Joe Biden has acknowledged that toxic military burn pits could have been a ‘significant’ factor that drove his son to an early death from terminal brain cancer.
Beau Biden, who was 46 when he died in 2015, served in Iraq at two locations which commonly burned waste in open pits, using jet fuel to speed up the process.
Now, after years of studies suggesting links between cancer and burn pits, Beau’s father Joe has made his first public comments on the matter, saying he was ‘stunned’ by a book which tracked his son’s exposure to the carcinogenic fumes.
‘[T]hat stunned me. I didn’t know that,’ Biden said in an interview with PBS News Hour on Wednesday.
Making links: Joe Biden has acknowledged that toxic military burn pits could have been a ‘significant’ factor that drove his son to an early death from terminal brain cancer
Beau Biden, who was 46 when he died in 2015, served in Iraq at two locations which commonly burned waste in open pits, using jet fuel to speed up the process. Pictured with his dad in 2009
A US Army soldier watches water that had gone bad burn in a burn-pit at Forward Operating Base Azzizulah in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, February 4, 2013
Burn pits were a commonly-used method to get rid of waste in Afghanistan and Iraq, torching anything from paints and tires to electronics.
While the Department of Veterans Affairs does not yet acknowledge a link between the pits and long-term health risks, an increasing number of studies – including a book which Joe Biden cites called The Burn Pits: The Poisoning of America’s Soldiers – are suggesting otherwise.
The Burn Pits, by Joseph Hickman, featured an entire chapter on Beau Biden.
Beau, the former vice president’s eldest son, served in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, at Camp Victory in Baghdad and the nearby Balad Air Force Base.
A year later, he was hospitalized with what appeared to be a mini stroke. In 2013, he was hospitalized once more, and diagnosed with the most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma – the same cancer John McCain currently has.
Beau, pictured in February 2014, was diagnosed in 2013 with the most common form of brain cancer, glioblastoma – the same cancer John McCain currently has
While concrete links are thin, the burgeoning swell of evidence echoes research on 9/11-related diseases. More than 4,500 people have developed various types of cancers from exposure to jet fuel, asbestos and other pulverized materials that burned at Ground Zero on September 11, 2001.
The book suggests Biden suspected his cancer was tied to the pits, since he was treated at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center – America’s top facility for military-related illnesses or injuries.
Joe Biden fell short of drawing concrete links, saying he has not heard of ‘any direct scientific evidence’ pairing the two.
But he added: ‘Science has recognized there are certain carcinogens when people are exposed to them.
‘Depending on the quantities and the amount in the water and the air, [they] can have a carcinogenic impact on the body.’