Occupational Blast Exposure Linked to Higher Odds of Anger and Violence Among Veterans

Low-level blasts occur routinely during weapons training, explosive breaching and combat. Though individual events rarely cause concussion, repeated pressure waves—military occupational blast and impulse exposure—are thought to produce cumulative neurological stress. Prior work relied on self-reports or small samples, limiting isolation of blast effects.

Psypost

The *Military Medicine* study compared 5,000 veterans in high-blast roles (artillery, special-operations, combat engineers, weapons-training instructors) with 5,000 controls, applying AI to 3.64 million clinical notes and flagging veterans when >=5 % of entries mentioned anger, aggression or violence. 17.2 % of high-risk veterans met this threshold versus 12.0 % of controls, yielding an adjusted odds ratio of 1.22 (22 % higher). Lead author Eamonn Kennedy is a research assistant professor of epidemiology at University of Utah Health and VA Salt Lake City.

Psypost

The findings identify occupational blast exposure as a modifiable risk factor for long-term anger and aggression, which are linked to interpersonal conflict, self-harm and reduced veteran quality of life. Training changes—greater stand-off distances, systematic blast-exposure tracking, and stricter safety protocols—could mitigate these risks.

Psypost

The authors conclude that routine low-level blast exposure independently raises documented anger and aggression, even after accounting for traumatic brain injury, PTSD and other combat factors. They urge stricter training safety and precise exposure monitoring.

Psypost

Key limits include using occupational codes instead of direct blast counts, which may misclassify exposure, and underreporting of behavioral symptoms in records. Documentation varies across providers, and the blast effect diminishes when PTSD is added to the model, indicating overlapping risk factors.

Psypost

• “Although the effect was moderate, our findings do suggest that long-term occupational blast exposure is a risk factor for anger, even independently of other military exposures.” — Eamonn Kennedy, Research Assistant Professor, University of Utah Health

Psypost

• “Occupational exposure to low-level blasts exists within a network of numerous interplaying exposures and risks, stress, trauma, physical injury, psychiatric illness, and so on.” — Eamonn Kennedy

Psypost

• “Occupational blast exposure is largely modifiable because it typically occurs during training, where we have very, very controlled situations, and that gives us access for reducing harm.” — Eamonn Kennedy

Psypost

• “There’s a balance where people can still be trained and prepared to do the mission, but with less risk for these negative health consequences.” — Eamonn Kennedy

Psypost

The team recommends wearable blast-tracking devices and longitudinal neurobiological studies to inform training standards that set cumulative exposure limits.

Psypost