In the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. health organizations alerted people in high-risk populations of their increased susceptibility to COVID-19. The Department of Veterans Affairs, however, has failed to provide adequate warning to veterans in high-risk categories, particularly those who experience health problems relating to their exposure to burn pits and other airborne toxins during their military service.
The VA maintains an Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, in which more than 200,000 veterans have self-identified as being exposed to burn pits during their service. Those on the burn pit registry have received no update about how health issues resulting from exposure to airborne toxins may increase their risk of a more serious COVID-19 infection. In online guidance about the coronavirus directed to the wider veteran community, no mention has been made of how burn pit exposure could put veterans at increased risk of COVID-19 complications.
Elsewhere, however, the VA does indicate that burn pit exposure could increase the risk for veterans who develop COVID-19. On page 87 of a 257–page document outlining the VA’s COVID-19 response plan, released on March 27, in an appendix addressing VA Readjustment Counseling Services facilities, those with “respiratory issues from potential exposure to chemical or environmental factors (burn pits, etc.)” are described as “additional cohort concerns.”
An estimated 3.5 million veterans served in locations such as Djibouti, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, and Syria, where service members used open-air burn pits to eliminate waste products, including human and medical waste, unexploded ordinance, chemicals, petroleum, metal and aluminum cans, plastics, animal carcasses, batteries, rubber, wood, and paint. In many of these combat zones, acrid burn pit smoke was accompanied by toxins from “irritant gases, high levels of fine dust, [and] heavy metals,” and “airborne feces” in regions where locals used dried animal waste for heating.
Many veterans and veteran service organizations believe such exposure is behind diverse health issues, including rare cancers, lung diseases, and other respiratory problems experienced by veterans of modern wars. Several organizations, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and the Wounded Warrior Project, have produced surveys demonstrating the long-term health effects of burn pit exposure in veterans. In 2019, a group of 20 veteran service organizations formed the Toxic Exposures in the American Military coalition to fight for research and legislation that would assist veterans affected by their exposure to burn pits and other airborne toxins.
For its part, the VA “continues to study” veterans’ health issues, but officially states that, “at this time, research does not show evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits.”
The VA notoriously dragged its heels for nearly 15 years before beginning to acknowledge health effects for Vietnam War veterans exposed to defoliants such as Agent Orange. With the rapidly evolving coronavirus pandemic, VA heel-dragging could have devastating results. ER nurse and National Guard medic Chelsey Poisson told Connecting Vets that she believed “veterans may be among the groups hardest hit by the virus,” and that many doctors are unaware of veterans’ full medical histories, including exposures to airborne toxins and other comorbidities. Nancy Klimas, Southeastern University’s director of the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine, explained that “once infected, [veterans exposed to burn pits] have a greater risk of having a more serious form of the illness.”
Tom Porter, executive vice president for government affairs of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, believes that “there should absolutely be some focused outreach” from the VA to veterans exposed to burn pits and other airborne toxins.
Porter himself is enrolled in the burn pit registry. Having been diagnosed with asthma after deploying to Afghanistan, Porter finds that his “lungs are very sensitive and [he gets] sick more often … [with] respiratory-type infections that [he] never got before.” Porter has heard no word from the VA about how burn pit exposure affects his COVID-19 risk.
The VA did not respond to my requests for information about when and whether it plans to provide specific alerts to burn pit registry participants or the 3.3 million veterans who are not on the registry but who were likely exposed to burn pits during their service.
According to Porter, the VA’s lack of effort alerting veterans exposed to burn pits is only a portion of the problem with its coronavirus response. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America is calling for VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to be more transparent about the VA’s COVID-19 plan and what it means for all veterans. Thus far, the organization has “gotten a lot of fragmented updates, emails, and messages” from the VA. The organization would prefer Wilkie update veterans’ organizations more regularly through daily press briefings and emails with web resources, as the Department of Defense has done.
In the most recent survey of its members, conducted between March 24 and 26, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that only 71% had heard from the VA about the coronavirus. More alarming still, of those who asked the VA to test them for coronavirus, 58% were denied.
While the opportunity to be proactive has passed, the VA bureaucracy must now swiftly change course. Not only should the VA improve its information dissemination to all veterans, but it also must take any and all means to alert populations of veterans, including those with compromised health due to burn pit exposure, that they may be at increased risk for developing serious complications if infected with the coronavirus.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
