Burn pits
ContaminantOpen-air burning of mixed waste with jet fuel — a delivery system for nearly every toxicant at once.
Where it comes from in service
Forward operating bases across Iraq, Afghanistan, and the wider Gulf theater, burning plastics, metals, electronics, medical and human waste, often around the clock.
How it harms the body
Burn-pit smoke carries fine particulate, dioxins, volatile organic compounds (like benzene), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and heavy metals — together. The ultrafine particles reach the deepest part of the lung and pass into the bloodstream.
That mix sets off airway injury and body-wide inflammation that, for many veterans, never fully resolves.
How long it stays in you
Particulate can remain embedded in lung tissue for years; the inflammatory injury can persist long after the deployment ends.
Where it goes — tap an organ to go deeper
The PACT Act of 2022 makes a long list of respiratory conditions and cancers presumptive for burn-pit / airborne-hazard exposure — the strongest government acknowledgment in this library. The presumptive cancer list includes respiratory cancer of any type, gastrointestinal cancer of any type, reproductive cancer of any type, lymphoma of any type, melanoma, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, brain cancer, head cancer of any type, and neck cancer of any type. Unlike many exposures in this library, the listed respiratory conditions and cancers carry no minimum latency period or minimum exposure duration under the statute — you do not have to show how much you were exposed to. Confirm the current list and your specific conditions with your VSO; VA has amended this list before and can again.
Airway disease (asthma, chronic bronchitis, constrictive bronchiolitis) and elevated cancer risk can develop and progress; the VA Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry exists to track it.
What to ask your clinician about
- •Full pulmonary-function testing (can catch what a chest X-ray misses)
- •Ask your VA Environmental Health Coordinator whether a registry evaluation is available for this exposure
- •PACT Act Toxic Exposure Screening
Bring this to your clinician and your VSO — they decide what testing and care, if any, is right for you. For general, whole-person ways to support your body, see Whole health.
Sources: PACT Act of 2022 (38 U.S.C. §1119–1120) · VA Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry · ATSDR. Drafted from the government's and science's own record — VA presumptive lists (PACT Act, 38 CFR, Camp Lejeune), ATSDR ToxFAQs, IARC, and NTP. Sources are cited on every page, and this library has not yet been reviewed by a named clinician or toxicologist. This is documentation to bring to your clinician and VSO — not a diagnosis, a treatment plan, or a determination of service connection. Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1.