Former Vice President Joe Biden, who recently lost his 46-year-old son to brain cancer, addressed the threat burn pits pose to veterans long after they return from the war zone.
“I think they play a significant role,” Biden said of the massive open-air incinerators the military used to destroy waste in Iraq and Afghanistan during an interview with PBS NewsHour. “Science has recognized there are certain carcinogens that when people are exposed to them, depending on the quantities and amount in the water and the air, [they] can have a carcinogenic impact on the body.”
Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden III, who served as an officer in the Delaware National Guard, died of brain cancer in May 2015. The former major with the Judge Advocate General Corps deployed to Iraq in 2008 for a yearlong tour. About a decade prior, Beau Biden worked in Kosovo helping to set up a criminal justice system during the war there.
Burn pits were used in both countries where Beau Biden was operating. Biden recalled reading The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America's Soldiers, a 2016 book by Joseph Hickman that includes a chapter on his son.
“He was collocated both times near these burn pits where we would take everything from fuel oil to plastic furniture to all the waste and put them in these great big pits and we'd burn them,” Biden told NewsHour.
The former vice president stopped short of directly attributing his son's cancer to the exposure to burn pits. There's not yet scientific evidence linking a veteran's health problems to burn-pit exposure, Biden said. But “there's a lot higher incidence of cancer coming from Iraq now and Afghanistan than in other wars,” he added.
Officials with the VA say there's no evidence of long-term health problems from exposure to burn pits, but they continue studying the health of deployed veterans. Still, the VA's website warns toxins in burn-pit smoke “may affect the skin, eyes, respiratory and cardiovascular systems, gastrointestinal tract and internal organs.”
“Veterans who were closer to burn pit smoke or exposed for longer periods may be at greater risk,” the site states. “Health effects depend on a number of other factors, such as the kind of waste being burned and wind direction.”
The VA has a registry for servicemembers who've been exposed to toxic chemicals through burn pits. More than 64,000 veterans have signed up so far.
MOAA has pushed for the VA and DoD to collect more information in military health records, like dates of service and locations where troops have deployed. By including that information, health care experts can better find links between medical conditions and military service.
“Ultimately, having more comprehensive health records saves not only time and money, but also lives,” said Cmdr. René Campos, USN (Ret), MOAA's director of Government Relations for Veterans, Wounded, Ill, and Injured Health Care.