{"id":74623,"date":"2023-02-10T16:38:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-10T16:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/02\/10\/toxic-bird-pits-talk-shows-continued-ignorance-of-burn-pit-dangers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:49:20","slug":"toxic-bird-pits-talk-shows-continued-ignorance-of-burn-pit-dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/veterans\/2023\/02\/10\/toxic-bird-pits-talk-shows-continued-ignorance-of-burn-pit-dangers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Toxic bird pits\u2019: Public\u2019s ignorance of burn pit dangers exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/02\/08\/biden-misstates-veterans-suicide-problem-in-state-of-the-union-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\">State of the Union speech<\/a> on Tuesday, President Joe Biden insisted that Republicans and Democrats can work together on major issues, noting that in 2022 \u201cwe came together to pass the most significant law ever helping victims exposed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/burn-pits\/2022\/03\/29\/what-are-military-burn-pits-and-why-are-veterans-worried-about-them\/\" target=\"_blank\">toxic burn pits<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the phrase was recorded as \u201ctoxic bird pits\u201d on some closed captioning systems, prompting <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%22toxic%20bird%20pits%22&#038;src=typed_query&#038;f=top\" target=\"_blank\">social media searches<\/a> on the phrase and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/10\/briefing\/artificial-intelligence-search.html\" target=\"_blank\">a New York Times article on Friday <\/a>asking if bird pits were \u201csome major news story\u201d that their staff had missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2022\/03\/29\/what-are-military-burn-pits-and-why-are-veterans-worried-about-them\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/burn-pit-balad-air-base-dvids-march-2008-file-dvids.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">What are military burn pits? And why are veterans worried about them?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The fires used in combat zones to dispose of waste may have caused serious illnesses in hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While some of the misunderstanding appears intentionally politically motivated \u2014 conservatives on Twitter targeted Biden for his unclear pronunciation of some words and phrases \u2014 it also underscores the continued disconnect between the American public and the veteran community, for which burn pits have been a major focus for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of Defense has estimated nearly 3.5 million troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may have suffered enough exposure to the smoke to cause health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/burn-pits\/2022\/03\/29\/what-are-military-burn-pits-and-why-are-veterans-worried-about-them\/\" target=\"_blank\">The burn pits<\/a> \u2014 some as large as several football fields \u2014 were used to dispose of a host of waste products, including surplus equipment, batteries and human excrement. Veterans groups fought for years for recognition from the Department of Veterans Affairs that the smoke is responsible for a host of rare cancers and respiratory illnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden highlighted the issue in his 2022 State of the Union address, calling on Congress to pass legislation addressing the issue. In late summer, they passed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/01\/26\/enrollments-in-va-medical-care-spiked-after-pact-act-passage-last-year\/\" target=\"_blank\">Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act<\/a> (better known as the PACT Act), which includes expanded benefits for both burn pit smoke victims and tens of thousands of other veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2023\/02\/07\/biden-to-call-for-more-support-for-homeless-vets-in-state-of-the-union\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP22061084289997.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Biden to call for more support for homeless vets in State of the Union<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Expanding services for veterans facing mental health and financial problems will also be key features of the upcoming presidential budget request.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As of the end of January, nearly 277,000 veterans had applied for benefits through the new law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Biden has said that his interest in the burn pit issue is personal: His son, Beau, served in Iraq with the Delaware Army National Guard and died in 2015 from a rare brain cancer. He and others believe there was a link between that illness and burn pits near where Beau served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Advance copies of the speech and follow-up transcripts clearly recorded Biden\u2019s words as \u201ctoxic burn pits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Department of Veterans Affairs has set up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publichealth.va.gov\/exposures\/burnpits\/\" target=\"_blank\">a page dedicated to education about burn pits<\/a> and other military toxic exposure issues on its website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No, there aren&#8217;t any toxic bird pits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,7,23,89,12,26,62,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222],"class_list":["post-74623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HPTY4AQ3YBCHVJF4HGBUTG4JGI","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2023\/02\/10\/toxic-bird-pits-talk-shows-continued-ignorance-of-burn-pit-dangers\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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