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Assessing Health Outcomes After Environmental Exposures Associated With Open Pit Burning in Deployed US Service
Patricia Rohrbeck1, Zheng Hu, Col Timothy M Mallon
1779th Aerospace Medical Squadron, 79th Medical Wing, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland (Dr Rohrbeck); Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch, Defense Health Agency, Silver Spring, Maryland (Dr Hu); and Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814 (Dr Mallon).
Objective:
This study assessed the long-term health impact of environmental exposures associated with open pit burning in deployed US service members.
Methods:
Two hundred individuals deployed to Balad, Iraq, and Bagram, Afghanistan, with known exposure to open pits, were matched to 200 non-deployed service members. Both cohorts were observed for adverse health outcomes after returning from deployment.
Results:
Slight increased risks were observed for respiratory diseases in the Bagram cohort (adj RR: 1.259), and for cardiovascular disease in the Balad cohort (adj RR: 1.072), but the findings were not significant. The combined deployed cohort showed lower risks for adverse health outcomes, suggesting a healthy deployer effect.
Conclusions:
In conclusion, this study did not find significantly increased risks for selected health outcomes after burn pit exposure during deployment among two deployed cohorts compared with a non-deployed cohort.
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