The following is a summary of “Military burn pit exposure and airway disease: Implications for our Veteran population,” published in the December 2023 issue of Allergy & Immunology by Wang, et al.
Throughout their duty in the military over the last three decades, millions of veterans have been exposed to smoke from burn pits when they were deployed in the war. There was a possibility that the vapors produced by burn pits include a number of harmful compounds. These include dioxins, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter. The presence of these substances has the potential to either cause or exacerbate conditions that are associated with the upper and lower airways. Several observational studies have been conducted to study the potential role that exposure to burn pits may have in the development of a wide variety of chronic health conditions.
Furthermore, the Veterans Administration established the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry in 2014. This registry was developed in 2014. Nevertheless, it has been difficult to establish that burn pits are the specific cause of airway sickness, and several difficulties prohibit researchers from conducting etiologic investigations. All of these obstacles provide a challenge for researchers.
Additionally, preclinical models have suggested airway dysfunction and inflammation, yet mimicking human exposures continues to be challenging. For a study, researchers sought to undertake a literature review on the potential effect of exposure to burn pits on the development of chronic airway disease.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1081120623004209
