The Vermont Senate approved a measure Thursday to raise
awareness about the health hazards military personnel suffer from exposure to
open burn pits while serving overseas.
A 30-0 vote came after the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen.
Jeanette White, cried and stopped several times as she recounted to senators
the emotional testimony her committee had heard.
White spoke haltingly as she recalled the words of June
Heston, the widow of Brig. Gen. Mike Heston, who died of cancer last November,
and retired Sgt. Wesley Black, a 33-year-old fighting colon cancer who
described himself as a “dead man walking.” Both served overseas on deployments
where burn pits were used to dispose of a variety of refuse, ignited with jet
fuel.
White, D-Windham, the chair of Senate Government Operations,
said she didn’t want to get emotional laying out the reasons for S. 111, “but
our meetings were anything but.”
“I do apologize,”
White said after stopping her presentation to regroup. “I didn’t think I’d do
this.” She was reassured by presiding officer Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman.
The toxins from the fumes, White said, pervade the body.
“It is in their skin,
their lungs, their eyes, their whole body. It has become a part of them,” White
said.
She said she was oblivious to the issue until told about
Heston in December.
“In my 16 years in the Senate, there have been many issues
that have been emotional and passionate. But in all those years, this is the
one that makes me really angry and really sad,” White said.
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