Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Burn Pits of OIF and OEF Operation Theaters

Illness from burn pits a health issue for returning vets
March 9, 2013 - A mysterious illness is afflicting veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a crippling lung disease that targets soldiers assigned to work near burn pits. One wife of a stricken soldier is watching her husband suffer and fighting the battle he no longer can.

LeRoy Torres was a Texas state trooper and a captain in the Army Reserves when he deployed for a year-long combat tour to Iraq in 2007.

"The minute he got back," said his wife Rosie,"he was hospitalized, right when he got back. It was like, 'Okay, it's the Iraqi crud,' that's what we kept hearing. After a few weeks, he started having these breathing attacks. It was the scariest moment ever for us."

Rosie said her husband's health issues resulted from exposure to open-air burn pits, which the U.S. military used in Iraq and Afghanistan to torch everything from batteries to body parts. read more>>>

* * * VA’s Action Plan: Burn Pits and Airborne Hazards * * *

* * * Research Studies on Military Exposures * * *


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