Chronic respiratory symptoms observed in US veterans following deployment may not be unique to that population

Military personnel can be exposed to a variety of occupational and environmental pollutants that places their health at risk. In a recent publication in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Garshick and colleagues characterised the inhalational exposures during deployment of US military personnel to Afghanistan and Southwest Asia and the associations with postdeployment respiratory symptoms.1 They observed significant associations between burn pit smoke and military job-related vapours, gases, dusts and fumes (VGDF) exposure and chronic respiratory symptoms. These findings may lead to a further question: what does this mean in a wider perspective? Not only US veterans, but veterans from across the globe may experience such health effects following deployment in these areas. Furthermore, when looking at the characteristics of the working conditions of deployed military personnel, which are quite particular, there are also some similarities with firefighting. For both military personnel and firefighters occupational exposures are complex and...
Source: Occupational and Environmental Medicine - Category: Occupational Health Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research