D.o.D. Says Toxic Chemicals Safe to Inhale

Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. SSGs’ comments in bold face.

11.17.08 Army Times [Excerpts]

Disabled American Veterans has issued a call to all service members and veterans who think they may have illnesses related to burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq: Contact DAV so it can collect data and look for trends.

One Air Force bioenvironmental engineer, Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, was so worried by the chemicals he believed were being released into troops’ living and work spaces at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, that he warned: “In my professional opinion, the known carcinogens and respiratory sensitizers released into the atmosphere by the burn pit present both an acute and chronic health hazard to our troops and the local population.”

Air Force officials say they had cleaned up the Balad burn pit as of June by using two incinerators and recycling plastic bottles. A report shows that tests in 2007 reflected an “acceptable risk” for cancer-causing and other poisonous toxins from the pit. “It’s a fantastic before-and-after story,” said Army Capt. Lynn Thompson, waste management officer for Balad from March to October. “The contractor who runs the place is planning to build a tennis court about 100 meters west of the trenches.” [And what is the 'after story?' Can the contractor be held responsible for tennis players who get sick?]

Thompson said that he personally inspects the trenches every day, that the 147 tons of waste now burned are lumber and contractor-produced garbage, [Theirs is different from military garbage? Tell me it doesn't stink!] and that the pit no longer takes in paints, plastics, solvents, rubber or unexploded ordnance. Petroleum products are stored as hazardous material, rather than burned as they were in the past. The 90,000 plastic water bottles that used to go into the pit daily now are recycled.

The blackness of the pit’s plume is from dining facility vegetable oil and will be eliminated within two months, Thompson said. [That would be enough vegetable oil to deep fry a C 130.].

Service members told Military Times that they have asthma that was diagnosed after they left Balad; that they have allergy-like symptoms for the first time in their lives; that an unusual number of people in their units have developed cancer; that they are failing the runs on their physical fitness tests because of breathing problems; and that their headaches still haven’t gone away months after returning home.

One Army officer reported a brain tumor.

“The fact that DoD says it’s safe just makes no sense at all,” Baker said. “Dioxin was used in herbicides in Vietnam. Now it’s a byproduct of the burn pits.

“But you don’t just have dioxin — you have a list of other chemicals. We need to look at the combined effect of all these chemicals.” John Bradley, a legislative consultant for DAV, said the group can look for a positive association between a deployment and disease, and that can lead VA to presume the diseases were caused by this war. The proof shouldn’t rest on the veteran, he said.

Army Staff Sgt. Danielle Nienajadlo said her time in Balad led to a nightmare that will haunt her forever.

Immediately upon arrival, she said she started coughing and blowing out black stuff. Soon, she lost her appetite. She felt nauseated, constantly tired and had trouble breathing.

She went to sick call several times, only to be told she might be stressed out. As a vehicle mechanic, she spent much time at the motor pool near the burn pit. When she ran for fitness training, she inhaled the noxious fumes. She said the smoke constantly hung over her living quarters.

“We were always covered in ash and dirt,” she said. “People got bloody noses and headaches.”

Once, she stayed up all night with hot sweats and a fever, so she went to the emergency room and begged doctors to draw her blood.

They did. Her white blood cell count was over the top: She had leukemia.

She believes the burn pit served as a catalyst for her cancer.

“I know I got it out there,” she said.

After a full course of chemotherapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where she remains, she said she’s doing better. But she will be checked every three weeks for the next five years.

“I’m in remission,” she said. “I know I’m blessed. If I’d waited another day, I would’ve died.”

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