Public Health

The Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry Program

The Airborne Hazard and Open Burn Pit Registry program reached its five-year anniversary in June 2019. With this milestone, VA has achieved many important goals and continues to strive for improvement.

Registry Achievements

• The online registry is growing, with about 500 new participants each week. Last year (2018) had the second largest growth in participants by year, with 39,308 new participants. This was slightly less than the growth in 2016, with 40,298 new participants.
• VA has made improvements in increasing the number of registry participants who complete medical exams. As of March 2019, 6,125 out of 63,186 (or 9.7%) of non-active duty participants who expressed an interest in the exam have received an exam.
• Six medical centers have been able to complete registry medical exams for more than 60% of the local registry participants who expressed an interest in the exam. This includes medical centers in White River Junction, VT; Berkley, WV; Clarksburg, WV; Augusta, GA; San Juan, PR; and El Paso, TX. There are many other sites that have also conducted registry exams for a high percentage of their local participants. This goal is harder to achieve for facilities with large Veteran populations. We will continue to work to improve the overall percentage.
• On March 14-15, 2019, VA and the Department of Defense held its fifth Airborne Hazards Symposium to discuss research, clinical care, and outreach efforts for the registry. This invitation-only event included presentations and breakout sessions to discuss specific topics. Representatives from Veterans Service Organizations/Military Service Organizations attended and provided suggestions on improving education and outreach for the registry.
• In 2017, the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine) reviewed the registry and made several recommendations. Based on these recommendations, VA developed a concise version of the participant’s questionnaire responses focused on information that would be most useful in a routine clinical encounter, which is available for clinicians to download. VA is also evaluating whether and how registrants who did not complete the questionnaire differ from those who did, analyzing why some registrants did not complete the questionnaire, and using this information to formulate strategies to encourage registrants to finish and submit their responses.

Future Plans for Improvement

• VA has received funding for a large effort to increase participation in the registry through communications. Planning is in the early stages, but VA intends to conduct focus groups to explore the barriers, motivators, and perceptions of the registry and to create of a variety of promotional materials.
• VA is working to address two issues with the registry:
• First, participant contact information is not automatically updated. If you are a participant and have a new home address, email, or telephone number, please log back into the Findings on Mortality from the Registry Data The AHOBPR is a dynamic system that updates a participant’s status as they separate, retire, or pass away. As of March 14, 2019, 462 participants who completed the questionnaire have died. VA conducted a preliminary analysis which showed that most died of tragic but highly explainable causes such as a motor vehicle accident. A full analysis will be posted in the future. registry to update your contact information so we can reach you for updates.
• The second issue is once a participant signs the form, additional deployments cannot be added. For example, if a service member completed the registry in 2015 and deployed again in 2019, the 2019 deployment cannot be added. In the future, VA aims to be able to allow additional deployments to be added.
• In the fall of 2020, VA expects the National Academy of Medicine to release a report that will comprehensively review, evaluate, and summarize the available scientific and medical literature regarding the respiratory health effects of exposure to airborne hazards encountered during in-theater service. This will be an update from their 2011 report on burn pits. A committee of civilian experts is working on this report.

Findings on Mortality from the Registry Data The AHOBPR is a dynamic system that updates a participant’s status as they separate, retire, or pass away. As of March 14, 2019, 462 participants who completed the questionnaire have died. VA conducted a preliminary analysis which showed that most died of tragic but highly explainable causes such as a motor vehicle accident. A full analysis will be posted in the future.

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