Lung ailments rise among Iraq, Afghan veterans

Though the percentage difference seems small, when extrapolated over the 2 million troops deployed since 2001, the survey suggested that at least 80,000 additional service members had developed postdeployment breathing problems.

But now a fierce debate is underway over just how long-lasting and severe those problems really are.

On one side are scientists, many working for the government, who say that a large number of returning troops have serious and potentially lifelong ailments. They point to an array of respiratory hazards in Iraq and Afghanistan — including powerful dust storms, fine dust laced with toxins, and “burn pits’’ used to incinerate garbage at military bases — as potential culprits.

Those scientists also question whether the government has acted swiftly enough to study the effects of prolonged exposure to dust, allergens, and pollution in Iraq and Afghanistan, and whether it is properly compensating those who may have service-connected lung ailments.

“I’m concerned that this exposure is not getting the serious review it needs,’’ said Captain Mark Lyles, chairman of medical sciences and biotechnology at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies in Newport, R.I., who has studied dust from Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the other side of the debate are officials with the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs who assert that research remains inconclusive. They acknowledge that some troops are returning with respiratory symptoms but say those problems vary widely depending on genetic background or location of deployment and are usually temporary.

“I think we are going to find that there is some increase in respiratory symptoms, and maybe even respiratory diagnoses,’’ said Colonel Lisa Zacher, a doctor who is a pulmonary consultant to the Army’s surgeon general. “But I think we’ll find the majority who deploy do not have long-term chronic pulmonary diseases related to deployment.’’