Andrew Gow, a professor at Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and a member of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at Rutgers, is available to speak about what’s currently known about the medical effects of burn-pit exposure
Gow’s research includes projects funded by the Veterans Administration through the War-Related Illness and Injury Study Center to better understand how burn-pit exposure produces crippling long-term illness, including shortness of breath upon exertion, and how to potentially reverse it.
Following are quotes from Gow for use in media covering burn-pit exposure.
- “We know that frequent low-level exposure to pollutants can cause devastating effects down the road, even when they have no immediate effect. Toll collectors on major highways have long exhibited extremely elevated rates of lung disease in old age.”
- “We don’t know exactly how burn-pit exposure produces the effects we see in many veterans. They pass all pulmonary function tests, so they’re breathing fine, but the oxygen is not getting to their tissues, possibly because of constant low-level activation of the circulatory immune system. As a result, many of them are left gasping for air after even mild exertion such as climbing a flight of stairs or walking out to the car.”
- “Our work so far has focused on understanding what, exactly, is causing the problem, but we do hope to find treatments that will reverse or at least greatly alleviate the damage.”
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