America’s younger veterans are now facing a similar crisis. Burn pits, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) says, are “this generation’s Agent Orange.” For hundreds of thousands of veterans who served in the Persian Gulf region since 1990, tons of war zone waste was disposed of in burn pits, at times causing billows of toxic black smoke to permeate surrounding areas. The VA says items burned in open air pits included chemicals, paint, medical and human waste, metal, munitions, unexploded ordnances, petroleum, plastics, rubber and food waste. Yet, the VA has not linked burn pits directly to adverse health effects.