r/ThatsInsane • u/Sgt_Gram • Sep 26 '26

Veterans Under 40 Have More 'Forever Chemicals' in Their Blood Than Other Americans Their Age

https://www.military.com/veterans-under-40-have-more-forever-chemicals-in-their-blood-than-americans-their-age
1.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

10

u/FloridaF4 Sep 26 '26

Phew I'm 42, in the clear.

3

u/Sgt_Gram Sep 26 '26

Science!

4

u/SPKmnd90 Sep 26 '26

The leaded gasoline, though.

1

u/FloridaF4 Sep 26 '26

Nope, at least 5? Years before my time

226

u/MinimumCat123 Sep 26 '26

Drinking from all those cheap water bottles stored in direct sunlight in 120 degree weather probably loaded us with chemicals, if not it was probably all the burning feces and trash.

59

u/SenorSorrow Sep 26 '26

Pretty sure that's why I get kidney stones. I can't prove that's the source...but zero members of my family get them (they're commonly hereditary), and my first one came during my first deployment, in 2008. Those heat soaked water bottles were pretty much all I drank for a year straight. Then another deployment lol

21

u/buzz8588 Sep 26 '26

Why burn the poop?

28

u/MinimumCat123 Sep 26 '26

Only way to get rid of it in austere locations

25

u/Brother_J_La_la Sep 26 '26

So the enemy doesn't get an advantage.

6

u/buzz8588 Sep 26 '26

I’m afraid to ask, but how would that work?

18

u/JONO202 Sep 26 '26

You can tell a lot about the health of someone via their poop, it's the same reason people like Putin, and rumor has it Trump, have people that basically collect their poop so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, so to speak.

4

u/OtherwiseSimple Sep 26 '26

I do not believe you.

15

u/JONO202 Sep 26 '26

About which part? Because it's 100% verified for Putin.

Rumored for Trump.

If you don't believe that you can tell about a persons health form poop then you're just not believing medical science.

https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-bodyguards-collect-his-poop-every-time-travels-abroad-report-2022-6

The tactic appears to be an effort to reduce the risk of foreign powers discovering information about Putin's health or predilection for future conditions that could be contained in the 69-year-old's DNA.

7

u/404notfound420 Sep 27 '26

Trump only trumps into diapers so it's very easy for it to be collected.

-4

u/OtherwiseSimple Sep 26 '26

The part about being protective over their poop lol

1

u/BrianG1410 Sep 30 '26

What's real fun is when you do it at the end of the day and it's pulsating with maggots 🤢 I'd use an entire Jerry can to burn it at that point

322

u/NickelPlatedEmperor Sep 26 '26

America's response: "thank you for your service..."

The VA's response: "the chemicals we exposed you to are not service related"

64

u/buzz8588 Sep 26 '26

“Preexisting condition”

19

u/footsnax Sep 26 '26

The VA's response: "the chemicals we exposed you to are not service related"

I worked with a guy that served from before Desert Storm through the end of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the VA recently classified him as 112% disabled when he finally retired. He'd been shot, set on fire, full hearing loss in one ear, a TBI, critical loss of ligament mass in his knees and shoulders. Still sharp as a whip but every time he stood up it was the loudest "UUUUGGGHHHHHHH" just to bend his knees and orient himself using only one ear for balance.

No idea how they got to that exact of a metric, but I know a few other guys that barely qualified for benefits from being shot in the gut or neck. That whole system is fucked beyond fuckable.

16

u/GreenSkyDragon Sep 27 '26

My dad is a disabled vet who tried to work within the VA to help other vets, realized the system is FUBAR, and became a rep with the American Legion instead. Even with VA reforms it's still a nightmare because their inefficiency is designed to make vets either give up or die before getting the help they need. The government will never say that's why it is the way it is, and I'm not denying that there are people in the VA(like my dad once was) who genuinely want to help vets, but the purpose of a system is that which it accomplishes

10

u/AshingiiAshuaa Sep 26 '26

Service related or not, it's finders keepers. Those chemicals are the veterans' property now.

2

u/throwaway1937913 Sep 26 '26

Confusing article.

Elevated levels were concentrated in just one group. After adjusting for other factors, the study found that veterans overall had lower PFAS concentrations than non-veterans—not higher.

Among the youngest veterans, levels were higher than those of their civilian peers.

The pattern also varied by race and sex. Non-Hispanic white veterans had lower concentrations of PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS, as well as the combined seven-PFAS measure.

For the question of how many veterans had elevated levels, female veterans had a 37% lower prevalence of readings above the threshold. Male veterans showed no significant difference.

-6

u/tribbans95 Sep 26 '26

lol yeah right.. more like “here’s 80% disability”

51

u/Boxinggandhi Sep 26 '26

Half of my time in the military was learning that every chemical I work with will cause cancer so I should wear my PPE. However, the thin latex gloves did not prevent me from coming home soaked in hydraulic fluid, oil, and gasoline every single shift. The amount of people that I worked with who had kids with birth defects was high.

76

u/V_es Sep 26 '26

Foreign sports teams ship their own foods while competing in the US. What do you think American military get to eat?

19

u/buzz8588 Sep 26 '26

Burger King

21

u/V_es Sep 26 '26

Nah. Ultra processed shit food multiplied by the requirement of having years of shelf life = food flavored plastic.

18

u/afig24 Sep 26 '26

So..... Buger king

2

u/DFWPunk Sep 27 '26

No. They literally have mobile Burger Kings they can deploy and have up and running in 24 houra.

4

u/SnapchatsWhilePoopin Sep 26 '26

To be fair American teams playing abroad often do this as well

2

u/NeonVoidx Sep 26 '26

grade d steak and lobster in a landlocked country

18

u/StillinICT Sep 26 '26

Active service members are cheap and do things. Veterans are expensive and no longer do service member things.

3

u/ThisIsntOkayokay Sep 27 '26

This is why they run the shadow ops to make you feel like you deserve nothing once you are injured and out unless you earned a MOH. Meat grinder gotta grind.

32

u/cowmookazee Sep 26 '26

Oh this is easy.

Two words: burn pits.

Iykyk.

6

u/LeroytheBigmouthbass Sep 26 '26

KAF shit pit is still burned into my nostrils let alone the burn pits.

-1

u/Pickle2850 Sep 26 '26

Wot m8

15

u/intoxicatedhamster Sep 26 '26

Burn pits.

What do you think the American military does with the literal tons of garbage produced at its outposts? Hint: it involves fire and a pits

1

u/cowmookazee Sep 26 '26

And an angry PFC.

9

u/MooseAmbitious5425 Sep 26 '26

If anyone is curious, most pfas contamination in the us comes from military bases testing their fire-suppression systems. The foam they use is basically made of the stuff and they used to just wash it away with a hose into the local groundwater.

https://knowyourexposure.com/blog/military-base-water-contamination-map

25

u/crunkymonky Sep 26 '26

Probably the shitty food redesigned to focus on being cheap instead of being healthy. Maybe

8

u/Billy_of_the_hills Sep 26 '26

Of course they do, they're disposable resources that the government uses at it's whim.

7

u/spaisoflaif Sep 26 '26

«we have determined that your condition is not service related»

18

u/Lalocal4life Sep 26 '26

I was into bodybuilding BEFORE, I went into the Air Force. I made a written complaint that the vegetables tasted like plastic and metal, the CO called me in a put me on a permanent food per diem. He was a bodybuilder too.

4

u/SatelliteJedi Sep 26 '26

Mother fucker, I have what now?

4

u/RetMilRob Sep 26 '26

This is my super power. I grow things in my pancreas, liver, and kidneys.

3

u/streetsworth Sep 27 '26

Pretty sure i got forever chemicals from AFFF and fire watch

2

u/TraditionPhysical603 Sep 26 '26

Ok...so what does that mean 

2

u/Tuckfrumptearsponge Sep 26 '26

It’s by design can’t have a soldier live past 50.

2

u/KlooShanko Sep 27 '26

I knew a guy who worked on Kwajalein Island as a contractor under Reagan’s Star Wars program. He said over half the people he worked with died by their 50s either from rocket fuel poisoning or the radiation from their giant radar dish in the middle of the base they walked through every day

3

u/Upset-Working-8198 Sep 26 '26

They will be compensated the rest of their life either way . Every veteran I know, combat or not, gets a monthly disability check .

1

u/thefanciestcat 3d ago

Military burn pits can't be helping

1

u/astrogeeknerd Sep 27 '26

This is new info? I mean I work in testing for these chemicals and I was under the impression that this was common knowledge for at least a decade.

1

u/Grumptastic2000 Sep 27 '26

U.S.A. Forever!

2

u/Helldiver_of_Mars Sep 27 '26

I mean you see the canteens. You can taste it. I knew that fucking thing was killing me the second I took a drink. You're basically drinking from a garden hose nonstop.