Despite the frequency of mental health conditions among veterans and a link between environmental exposures and mental health risk, no studies have examined the relationship between burn pit exposure and psychiatric outcomes. A new study, “Deployment to Military Bases with Open Burn Pits and Mental Health Conditions and Injury Mortality among U.S. Veterans” in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM), addresses this gap. Westat’s Joseph Gasper, PhD, was a co-investigator on the study. The study was funded by a grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and included co-investigators from Brown University, the University of Massachusetts, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The study analyzed medical records and declassified deployment records of over 400,000 veterans who were deployed between 2001 and 2011 and received care from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), with a follow-up through 2020. The findings suggest that extended exposure to open burn pits may increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), intracranial damage and injuries, and injury-related mortality.
“This is the first study to document an association between burn pit exposure and long-term mental health and trauma. Future research should focus on understanding whether this association is due to the toxic chemicals in burn pit emissions or to other aspects of the environment, such as combat and deployment stressors,” says Gasper.
