Study links Iraq veterans’ respiratory problems to metallic dust from ‘burn pits’ at U.S. base

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/03/study-links-iraq-veterans-respiratory-problems-to-metallic-dust-from-burn-pits-at-u-s-base/



Study links Iraq veterans’ respiratory problems to metallic dust from ‘burn pits’ at U.S. base
By David Ferguson
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 15:01 EDT

“Burn pits” used to dispose of everything from styrofoam cups to junked computers to unexploded ordnance could be to blame for respiratory symptoms affecting a number of Iraq War veterans.

According to the armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes, titanium and other metals have been found in the lungs of at least six sick Iraq veterans, metals found in dust samples from Camp Victory in Iraq.

“We biopsied several patients and found titanium in every single one of them,” said Anthony Szema, a pulmonary and allergy specialist at New York’s Stony Brook School of Medicine. “It matched dust that we have collected from Camp Victory.”

Stars and Stripes said that Szema will present a report at the Symposium on Lung Health after Deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan detailing his findings, which show that the Iraqi dust is different from other dust in that the human body is incapable of eliminating it.