Burn Pit Exposure Is Associated With Increased Sinonasal Disease

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of US Service Members have been exposed to deployment-related burn pits. This novel study demonstrates that individuals with burn pit exposure experience significantly worse quality of life and more severe objective sinus disease on exam, implying that this environmental exposure contributes to the development of chronic sinusitis.

Burn pit exposure in military personnel and the potential resulting lung and neurological pathologies

“…Dyspnea is one of the most reported symptoms in exposure-related pathologies. Constrictive bronchiolitis (44), sinonasal disease (45), other lung diseases (46), and lung fibrosis (47) have all been linked to burn pit emission exposure and all of which are commonly referred to as DRRDs. This spectrum of symptoms is related to a broad range of lung diseases, not limited to COPD, asthma, lung cancer, and chronic rhinosinusitis (48).…”

Associations of Long-Term Environmental Exposures With Chronic Rhinosinusitis—Tilting at Windmills

“…Increasing media attention as well as the recently enacted PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022) 3 have expanded public awareness and health care benefits to veterans living with the consequence of exposure to BPs. Within this burgeoning field, the findings of a recent retrospective cross-sectional study 4 suggest that exposure of active-duty service members to BPs was associated with worsening patient-reported sinonasal outcome measures and endoscopic imaging scores. With potentially mil-lions of exposed US military and civilian personnel, the findings of this study 4 are important because it is, to our knowledge, among the first to evaluate the association of deploymentrelated exposures with sinonasal health.…”

“…Within this burgeoning field, the findings of a recent retrospective cross-sectional study 4 suggest that exposure of active-duty service members to BPs was associated with worsening patient-reported sinonasal outcome measures and endoscopic imaging scores. With potentially mil-lions of exposed US military and civilian personnel, the findings of this study 4 are important because it is, to our knowledge, among the first to evaluate the association of deploymentrelated exposures with sinonasal health. Perhaps the most comprehensive example of empirical environmental exposure with a prospective longitudinal follow-up of patients is the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001 (9/11).…”