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Burn Pits: The 21st Century's Agent Orange

By Douglas I. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.

Thursday, September 1, 2022

If you served in Operation Desert Storm or Operation Iraqi Freedom, then you’ll need no introduction to burn pits. However, in case you do: burn pits are excavations filled with any and all waste from a deployment and set aflame with jet fuel or diesel. Waste products commonly disposed of in open burn pits include:

  • Chemicals, paint, medical and human waste

  • Metal and aluminum cans

  • Munitions and unexploded ordnance

  • Petroleum and lubricant products

  • Plastics, rubber, wood, and food waste

The Department of Defense estimates 3.5 million exposed service members. One of those victims, Biden believes, could be his son Beau.

In his State of the Union address, Biden talked about burn pits, saying exposure could have led to the death of Beau, who served a year-long tour of duty in Iraq and later died of brain cancer. Biden’s son Beau was a major deployed to Iraq in 2008. He was later named Delaware’s attorney general before being diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013. He died two years later at 46 years old. 

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars starting in 2001, military bases throughout the Middle East relied on burn pits for waste disposal. While this practice long predates the recent conflicts, the conflict in Afghanistan, at its peak, saw burn pits used for over 400 tons of waste daily. 

That’s more than 2,000 tons a week — literally a ton of tons.

“The fumes from a burn pit may be a nuisance but it’s not the most dangerous thing, front of mind, when you’re over there. It’s only years later that we’ve come to realize how damaging this stuff might have been.”

VA Denial

Veterans returning from the Middle East conflict came to face a plight not unlike that of Vietnam veterans who, after being exposed to the toxic herbicide mixture known as Agent Orange, returned home and began reporting symptoms, including various types of cancer. In fact, one of the most dangerous and harmful pollutants produced by burn pits is hexachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, or simply dioxin, and is the same chemical found in Agent Orange. 

Yet, despite this, The Department of Veterans Affairs has denied about 75% of veterans’ burn pit claims. In their own words, they concluded that “there is only limited evidence suggestive of an association between exposure to combustion products and reduced pulmonary function in these populations.” (IOM Report, 2011)

“I served with honor so it was frustrating to be told, in effect, you’re old and broken and we don’t need you,” he said. “You have to prove you were exposed and that exposure caused what you have.”

Burn Pits & You

Factors that may indicate a higher or lower risk of short/long-term health effects:

  • Types of waste burned

  • Proximity, amount of time, and frequency of exposure

  • Wind direction and other weather-related factors

  • Presence of other airborne or environmental hazards in the area

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