Federal watchdog calls out lack of research on burn pits in Vietnam

[rangerrebew]

Federal watchdog calls out lack of research on burn pits in Vietnam

A federal watchdog report found that despite evidence of open-air burning in Vietnam, there hasn’t been much research into the health effects veterans face.
Patty Nieberg

Aug 7, 2025 1:25 PM EDT

 
Marsha Four was an Army nurse working in an intensive care unit not far from the front lines of Vietnam.

Four said everyone she worked with and all her patients were young people who were thrust into war, unaware of the horrors they would face. She recalled seeing gruesome combat injuries and having to decontaminate troops that came back with uniforms doused in Agent Orange. She also remembered troops using jet fuel to burn waste from latrines, dioxin to defoliate base perimeters for better visibility, and burn pits for trash from the base and hospital.

“What they burned, depending on the way the wind blew, was the air we breathed. To say [it was] a unique experience, is very understated,” Four said. “We were all young kids, how would you think about being exposed to that kind of stuff? You didn’t even think about that. We only thought about what we were doing and the job we had.”

While the health effects of burn pits used in Iraq and Afghanistan have received extensive attention and benefits in recent years, the open-air burning that Four and other Vietnam troops dealt with has not. A Government Accountability Office report released last week found a lack of data and research on the health impacts that Vietnam veterans faced from open-air burning.

https://taskandpurpose.com/military-life/vietnam-veterans-burn-pit-exposure/

[Smokin Joe]

Wow. Hard to press, now, when those who suffered most from Agent Orange exposure are mostly dead and gone. Those who got secondary exposure (from the wounded, for instance) should be compensated. As for the rest, it would be hard to say what got burned wherever. Front lines were often just feet or so from the wire, wherever the wire was--this was not a war known for capturing and holding territory. 
This does have potential to open another Pandora's box, that of the effects on those who now live (and lived) where all this took place, in a war where it was often difficult to separate civilian from combatant.