And now we have the Persian Gulf vets with issues secondary to "burn pits" and burning oil well heads.
Afghanistan burn pits too.
In the past century or so, humankind has figured out that a lot of shit we produced after WW2 is killing us. A lot of new technology and chemistry breakthrus were made in that time. Not all of it good. In the early 20th century, asbestos was touted as a miracle material. Chlorinated solvents of all kinds solved a lot of problems. Like asbestos, unknowingly at the time to be hazardous to most life forms.
Gratuitous use of insecticides is another modern fuckup. It did increase crop yields and reduced the risk of infectious diseases like malaria but was killing off vital species of birds, bees, and people who were exposed to it. Or eating the products it was being applied to.
I did fair amount of time in petro/chem facilities when I was a young engineer. Benzene, an oil refining-byproduct, was a popular solvent and used as lighter fluid. Exposure to it causes cancer in a wide swath of people. I used to clean my football helmet with my father's benzene lighter fluid. I'm still here. I take notice when friends and classmates my age start dropping dead from cancer in the 50's. That's not normal.
Lead made old cars run great when it was added to gasoline. It also caused brain damage among people exposed to fuel and also car exhausts. The hazards of lead exposure were first discovered in the 1700s. They used it in gasoline starting in the 1920's to solve a problem - and ignored the risks until 50 years later there were millions of cars and trucks on the road.
Fun fact: A lot of the insecticides used past and present are based on the formula for nerve agents developed as weapons in WWI and further refined during the Cold War. Some say Saddam killed a million Kurds with it. These compounds were designed to kill people, not bugs. Postwar, some geniuses figured out they were great at killing bugs too. For example: The active ingredient in a can of RAID is pyrethroid. A neurotoxin. I'd avoid inhaling it or getting it on your skin.
Modern chemistry has produced some amazing things and mankind helped achieve what was once thought impossible. The problem is some of those developments will kill us if we are exposed to them or cause environmental damage that is difficult or takes decades, perhaps centuries to dissipate. In many ways, it's like radiation. You cant see, smell or feel it - until it gets inside you and your organs shut down.
townhall.com
That was about 2lbs every time. 
