Sunday, February 14, 2010

Support Our Troops: Iraq Burn Pits

Wednesday Oct 29, 2008

An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.

The billowing black plume from the burn pit at 15-square-mile Joint Base Balad, the central logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq, wafts continually over living quarters and the base combat support hospital, sources say.

  Army Times

February 7, 2010

Operated by Houston-based contractor KBR, the pit consumes 120 tons of garbage a day at Camp Taji, a U.S. military base north of Baghdad.

On calm days, noxious smoke billows upward and dissipates into a smoglike haze. When the wind blows, the acrid-smelling fumes pour into towers and yards where about 800 Texas troops from the 72nd keep watch.

“It hovers over like a blanket,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Ethier, 36, of Montgomery. “After it rains, you'll get puddles of stuff. It's like a yellowish, brackish color. It looks metallic. It's just disgusting.”

Soldiers say a fine layer of soot settles on their uniforms and black goop comes out when they blow their noses. They complain of migraines, breathing problems, coughs, sore throats, irritated eyes and rashes.

  My San Antonio

February 12, 2009

In October a class action suit combining 22 lawsuits from 43 states was filed in US District Court in Maryland against KBR, Halliburton, and other military contractors for damages to health from open air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to plaintiffs' lawyers the military contracting giant had been paid millions of dollars to safely dispose of waste on bases but negligently burned refuse in open pits, spewing toxins, including known carcinogens, into the air. Last week, KBR sought to dismiss the charges. Their tack was not to deny that they burned lithium batteries, petroleum, asbestos, trucks, cars, paint, plastic, Styrofoam, medical waste including human limbs, and more, as the soldiers have charged, but to challenge their liability for any ensuing problems. According to KBR's press fact sheet on the suit, the Army, not KBR, decides if a burn pit or an incinerator will be used, where it will be built in relation to living and working facilities, and what it can burn.

[...]

Until recently, the DoD was deaf to the stories coming out of Iraq about “plume crud” and "black goop," as soldiers have termed the dark slime that those living and working close to the burn pits' black smoke blow out of their noses and cough, spit, and vomit from their mouths, or the reports of breathing problems, cancers, and deaths. But they clearly knew about the practices and its problems of the pits its contractors had built and continued to run. As early as 2006 Air Force Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight Commander Darrin Curtis warned senior officials about the risks of the largest burn pit at the Balad Airbase 70 kilometers north of Baghdad.

[...]

President Obama has said that the White House is paying attention and that he will make sure that the burn pits don't become another Agent Orange. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki has made similar remarks: “How do we change what has been the 40-year journey of Agent Orange, the 20-year journey of Gulf War Illness, and prevent a similar journey for burn pit smoke?”

  Alternet

Good question. We're already ten years into it.

Congress has begun to address the matter with legislation that mandates regular reporting on the burn pits and examination of alternatives but no shutting down of the 80 pits still operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Backed by local veterans and a medical expert, Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) announced Tuesday a plan to aid military personnel who have suffered due to burn pit exposure.

[...]

Bishop's legislation requires the Defense Department to develop a complete history of all burn pits used in Iraq and Afghanistan and a registry of all U.S. personnel exposed to them, make an annual report to Congress on burn-pit related medical conditions, and provide physical examinations, and treatment if required, for all those exposed to the pits. It would also prohibit placing plastic in the burn pits that continue to be used.

  Times Beacon Record

But not "lithium batteries, petroleum, asbestos, trucks, cars, paint, Styrofoam, and medical waste including human limbs" ?

Help for affected soldiers and their families:
Burn Pits Action Center
Disabled American Veterans ( legislation@davmail.org )
VA Watchdog
December 2006 Air Force Burn Pit Risk Assessment

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

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