On Thursday, for the first time, representatives of the
Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans Association and the Veterans of Foreign Wars were
able to bring those concerns — along with their own — to the Congressional VA
Subcommittee on Health.
And those members of Congress — some of whom are veterans
themselves — spoke with one voice, regardless of political party, on the need
to expedite care for veterans without waiting years for the Department of
Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to complete a study on the health
effects of exposure to those toxins.
Deployments, including the Middle East, have continued since
the beginning of Operation Desert Shield in August 1990.
Millions of service members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan
were ordered to burn everything so it would not fall into enemy hands or impact
the environment. They used burn pits for things that included human waste and
batteries.
Burn pits toxins were not the only airborne hazards, heavy
black smoke from burning oil fields and the brown-out conditions of frequent
sandstorms carried hazards capable of bringing long-term health problems to
those exposed.
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