Sick and Dying Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Need Congress to Do More

A year has passed since President Joe Biden signed into law the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act. For those of us fighting for the health of our loved ones made sick while serving our country, it feels like just yesterday we were navigating the ups and downs of the messy legislative process. Those were sleepless nights on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with well-wishers sending us pizza amid the glare of the national media and the powerful grip of partisan politics.

When the president signed the PACT Act, it was a historic moment and a life-changing milestone, as it is the most important expansion of benefits and services for veterans exposed to toxins in more than 30 years. A year later, our work is not done for those families — far from it. For the PACT Act to reach its full potential, its implementation must be effective. So far, the signs are mixed.

Let’s start with the progress. Nearly half a million claims have been filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since PACT was signed, with a nearly 80% approval rate. It’s a hopeful sign that veterans are attempting to access available care. 

PACT established a presumptive service connection for 23 different medical conditions related to toxic exposures. No longer would the burden of proof between health issues and their deployment-related exposure fall on sick servicemembers.

First, some context on the scope of the problem: In the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, more than 3.5 million American military service members deployed overseas were exposed to hazardous toxins from burn pits, which is a common waste disposal practice at military sites outside the United States, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

My husband, Le Roy, like so many other service members, returned home from deployment in 2008 sick. His declining health was met with denied VA health benefits and denied veterans protections when he was eventually too sick to keep his job. He’d inhaled toxins from a 10-acre burn pit at Camp Anaconda in Balad, Iraq, causing damage to his lungs and brain.

Just like Le Roy, upon completing their tours of duty, many other service members would get sick — very sick. For some, walking up a flight of stairs became impossible, let alone the two-mile run required for military physical fitness tests. At the same time, measures of assessing how the lungs work, through pulmonary function tests, would not show any presence of disease. 

Prior to PACT, veterans struggling to breathe would have to prove that their illness was connected to military service. With limited screening options and a lack of knowledge about toxic exposures, this was not an easy task, especially for a disease with no cure and debilitating symptoms.

Thanks to the new law, the burden of proof no longer falls on the patient. That’s a major step forward, but Congress can do more. 

Lawmakers must provide the medical tools to allow for quicker diagnosis, particularly for those veterans suffering respiratory issues. Right now, the VA does not have a diagnostic code for those suffering from Deployment Related Respiratory Disease (DRRD).  

Hundreds of thousands of veterans have unexplained shortness of breath. Regular diagnostic tools, such as pulmonary function tests (PFT), chest X-rays and high-resolution CAT scans, often fail to show the presence of this disease. Veterans seeking answers will even resort to a surgical lung biopsy, as Le Roy had to, which he called a “horrendous experience and incredibly painful.” This procedure is expensive and can be dangerous. For a veteran seeking benefits, it can often be the only option.

Fortunately, there are technologies that can help triage veterans with respiratory issues. Instead of a lung biopsy, non-invasive functional imaging technologies can more efficiently identify those likely suffering with DRRD.

Expediting the path to diagnosis means quicker veteran access to treatment and benefits. 

The VA needs more resources to fulfill the promise of PACT, including harnessing the upside of new technology.

The warning lights are already flashing. VA Ann Arbor, one of the Centers of Excellence for the VA’s Post Deployment Cardiopulmonary Evaluation Network, stated in May that “additional resources and personnel will be required to meet the needs of veterans, particularly following the passage of the PACT Act.”

Congress should start by authorizing a pilot program at select sites across the country.

To be sure, the wheels of progress turn slowly, especially at the VA, whose hard-working employees often bear the blame for challenges that extend across many levels of government.

But the fact remains that many veterans are still sick and dying. Time is not on their side. When they signed up to defend our country, few knew one of the most life-threatening risks was the air they would be breathing. It was the war that followed them home.

PACT can help, but it requires further action from Congress. Let’s hope our lawmakers answer the call in the same manner that our servicemembers did.

Rosie Torres is co-founder and executive director of Burn Pits 360, a non-profit advocacy organization for veterans suffering from injuries caused by military exposure. She is a senior adviser to 4DMedical, a developer of functional imaging software for respiratory illness that, in a recent Vanderbilt University Medical Center study, has successfully and non-invasively detected lung disease in military veterans. Her husband, Le Roy, who experienced lung damage from burn pit exposure, has received a four-dimensional lung scan from 4DMedical.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and  Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) have nominated Rosie and Le Roy Torres for the Presidential Medal Of Freedom for their contributions to veterans' health care.