WASHINGTON
— Everywhere he went in Iraq during his yearlong deployment, Ryne Robinson saw
the burning trash pits. Sometimes, like in Ramadi, they were as large as a
municipal dump, filled with abandoned or destroyed military vehicles, synthetic
piping and discarded combat meals. Sometimes he tossed garbage on them himself.
“The
smell was horrendous,” said Mr. Robinson, who was in Iraq from 2006 to 2007.
About
nine years after returning home to Indiana, where he worked as a corrections
officer, he began to suffer headaches and other health problems, which doctors
attributed to post-traumatic stress. After having a seizure while driving on
Christmas Day last year, though, he was told he had glioblastoma, an aggressive
brain tumor.
Of
the ailments endured by the newest generation of veterans — post-traumatic
stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, lost limbs and more — among the
least understood are those possibly related to exposure to toxic substances in
Iraq and Afghanistan, especially from those fires known as burn pits.
Now,
with the largest freshman class of veteran lawmakers in a decade, Congress
appears determined to lift the issue of burn pits from obscure medical journals
and veterans’ websites to the floors and hearing rooms of Capitol Hill. Members
are vowing to force the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs to deal
with the issue.
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