President Promises Better Care For Burn Pit Survivors
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- One of the biggest health concerns among the 3.5 million post-9/11 combat veterans, and even some civilian contractors, is exposure to airborne hazards from open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Joe Biden addressed the issue during his State of the Union speech last week, which has brought new attention to this longstanding issue, and new hope to many of the victims and their families.
Black Forest resident Elba Barr left the Army 14 years ago, but her fight is far from over.
She has not only battled her own health problems, but for years she has pushed the federal government to acknowledge the damage done by burn pits.
“I lose sleep at night over my kids,” she said while fighting back tears, “the kids see me struggle. I was told by a doctor that if I make it to 70, I have lived a full life, and so I shield them a lot from this. But you can only do so much.”
When America began the war on terror after 9/11, many of the places the military went had no infrastructure.
There was no water, no power, no sewage, and no garbage collection.
So for several years, everything including hazardous waste was burned in huge open pits.
A combination of man and machine would push more and more waste onto the pile to keep it burning all day and all night.
“You're sleeping next to it. You're eating next to it,” explains Barr, “and you're working next to it because it's all in a very contained area.”
Incinerators were later built to take the place of many of the burn pits, but not all.
Regardless, countless soldiers were already exposed to the airborne hazards.
From 1997 to 2007, Elba served in 27 countries, a large amount of that in Jalalabad, Iraq where burn pits were used.
It was in 2003 that she first began to suffer from rare conditions that she never had before, and they showed up far too frequently to be just random.
“People get one cancer, or they get the same type of cancer throughout their body. They don't get eight different types of cancers,” she said.
Her eight battles with cancer showed up over the past 11 years.
In his State of the Union speech on March 1, Biden said that burn pits forever changed the “world’s fittest and best-trained warriors in the world”, possibly including his son Beau who died of brain cancer in 2015.
Elba says when the president mentioned burn pits in his state of the union last week, it was significant.
Never before has a president affirmatively connected veterans' illnesses to burn pits, and promised that better care from the VA is coming.
"I'm announcing we're expanding eligibility to veterans suffering from 9 respiratory cancers. I'm also calling on Congress to pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and the comprehensive health care they deserve," said Biden.
"It caught me off guard,” said Biden, “We knew there was stuff coming. But that's the first time to feel that at the presidential level, we were heard, and it's valid.”
However, she is also skeptical because of past promises.
"It's been lip service. 'We love our veterans, veterans are great'. Take them on a parade. But to actually take care of the veterans, 'Oh that's millions of dollars, billions of dollars maybe. Yeah, that's just too much.'"
In February, the U.S. Senate approved the Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act.
Senate Bill 3541 would extend the medical coverage period for veterans exposed to burn pits from 5 years to 10 years, better train VA employees to treat toxic exposure, boost federal research on the effects of toxic exposure, and more.
The situation in the U.S. House, however, isn’t so simple.
Members of the house are currently considering a version of SB 3541, as well as at least three others to establish some type of burn pit legislation.
The House approved one of those bills on March 3, House Resolution 3967, which is known as the “Honoring Our PACT Act of 2021”.
HR 3967, sponsored by Democrat Mark Takano of California, was supported by all 222 Democrats as well as 34 Republicans.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents Colorado Springs, did not support it.
When asked why he didn’t support HR 3967, despite representing a congressional district with a percentage of veterans that consistently ranks among the highest in the country, a spokesperson declined to give a response.
However, the spokesperson said Lamborn does support the legislation already approved in the Senate, which she believed has the best chance of being approved by both chambers.
Regardless of the complex legislative landscape, Elba remains hopeful that the few who served will soon finally receive the benefits they need.
"One percent of the population went to war, 3.5 million of us,” she says, “My ask is that the other 99 percent pick up this fight and hold the legislation accountable to their actions, to the care they owe us because we need to save our energy making memories with those who are going to tell our stories, with our children and with our family and the quality of care, not fighting until our very last breath for an agreement."
According to the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, approximately 82% of post-9/11 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan reported being exposed to burn pits and/or airborne toxic materials during their service.
If you served in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Djibouti after September 11, 2001, you are eligible to join the VA's "Open Burn Pit Registry", which can help the government better understand the impact of these airborne hazards, and possibly help you proactively identify any health concerns you might have.
