[T]he Vermont Senate approved a measure Thursday to raise awareness about the health hazards military personnel suffer from exposure to open burn pits while serving overseas.
A 30-0 vote came after the bill’s lead sponsor, Sen. Jeanette White, cried and stopped several times as she recounted to senators the emotional testimony her committee had heard.
White spoke haltingly as she recalled the words of June Heston, the widow of Brig. Gen. Mike Heston, who died of cancer last November, and retired Sgt. Wesley Black, a 33-year-old fighting colon cancer who described himself as a “dead man walking.” Both served overseas on deployments where burn pits were used to dispose of a variety of refuse, ignited with jet fuel.
White, D-Windham, the chair of Senate Government Operations, said she didn’t want to get emotional laying out the reasons for S. 111, “but our meetings were anything but.”
“I do apologize,” White said after stopping her presentation to regroup. “I didn’t think I’d do this.” She was reassured by presiding officer Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman.
The toxins from the fumes, White said, pervade the body.
“It is in their skin, their lungs, their eyes, their whole body. It has become a part of them,” White said.
She said she was oblivious to the issue until told about Heston in December.
“In my 16 years in the Senate, there have been many issues that have been emotional and passionate. But in all those years, this is the one that makes me really angry and really sad,” White said.
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, the only other senator who spoke, recalled Heston’s two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Heston was deployed three times to Afghanistan and worked as close as 300 yards from open burn pits.
“To watch his body disintegrate in front of our eyes was quite horrific,” Benning said.
The bill aims to raise awareness in the medical community and among veterans about the health problems from burn pits used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa. It encourages military members who served in those areas to sign up for a national registry where the Veterans Administration is tracking health problems.
White and members of her committee said a goal of increasing awareness was to have the federal government acknowledge the connection between burn pits and health problems sooner than it admitted Agent Orange caused health problems for military members who served in Vietnam.
She said Vermont lawmakers couldn’t influence military policy on using burn pits, but “sometimes a groundswell can make a difference.”
“Perhaps our small step…might make a difference,” White said, telling senators that other state legislators have requested the bill and the number of Vermonters on the national registry has increased 10 percent to just under 400 since the bill was introduced in January.
The bill will go to the House after a final Senate vote. House leaders have promised the bill will be taken up this session, even though it did not meet the crossover deadline, according to White.
