More data needed on burn pits, report says - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

More data needed on burn pits, report says

A group of the nation’s top researchers has concluded there are insufficient data to determine whether open-air burn pits, used extensively by the U.S. military during the wars Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of trash and other waste, cause long-term health effects.

Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine committee, which investigated the possible long-term health effects of burn pits at the request of the Veterans Affairs Department, said the biggest pollution concern at one of the most controversial sites, Joint Base Balad, Iraq, is likely particulate matter resulting from local and regional sources, not the military burn pits, which operated there from 2003 to 2008.

The report released by the Institute of Medicine said there are “insufficient data” to determine whether pollution from the pits is associated with cancer, respiratory disease and other illnesses.

In trying to determine whether there was a link between burn pits and adverse health conditions, the panel examined data provided by the Defense Department on pollutants found in raw air, information on health effects from various studies, and the health outcomes in populations that experience similar exposures, such as firefighters, waste incinerator employees and people who live near such facilities.

“In light of its assessment of health effects that may result from exposure to air pollutants detected at [Balad] and its review of the literature on long-term health effects in surrogate populations, the committee is unable to say whether long-term health effects are likely to result from exposure to emissions from the burn pit” at Balad, the report stated.

The committee said it lacked sufficient data on the nature of the waste burned at specific sites and found that databases on the nature and extent of exposure to burn pits among service members were incomplete.

Further research is warranted, the committee said, and it recommended that the Defense Department and other researchers conduct a long-term study of those exposed to burn pits and similar areas, as well as pilot studies to analyze specific health outcomes allegedly caused by burn pit exposure.

The Institute of Medicine is the section of the National Academies that makes recommendations on science and health matters. VA asked IOM to investigate the issue to determine the long-term health effects from exposure and make suggestions for the design of future epidemiologic studies.

Although the 14-member committee — made up of researchers from universities including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the University of California, Howard University, the University of Louisville and others — said the current evidence is lacking, it also said service in Iraq or Afghanistan is not without adverse health effects.

“The committee’s review of the literature and the data from [Balad] suggests that service in Iraq or Afghanistan — that is, a broader consideration of air pollution than exposure only to burn pit emissions — might be associated with long-term health effects, particularly in highly exposed populations (such as those who worked at the burn pit) or susceptible populations (for example, those who have asthma), mainly because of the high ambient concentrations of [particulate] from both natural and anthropogenic, including military, sources,” the committee wrote.