Burn pit exposure refers to inhaling the toxic smoke produced when military bases burned waste in large, open-air pits. An estimated 3.5 million U.S. service members were exposed to burn pit smoke during deployments spanning from the 1990 Gulf War through operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and surrounding regions. The smoke contained a mix of dangerous chemicals, and many veterans now live with chronic respiratory, neurological, and other health conditions linked to that exposure.
What Burn Pits Were and What They Burned
When military installations lacked proper waste management facilities, trash and human waste were burned in open pits, often covering large areas of a base. These weren’t controlled incinerators. They were trenches or cleared ground where virtually everything a military base produced was set on fire, frequently using JP-8 jet fuel as an accelerant.
The materials burned included everyday garbage, plastics, medical waste, electronics, rubber, paint, solvents, and human feces. Because combustion was incomplete and uncontrolled, the smoke carried a concentrated cocktail of toxic substances: metals, benzene (a known carcinogen also present in the jet fuel accelerant), dioxins and furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds. Service members often lived, worked, ate, and slept within close range of these pits, breathing in the smoke for months or years at a time.
Where and When Exposure Occurred
Burn pit use was widespread across U.S. military operations from August 1990 through August 2021. The primary conflict zones included Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, but exposure extended across a much broader footprint. Veterans who served in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Somalia, Djibouti, Jordan, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and Egypt may have encountered burn pits as well. Naval personnel in the Persian Gulf, Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, and Red Sea were also potentially exposed through associated airborne hazards.
The operations most commonly associated with burn pit use include Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom, and New Dawn.
How Burn Pit Smoke Damages the Body
The fine particles in burn pit smoke are small enough to travel deep into the lungs, reaching the tiny air sacs where oxygen enters the bloodstream. Once there, these particles trigger a chain of damage that starts locally and spreads throughout the body. The metals and chemical compounds on the particles generate what scientists call oxidative stress, essentially overwhelming cells with reactive molecules that damage DNA, fats, and proteins. This triggers immune cells in the lungs to release inflammatory signals.
What makes this particularly harmful is that the inflammation doesn’t stay in the lungs. Those inflammatory signals spill into the bloodstream, raising levels of markers like C-reactive protein and other compounds associated with chronic disease. This is how burn pit exposure can affect organs far from the respiratory system. The immune cells lining the airways, called alveolar macrophages, play a central role. Animal studies have shown that when these cells are removed, the body-wide inflammatory response to inhaled particles essentially stops, confirming they are the primary drivers of the systemic damage.
Respiratory Conditions Linked to Exposure
The lungs take the most direct hit. The signature condition among burn pit veterans is constrictive bronchiolitis, a disease where the smallest airways in the lungs become scarred and narrowed. Unlike asthma or COPD, constrictive bronchiolitis often doesn’t show up clearly on standard breathing tests or chest X-rays, which has made it notoriously difficult to diagnose. Veterans with persistent shortness of breath, coughing, or exercise intolerance that doesn’t match typical diagnoses should be evaluated with this condition in mind, particularly if they served before the mid-2010s.
Beyond constrictive bronchiolitis, burn pit exposure is associated with a range of chronic respiratory problems: asthma diagnosed after military service, chronic bronchitis, COPD, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease, chronic sinusitis, chronic rhinitis, and sarcoidosis. Many of these conditions are progressive, meaning they worsen over time even after exposure has ended.
Effects Beyond the Lungs
Research increasingly points to burn pit exposure as a risk factor for neurological disease. Military personnel are three times more likely than the general population to develop neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia. A study using simulated burn pit smoke found that even short-term exposure to smoke from burning plastic caused measurable thickening and inflammation in a structure called the choroid plexus, a region of the brain involved in producing cerebrospinal fluid and filtering toxins. That thickening has been independently associated with increased risk of neurodegeneration, particularly Alzheimer’s disease. The type of material burned mattered: plastic smoke produced the most pronounced brain inflammation.
Elevated levels of a specific immune marker called IgE have also been found in burn pit veterans with respiratory symptoms, suggesting the exposure may trigger a broader immune response that could play a role in autoimmune or allergic-type conditions. Research into this connection is still developing, but it may eventually help identify veterans with burn pit injuries who currently lack a clear diagnosis.
Cancers Associated With Burn Pit Exposure
Several cancers are now formally recognized as connected to burn pit and airborne hazard exposure. These include brain cancer, glioblastoma, all types of gastrointestinal cancer, kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, all types of lymphoma, melanoma, head and neck cancers, reproductive cancers, and respiratory cancers of any type. The presence of known carcinogens like benzene, dioxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in burn pit smoke provides a clear biological basis for these associations.
The PACT Act and VA Benefits
For years, veterans struggled to prove that their health conditions were caused by burn pit exposure. The PACT Act, signed into law in 2022, changed that by establishing “presumptive” conditions. This means the VA now assumes certain diseases are related to burn pit exposure if you served in a qualifying location during qualifying dates, removing the burden of proving a direct connection.
The presumptive respiratory conditions include asthma diagnosed after service, chronic bronchitis, COPD, chronic rhinitis, chronic sinusitis, constrictive or obliterative bronchiolitis, emphysema, granulomatous disease, interstitial lung disease, pleuritis, pulmonary fibrosis, and sarcoidosis. All of the cancers listed above are also presumptive. As of early 2025, nearly 4.4 million veterans and service members have enrolled in the VA’s Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, which tracks health outcomes and supports ongoing care.
If you served in any of the qualifying regions between 1990 and 2021, you’re eligible to join the registry and file claims for these conditions regardless of whether you were previously denied. The PACT Act significantly expanded both the number of covered conditions and the timeline for eligibility, making it the most substantial legislative change for toxic-exposed veterans in decades.