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Jon Stewart pushes VA to help veterans sickened after post-9/11 exposure to uranium

Comedian Jon Stewart is pressing the Biden administration to fix a loophole in a massive veterans aid bill that has left out some of the very first troops who responded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Jon Stewart is pressing the Biden administration to fix a loophole in a massive veterans aid bill that left out some of the first U.S. troops who responded after the Sept. 11 attacks and got sick after deploying to a base contaminated with dangerous levels of uranium. Matthew Nicholls, who was part of an Army environmental health team quickly deployed to collect air, water and soil samples from K2 after local Uzbek workers who were preparing the site for arriving U.S. forces fell ill with headaches, nausea and vomiting. Stewart has long advocated for the firefighters and emergency personnel who responded to the World Trade Center attacks, and in recent years, for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who came home with cancers or other serious illnesses after exposures to toxins on the battlefield.

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