Public Health
VA follows up on NASEM recommendations on respiratory health effects of airborne hazards
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), an independent organization that makes recommendations to VA on scientific issues, examined scientific findings on the respiratory health effects of exposure to airborne hazards during deployment to Southwest Asia. On September 11, 2020, NASEM produced the report The Respiratory Health Effects of Airborne Hazards Exposures in the Southwest Asia Theater of Military Operations. NASEM made four recommendations, which VA is currently addressing:
1. VA [should] establish an expert panel to advise it on issues related to the diagnosis of constrictive bronchiolitis in Veterans and its possible relationship to military service. VA’s Airborne Hazards and Burn Pits Center of Excellence is currently working on providing advice on the diagnosis of constructive bronchiolitis in Veterans and should have a report out about this topic sometime in late summer 2022.
2. An updated analysis of mortality in Southwest Asia theater Veterans [should] be conducted. The Epidemiology Program within VA’s Health Outcomes Military Exposures has conducted this analysis. An article summarizing this analysis has been accepted for publication in a scientific journal.
3. The committee recommends that VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) explicitly integrate research access considerations into their planning as they refine the implementation of their new interoperable Electronic Health Record (EHR) system. This is part of DoD and VA work on the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) and the future integration into the new electronic health record.
4. The committee recommends that VA continue and expand its partnership with DoD on environmental health issues, focusing on the free flow of information on exposures encountered during military service and on the health of personnel before, during, and after deployment and after transition to Veteran status. This partnership should include cooperation on identifying which respiratory health status information should be gathered during active duty for later use as baseline data in evaluating Veterans’ health for treatment, benefits, and research purposes. VA is conducting this work in partnership with DoD as a part of ILER.
