From: LGR <taliba.quran@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 21, 2011 at 11:32 PM
Subject: [bangla-vision] Returning US soldiers diagnosed with rare lung disease | Press TV Mobile
To: LGR <dazeylin@gmail.com>
http://presstvmobile.com/blog/2011/07/21/returning-us-soldiers-diagnosed-with-rare-lung-disease/
· Returning US soldiers diagnosed with rare lung disease
Published: Thu, 21 Jul 2011 17:16:05
Some U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are suffering unexplained breathing problems that may be related to exposure to unknown toxins, a new study indicates.
"Respiratory disorders are emerging as a major consequence of service in southwest Asia," said study's author Dr. Matthew S. King, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.
"In addition to our study, there have been studies showing increases in asthma, obstructive lung disease, allergic rhinitis and a general increase in reports of respiratory symptoms," he added.
The report was published in the July 21 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. health.usnews.com
[highlights]
Dr. Robert Miller of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center said the cases, which he has been gathering for years, are apparently caused by exposure to airborne toxins during deployment. Reuters
"We believe they're deployed to some pretty toxic environments. They're exposed to burning solid waste, burning human waste (particularly in Iraq), and consistently exposed to fine particulate matter that's easily inhaled deep into the lungs at a level that's above what's desirable," Miller told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. Reuters
Scott Weakley, 47, of Denver already had three deployments under his belt when he was sent on back-to-back missions in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq that started in 2004. ABC News
Weakley, a marathon runner, was in peak shape, and said he was physically charged for the work ahead. But within five years, Weakley transformed from the lead runner in his battalion to a patient who may now need a lung transplant. ABC News
Weakley was diagnosed with constrictive bronchiolitis, a relatively rare irreversible lung condition marked by inflammation and scarring in the airways. ABC News
The lung biopsies performed in Miller's study require more than a month of recovery time and cost $50,000 to $60,000. And there is no treatment for the soldiers' condition, Miller said. "It's a fixed scarring of the small airway. It's not irritation, inflammation or swelling." Reuters
While the U.S. Department of Defense reports that it has shut down all burn pits in Iraq — replacing some with closed incinerators — and plans to do the same in Afghanistan by the end of the year, new evidence suggests the health effects may be irreparable for soldiers who were already exposed. KBOI News
[/highlights]
[facts]
Besides health problems, U.S. soldiers returning home from combat zones face an array of other problems:
The Veterans Administration said in December 2010 that more than 9,000 U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan were homeless. UPI
Nearly 76,000 American veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009, the latest year for which reliable statistics are available.
300,000 of the U.S. military veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
Figures released by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2010 show a dramatic increase in suicide among veterans aged 18 to 29 years old, due in large part to multiple deployments and the overall stress of combat.
An average of 18 veterans commit suicide every day and five of those are already getting treatment at the VA. Abclocal.go.com
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Palash Biswas
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