MICHAEL SIGMON
Where there's smoke, is there disease? A study of environmental airborne exposures in soldiers returning from Iraq
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, MPH
Preceptor: William Daniell, MD, MPH
Objective: Study the association between self reports of environmental airborne exposures in soldiers deployed to Iraq and the subsequent development of respiratory illness.
Background: Concerns over airborne exposures and the subsequent development of disease during the Gulf War led to improved health risk assessments and record keeping for deployed soldiers. Many soldiers returning from Iraq now express concerns about environmental exposures.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 2229 members of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team deployed to Iraq from Oct 2003 to Oct 2004. Form DD2796, (post deployment health assessment) self reports of airborne exposures were linked to outpatient reports of any respiratory illness up to 6 months after return to the U.S. Analyses were adjusted for age, grade, gender, and tobacco use.
Results: 2146 soldiers reported some kind of airborne exposure, but only 174 respiratory illnesses were documented. Only one soldier was diagnosed with a lung disease due to external agents. There was no association between respiratory illness and any of the ten exposures studied during the six month period, in a study sufficiently powered to see a 75% difference, with a ? of .2 with 95% confidence for most of the exposures.
Significance: To the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to associate Form DD2279 self reports of exposure and tobacco history with clinical ICD-9 diagnoses to examine military unique environmental health issues. This process can be replicated with larger soldier populations, allowing the Department of Defense to assess environmental exposures as well as subsequent programs to mitigate the hazards.
