Impact of Open Burn Pit Exposure on Respiratory and Cardiovascular Health Among Military Veterans
Abstract
The proposed study directly addresses a priority area, Burn Pit Exposure, and would give us the most extensive understanding developed thus far on this topic of great concern to many of the Veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our ultimate goal is to determine the best way to provide health care to Veterans who were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq. This study offers several important strengths over previous studies: (1) We will use information from deployment records to more accurately estimate individual exposures to burn pits; (2) We will link these refined exposure estimates to data on health outcomes from medical records over multiple years following military service to see if there are health problems that continue over time; (3) Restricting the analyses to those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq during the time period in which burn pits were in use will help us pinpoint the effects of burn pits separately from any health effects from deployment more generally. We are trying to find out if exposure to open burn pits during deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq causes respiratory and cardiovascular disease among Veterans. We will address the following specific aims: 1) Is deployment to a military base at which open burn pits were used associated with increased risk of respiratory or cardiovascular disease among Veterans who obtain health care from VA facilities? 2) Is a longer time or more intense exposure to open burn pits associated with a higher risk of disease among Veterans? 3) Does the pattern of disease among Veterans suggest that burn pit exposure is responsible for increased risk? 4) Are there specific diseases associated with open burn pit exposures that need to be studied in more detail?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1117092
Entities
People
- David A. Savitz
Organizations
- Brown University