The Institute of Medicine released a comprehensive report last week on the long-term risks of blast exposure for service members.
The majority of these blasts are caused by improvised explosive devices (IED). More than 33,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have been wounded by an IED, but according to the IOM report, that figure likely underestimates the prevalence of blast-related injuries. Soldiers who don’t sustain noticeable or catastrophic wounds might not realize that the body absorbs a blast shock wave, sometimes causing nervous system or tissue damage that’s not apparent in the aftermath.