Deployment to bases with open burn pits and mortality of US Military Veterans.

Introduction: Five million US Veterans had possible exposure to open burn pits used for waste disposal through service in Iraq (2003-2011) and Afghanistan (2001-2014). Burn pits generate toxic exposures that may be associated with adverse health outcomes. We examined all-cause and cause-specific mortality in relation to deployment to bases with open burn pits.

Deployment to Military Bases With Open Burn Pits and Respiratory and Cardiovascular Disease.

Importance: Many veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq during Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) were deployed to military bases with open burn pits and exposed to their emissions, with limited understanding of the long-term health consequences.

Objective: To determine the association between deployment to military bases where open burn pits were used for waste disposal and the subsequent risk of developing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective observational cohort study used Veterans Health Administration medical records and declassified deployment records from the Department of Defense to assess Army and Air Force veterans who were deployed between 2001 and 2011 and subsequently received health care from the Veterans Health Administration, with follow-up through December 2020.

Burn Pit Exposure Assessment to Support a Cohort Study of US Veterans of the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Objective: For a cohort study of veterans' health conditions, we conducted an exposure assessment for 109 bases in Iraq and Afghanistan and 17 outside transit site bases.

Methods: The Department of Defense records were used to determine burn pit usage and waste disposal methods for each base in each year during the period of 2001 to 2014.

Results: In the final cohort of 475,326 veterans, who had more than 80% of their deployment time characterized by our exposure matrix, only 14.

Development of a Semiautomated Search Tool to Identify Grading From Pathology Reports for Tumors of the CNS and Prostate Cancers.

Purpose: This study demonstrates the functionality of semiautomated algorithms to classify cancer-specific grading from electronic pathology reports generated from military treatment facilities. Two Perl-based algorithms are validated to classify WHO grade for tumors of the CNS and Gleason grades for prostate cancer.

Methods: Case-finding cohorts were developed using diagnostic codes and matched by unique identifiers to obtain pathology records generated in the Military Health System for active duty service members from 2013 to 2018.

Development and Evaluation of Perl-Based Algorithms to Classify Neoplasms From Pathology Records in Synoptic Report Format.

Purpose: Synoptic reporting provides a mechanism for uniform and structured pathology diagnostics. This paper demonstrates the functionality of Perl alternation and grouping expressions to classify electronic pathology reports generated from military treatment facilities. Eight Perl-based algorithms are validated to classify malignant melanoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, and malignant neoplasms of the breast, ovary, testis, and thyroid.