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Stamp out burn pits

A growing number of military medical professionals believe burn pits are causing a wave of respiratory and other illnesses among troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Found on almost all U.S. bases in the war zones, these open-air trash sites operate 24 hours a day, incinerating trash of all forms — from plastic bottles to unexploded ordnance, even amputated limbs and medical waste. Their smoke plumes belch dioxin, carbon monoxide and other toxins skyward, producing a toxic fog that hangs over living and working areas.

Yet while an Air Force fact sheet flatly states that burn pits “can be harmful to human health and environment and should only be used until more suitable disposal capabilities are established,” the official Pentagon line is that burn pits have “no known long-term health effects.”

But consider Army Spc. Edward Adams, 33, who went to Iraq healthy and returned with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, attributed to “toxic exposure,” for which he was given disability retirement. The annual number of diagnosed COPD cases in the military has risen 82 percent since 2001, to a total of 24,555 last year.

Hundreds more have other respiratory illnesses; at least 100 have come back with forms of cancer.

Reps. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., and Carole Shea-Porter, D-N.H., are leading efforts in Congress to better regulate burn pits and more closely track troop exposure. Other lawmakers must join them.

If military leaders can’t or won’t take it upon themselves to find alternatives to war-zone burn pits and protect troops from the associated health risks, then Congress must insist — and hold them accountable if they fail to respond.