE BIOCHEMISTRY HAS MADE MORE STRANDS AND NO CURES AND ITS AMERICAN,NATIVE AMERICAN AND A FEW NAT..BUT NOT HINDU OR NIGERIANS…plus if you have co infections,this throws off all testing even lymes and now soy may have an agent that mat explode..
Couldn't be from all the depleated uranium the USAF used when bombing Iraq and from the same thing in munitions used. No! Thats not it. That was what caused 500,000 babies to be born deformed according to the World Health Organization. Probaby just dust got in their lungs.
Try looking into Depleted Uranium exposure from the rounds of M1A1 Tanks and the 30mm rounds of the A-10!!
I was diagnosed with constictive bronchiolitis by Dr.Miller after an open lung biopsy performed at Vanderbilt. I was deployed to Iraq with the 101st in 2003 for the invasion. We were at FOB Qwest, during June and July a sulfer plant was set on fire releasing 600,000 tons of sulfur gas over a period of 4 weeks. Many soldiers were exposed, my APFT prior to deployment was 300 now i can not run, all physical activities are extremely hard. I am currently going through the MEB process we will see what happens.
Currently a Burn Pit Registry Act of 2011 has been introduced Senate bill # S. 1798, and the House bill H.R. 3337 to create a registry, similar to the Agent Orange Registry and the Gulf War Registry, that will help collect the facts needed to find the connections between burn pit exposure and health problems affecting our servicemen and women. The legislation will also serve as a vehicle for improved communication and information dissemination for affected veterans.
Although these bills mentioned are a good thing, it will take many years as have Agent Orange Registry and the Gulf War Registry to get the help our troops need. Many troops exposed to Agent Orange and Gulf War have died waiting for help that never came.
We need and ask for your voice to get the help our injured troops need now.
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Don’t Let Our Voice Be Silenced! 21 December 2011
Greetings Jr Martinez; I read on the most recent 26 December 2011, Army Times an article expressing your love for the service and wanted to continue to serve as a motivation speaker.
We are kindly asking you to be the voice for troops; we need your support to have our voice’s be heard on the matter of troops, who were exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are now returning home with lung illnesses including asthma, chronic bronchitis and sleep apnea.
I wish to share our concerns regarding the safety of our troops and believe that it is our government's responsibility to treat servicememebers whose ailments are directly linked to exposure to dangerous toxins. As early as 2002, U.S. military installations in Afghanistan and Iraq began to rely on open-air burn pits to dispose of waste materials despite concerns about air pollution.
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Emissions from burning waste contain fine particulate matter, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and various irritant gases such as nitrogen oxides that can scar the lungs. Emissions also contain super-toxic chemicals such as Dioxin that are known or suspected to be carcinogens.
An Open Air Burn Pit an area devoted to open-air combustion of trash. Modern waste contains significant amounts of plastic and other material which may emit toxic aerial compounds and particulates when burned. In Iraq and Afghanistan the U.S. military or its contractors such as KBR operated large burn pits for long periods of time burning many tons of assorted waste. Active duty personnel reported respiratory difficulties and headaches in some cases and some veterans have made disability claims based on respiratory system symptoms to more life threating diseases.
According to a brief, instead of removing the refuse safely, KBR chose to burn the unsorted waste in gigantic, open burn pits that produced flames hundreds of feet into the sky, injuring many, by exposing them to highly toxic smoke, ash and fumes emanating from the pits.
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