8th Annual WML Academic Symposium

Presenter(s): Melissa Pullen
Title: The Association between Military Service and Environmental Toxicant Exposure from 1999 to 2014
Developed under the guidance of Dr. Charles Carter , Clinical Research

Environmental toxicants include organic/inorganic substances harmful to human health and development. Military service has been historically associated with increased risk of toxicant exposure. We examined data from the CDC for the association between history of military service and presence of cadmium, lead, and uranium determined by laboratory testing. A total of 12,755 participants including 1,536 veterans were included. After adjusting for covariates, no significant difference between veterans and nonveterans for levels of cadmium or uranium were found. Veterans were 27.4% less likely to have blood lead levels greater than the median as compared to nonveterans (95% CI: 0.562, 0.938; P less than 0.01).