Veterans face uphill battle to receive treatment for 'burn pit' exposure
Kenzi Abou-Sabe and Didi Martinez and Kit Ramgopal
Mon, April 12, 2021, 5:23 PM·11 min read
During Marine veteran Scott Evans' two tours in Afghanistan, his work on a specialized team that used dogs to sniff out explosives led him to spend large chunks of time around open-air pits where trash was burned.
In August, Evans, 33, of North Carolina, received devastating news: he had terminal pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis placed him among a growing number of military veterans who say they have developed serious and sometimes fatal diseases after facing prolonged exposure to burn pits at overseas bases.
The pits were a common feature at military bases during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a crude answer to the basic logistics problem of how to deal with piles and piles of trash. Everything from electronics and vehicles to human waste was regularly doused in jet fuel and set ablaze, spewing toxic fumes and carcinogens into the air.
https://news.yahoo.com/veterans-face-uphill-battle-receive-212300396.html
