In 2007, while deployed
for the United States
Marine Corps, I operated
out of Camp
Fallujah, Iraq, and our
living quarters
were situated right
next to a gigantic pile
of burning trash
called a burn pit
and everything
and anything
that the government
determined to be waste
was just thrown
in very casually.
So we're talking
food, clothes,
metal, wood, ammunition,
even biohazardous
medical
waste was just tossed
into this
massive open
burning area.
And multiple times
a day,
a gigantic plume of jet
black smoke
would pass through,
leaving a terrible smell
and taste in your mouth.
But I'll be honest
with you, at the time,
we really didn't
care all that much.
We just laugh it off.
We're like,
Oh, that must be
good for us.
And that's
I mean, come on.
We're 19 year old grunts
who actively
patrol combat zones.
That smoke was
quite literally
the last thing
on our mind, except now
it's 2022
and we're not as young
as we once were.
And now
many of us
are coming down
with respiratory
diseases, cancer,
kidney and
digestive issues
just to name a few.
And the culprit
to absolutely
no one's
surprise
was the toxic smoke
that we were forced
to inhale
every single day
for months
and in some cases years.
So in today's video,
with the help
of the cadavers
here in the lab
and in honor of Veterans
Day here
in the United States,
we're going to look
at some of the organs
and structures
that are affected
by inhaling
toxic chemicals.
It's going to be
a personal one.
Let's do this.
I want to start
this video off
by saying two things
that I feel
are extremely important.
And the first is that
veterans have
been dealing
with toxic exposure
since well
before I decided
to serve.
So whether it was Agent
Orange in Vietnam,
radiation exposure
in the Marshall Islands
or burn pits,
funnily enough,
as far back
as the Gulf War,
this is a battle
that just never seems
to end.
Instead,
it just takes a
new shape and form
and then
affects generation
after generation
of service members.
But that doesn't mean
that steps in the right
direction
haven't been made.
And in fact, in
August of this
year, 2022,
President Biden
signed the PACT Act,
which expands
the presumptive
conditions
that veterans can claim
and get health care for.
By presumptive,
that means simply
having the condition.
The government presumes
they're the ones
who created it.
However, given
what we're about
to discuss,
you'll see that
that expanded list
is still a far cry
from everything
that needs to
be included,
meaning veterans
still very much
have an uphill battle
in front of them.
Now, the second thing
that I want to discuss
is that regardless
of your opinion
surrounding
United States
foreign policy,
veterans do not deserve
what is happening
to them.
The vast majority of us
served
with the best
of intentions,
and frankly,
we were just kids
when we signed up.
Personally,
I was 17 years old
when I enlisted
in the Marine Corps,
and I left a boot camp
a week
after graduating
high school.
I had no idea
what I was getting
myself into, but I did
what I felt was right
and I wouldn't
trade my experiences
for the world.
But the biggest lie
you're sold
when you sign up
for the military
is that the government
will have your back
for the rest
of your life,
whether that's through
paying for college
or lifelong health care,
something any
veteran I imagine
in the entire world
could tell you
is that serving
your country is actually
pretty easy.
Boot camp is easy.
Deployment is easy.
Don't get me wrong,
they are
definitely their own
special brand of awful.
But all things
considered,
they're pretty easy.
The hard part,
the real
struggle is learning
how to live
with everything
you've seen and done
and somehow
incorporate that
into who you used to be
before it all happened.
And when you struggle
to figure out
how to do that,
the government,
the ones you served
in the first place,
will tell you
that it's
not their fault
or that you
have no evidence
that they caused it
in the first place.
So then you'll
spend years justifying
every single bodily ache
and mental breakdown
only for them to provide
the bare
minimum in support,
if any at all.
Look, I'm
not going to pretend
that this video
is going
to have any kind
of impact
on Veterans Affairs
and how they treat
veterans instead.
My hope is that veterans
and their families
that see
this video
will know that
I actually care
about your pain,
both mental
and physical.
And that may not mean
all that much,
considering
I can't take
your pain away
and I can't
compensate you.
But I firmly,
truly, deeply believe
that the way that
we get through
this is the same
exact way
that we got
through our time
in service,
and that is together.
I get that super cheesy.
It's corny,
but I actually believe
that to be the case,
the best possible
thing we can do
is arm ourselves
with knowledge
about our bodies
so that we can best
position ourselves
to get the care
that we have earned.
All right.
So look,
that's my soapbox.
I'm done with it.
Let's go ahead
and figure out
what's going
wrong with the body.
Now, there are a
lot of different
chemical compounds
that are produced
in a burn pits.
Some are dangerous,
some aren't.
But there are so many
that there's
just no way
we can speak to them
all, even if we're
speaking broadly.
So instead,
I want to focus
on one of,
if not the most toxic
among them
called Tetrachloride
die benzo dioxin,
also known as TCD
or simply dioxin.
Now TCD can be produced
during paper bleaching
transformer fires
smelting or
even in the production
of some herbicides.
But you also see
it being produced
in the incineration
of waste,
as well as
the combustion
of fossil
fuels and wood.
But the thing is,
if you're
incinerating the waste
at a high
enough temperature,
the TCD that's produced
is going to be far
less than had.
You say just casually
lit it on fire.
But since
this is the
United States military
we're talking about,
and in their
infinite wisdom,
they elected
not to use
a proper incinerator.
Instead just tossed
jet fuel,
typically
in the form of EPA
onto the waste
and then just
light it on fire
so it can go
in the open air
for the troops to enjoy,
which means
that a
large amount of TCD
is produced
because you have
a combination
of burning waste,
including plastics
as well as jet
fuel combustion.
And yes, wood.
When TCD
gets into the body,
it binds to a receptor
that's found on nearly
every cell
on the human body
called the aero
hydrocarbon
receptor or AHR.
Now
AHR is involved
in multiple different
bodily functions,
including immunity,
stem cell maintenance,
cell differentiation,
which is when cells
one type of cell
becomes
another type of cell,
as well
as the expression
of multiple genes.
So when TCD
binds to AHR,
it's going to have
some kind of effect
on each of
those functions,
although some more
so than others.
You see, the receptor
itself
isn't problematic.
There are
other compounds
that bind to it
that can even help
with the elimination
of other toxins.
But the thing is,
anything is toxic
with sufficient dosage,
right?
So too much water
that can kill you,
too much broccoli
that can kill you.
Dosage is everything.
And in small
enough amounts,
some quote
unquote toxins
can actually
be beneficial to you
because it can initiate
a sequence
of protective effects.
But too much of anything
is a bad thing
and too much TCD
is definitely
a very bad thing to eat
has been known
to cause
birth defects
in children.
The Vietnamese people
are still dealing
with the consequences
of this today.
Given
how much Agent Orange
was dropped on
their country,
TCD
has also been implicated
in the development
of cancer,
and that's not
because it
itself is carcinogenic.
Instead, it promotes
other
carcinogenic compounds,
making it easier
for them
to mutate the DNA
when TCD
is inhaled, it's
going to interact
with a variety
of different structures
in your oral
cavity and throat.
So the first thing
you will encounter
is your tongue.
I guess
maybe the first
would be the lips,
but it's
going to be the tongue,
which is going to be
a group of muscles.
It'll encounter
the soft palate,
the cheek,
which is going to
be on the other side.
Then this space here is
what's called
the oropharynx
and will lead down
into the la
ringo pharynx.
This is just
a fancy way of
saying throat,
but it'll also go down
and we'll see
if I can spread
this apart.
There is a tube.
I'm going to
use my finger.
There's a tube that's
going down here
that is called
the esophagus.
The esophagus
is your food tube,
and it's going to
then connect
down to the stomach.
So when you're inhaling
some air,
like when you're
breathing or speaking,
some air will go down
into your
digestive tract.
This is why
I know this
as a teacher, whenever
I'm teaching
or lecturing,
I eventually
sorry for this,
but I
sometimes to start
having to burp.
But a lot of that air
will actually
make its way
throughout the entirety
of your digestive tract
and exit out of your
anus as a fart.
This does mean that TCD
is making its way
down the esophagus
into your stomach
and throughout
the entirety
of your digestive tract.
Now, I don't
want to imply
that a lot of TCD
is going to
be interacting
with the entirety
of your digestive tract.
Right?
It's not like
the intestines
are encountering
a ton of tcd
from this particular
source, right.
From swallowing it.
But it's definitely
going to play a role.
Now, the main issue,
though, is going to be
with the
respiratory tract.
So you're looking at a
right lung here
and people
are probably going
to wonder
about these
darkened spots.
Those are blood vessels.
This is actually
a really healthy
looking lung, but
it's also going
to be connected
to the trachea.
This is long pipe
and then it's
going to go up
to the voice box
or the larynx.
So now turn this around
so you can see this
really awesome
cross-section.
Now the T CD
is going to interact
with everything
inside of the voice box.
It's going to interact.
So that's like the, the,
the epiglottis,
the thyroid, the car,
the coracoid cartilage
is the vocal cords.
Everything in here
is going to
interact with that tcd
and then it's
going to go down
the trachea
and what's
going to happen
is eventually it's
going to
start splitting.
So you can see that
the trachea start
splitting into
many different tubes
here, and it forms
what's commonly
known
as the bronchial tree.
Although I like
to think of it
as more of a
bronchial bush,
because these tubes
are going to split
a lot,
a lot, a lot.
And it's eventually
going to get down
to these
really small,
tiny little sacs,
which is where
normally oxygen
and carbon
dioxide would be
transferring in
and out
of the bloodstream.
But if you go ahead
and look
at the presumptive list
of conditions
that the VA has approved
and is validated
and verified that
these are going
to be caused
by burn pits,
you're going to see
a large amount
of respiratory
illnesses,
which makes
complete sense
because if you have tcd
interacting
with lung tissue
or the bronchial
tree, the
the trachea, the larynx,
that's when you're going
to start
seeing cancers
and inflammations
like bronchiolitis.
All of those
are very easily
going to be
on the table.
But eventually the TC
is going
to make its way down
the entirety
of the respiratory tract
and get to those
tiny little air sacs
which are actually
called alveoli,
and then jump into
the bloodstream.
And when it gets
into the bloodstream,
its next stop
is going to
be the heart.
Now, you might
be wondering
what this is.
This is the lead
for a pacemaker,
which we've
actually discussed
in a previous video.
But the heart is then
going to contract
and pump
that oxygenated blood
and really now tcd
rich blood
to the entirety
of the body.
Now certain
areas of the body
are going
to get more tcd
than others, and that's
just based on proximity
to the heart.
So for instance,
your brain,
your head, your neck,
all of that
is far closer
than, say, your toes.
So it makes sense
that when the
heart beats right
as that heart contracts
and the blood goes out
the aorta,
the more of it's going
to go to the brain
than it would
to your toes.
But TCD can interact
with anything
in the body
because anything
that encounters blood,
which is
almost everything,
there's only
a few select
things
that don't really
utilize blood like that
technically TCD
can engage with.
So the kidneys,
the liver, the spleen,
the digestive system
before
it was going
through the
digestive system,
now it's actually
coming from the blood
and through the
digestive system.
Everything now
becomes an option
for the TCD
to interact with.
This is why
the packed act
as amazing
of a step forward
as it was,
isn't enough
in the long term.
The disgusting reality
is that until more
veterans
get sick and die
from unlisted
conditions, the VA
isn't likely
to give them
the proper
health care
and compensation
they deserve,
despite everyone
knowing what caused
those problems,
children are going
to continue
losing their parents
and parents
are going to continue
losing their children.
Look,
when you
decide to go to war,
you are deciding to take
on a certain
amount of risk.
For me personally,
it was my job
to go to
some of the worst
places on the planet
and deliver the
best possible outcome.
That's fine with
me, but to this day,
I'm unable
to drive down the street
without assuming
that everything
and anything around me
is looking
to cause
my immediate demise.
But to an extent,
that's part of the gig.
Now, that doesn't mean
it should be ignored,
but it's also not
that big of a surprise.
But I'm home now.
I have a family,
I have an awesome job
where I get a talking
to a camera
and teach
hundreds of thousands
to millions
across the world
by simply posting
it online.
Things are
pretty awesome
for me
and plenty of other vets
out there
yet the thing
that is likely to get us
won't be the enemy.
Instead,
it will be
the negligence
of the very country we
aim to protect.
That is
depressingly ironic.
I won't take a moment
and thank the sponsor
of today's video.
Brilliant.
Now,
when I was getting out
of the Marine
Corps, myself
and some friends
were allowed
to take some college
classes on base,
which was awesome
because we got
to get away
from our unit
for a little while,
which is pretty much
the greatest thing
in the history
of the world.
And I remember
we were taking
a math class
and I was sitting
in the back
of that classroom
just goofing off
like normal,
something I did
for the entirety
of my high
school career.
And one of my friends,
no, remember this
to the end of my days,
turns around
and looks me
straight in the eyes
and says, Coddle,
you know, it's okay
to be smart, right?
And I mean this
that turned
my world upside down.
It was in my head
and it just
would not leave.
And I realized that
I actually
really enjoyed learning.
I just didn't
enjoy being
in the classroom.
I didn't want
to be perceived
as a nerd.
And I know
that sounds ridiculous,
especially
considering how nerdy
I actually am.
But I realize that
motivated me
pretty much through
the entirety
of my school career
up to that point.
And it's just
one of those things that
I've just realized.
I don't still
to this day,
I don't enjoy
being in the classroom
as a student.
I love teaching
in the classroom.
Again,
this is so strange
for an instructor
or a teacher to say,
but I just
don't really enjoy
being in the classroom.
And why I'm
bringing this up
is because Brilliant
has found a way to cater
to people like me on top
of those who also enjoy
being students.
You see
Brilliant teaches
science, technology,
mathematics, logic,
computer science.
And they do it
in a fun,
interactive way.
They make learning fun.
How impressive is that?
I personally make
sure to log on
to Brilliant
every single day.
This is 100% true,
and right now
I'm actually taking
a mathematics course.
The reason being,
like I just told you,
I didn't really pay
much attention to math.
All the math
that I have done in
my academic
career has been forced.
It's been coerced.
I've been supposed
to take it, but now I'm
actually purposely
taking it,
intentionally taking it,
and I'm
able to be inspired
by it
through the brilliance
of brilliant.
Their fun
and interactive
approach to it makes me
actually want
to learn it.
And that to me
is one of the most
impressive feats
they could possibly do.
So if you're interested,
visit brilliant
dot org slash
I eight
or you
just click
the link
in the description below
and they'll
give the first
200 people there 20% off
their annual
subscription.
You cannot beat that.
I really cannot say
or sing high enough.
Praise for brilliant
thanks for hanging
out with me today
as always.
Be sure to like
comment, subscribe
if you feel so inclined
and I'll see you in
the next video.