WASHINGTON — In an emotional moment of Tuesday night's State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden called for support for veterans who deal with the lasting effects of the dangers of their service overseas.
Of those dangers, one that hits particularly close to home for the president is "burn pits."
"Veterans are the backbone and the spine of this country. They're the best of us," Biden said. "And they come home, many of the world’s fittest and best-trained warriors, never the same. Headaches. Numbness. Dizziness. A cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin."
He recalled his late son Beau, who died in 2015 from brain cancer. Beau was an Army National Guard major and deployed to Iraq for a year in 2009. While Biden said his family doesn't know for sure if a burn pit exposure was the cause of Beau's death, he is committed to "finding out everything we can."
What are burn pits?
President Biden described burn pits as areas that "incinerated wastes of war—medical and hazard material, jet fuel, and more."
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs supports this definition, adding that the open-air combustion of trash and other waste in burn pits was a common practice of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas of the Southwest Asia.
According to the VA, common materials incinerated in burn pits included human waste, paint, metal cans, food waste, unexploded ordnance, lubricant products, plastics, rubber and wood.
What are the effects of burn pits?
The VA recognizes that asthma, rhinitis, and sinusitis are "presumptive conditions" related to airborne hazards and burn pit exposure.
It adds that exposure could also cause short-term affects such as irritation and burning of eyes or throat, coughing, breathing difficulties, skin itching or rashes.
As far as long-term effects, the department says research is currently being done to better understand them.
What are Biden's plans to support veterans affected by burn pits?
In his State of the Union address, Biden explained that "the VA is pioneering new ways of linking toxic exposures to diseases, already helping more veterans get benefits."
He announced that while researchers work to learn more about the long-term effects of burn pit smoke, his administration is expanding eligibility to benefits for veterans suffering from nine respiratory cancers believed to be linked to the toxic exposure.
Biden also called on Congress to pass a law "to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve."
10 Tampa Bay followed the journey of one local veteran who experienced health issues from toxic exposure during service. Lauren Price only spent 11 months in Iraq, but one of her primary jobs was driving trucks to and from burn pits.
After fighting to receive proper benefits from the VA, she founded Veteran Warriors and testified before Congress numerous times fighting for burn pit veterans and their families. Lauren passed away on March 30, 2021, after developing a blood clot.
10 Tampa Bay reporter Liz Crawford contributed to this report.
