Veterans Get Burned Again By Court After Burn Pits

Court Deals Major Blow to Veterans Suing Over Burn Pits

Special to McClatchy Washington Bureau
By Patricia Kime
5 Aug 2017

"My husband is DEAD because of burn pits," Dina McKenna, whose husband, former Army Sgt. William McKenna, died in 2010 from a rare form of T-cell lymphoma after serving in Iraq, told McClatchy in an email. "I want someone to be held accountable."

A senior airman tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit at Balad Air Base, Iraq, in March 2008. (US Air Force photo/Julianne Showalter)

A federal judge has dismissed a major lawsuit against a defense contractor by veterans and their family members, over burn pit operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that plaintiffs said caused them chronic and sometimes deadly respiratory diseases and cancer.

In the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Roger W. Titus wrote that the company, KBR, could not be held liable for what was essentially a military decision to use burn pits for waste disposal. Titus said holding the Pentagon responsible was outside of his jurisdiction.

"The extensive evidence ... demonstrates that the mission-critical, risk-based decisions surrounding the use and operation of open burn pits ... were made by the military as a matter of military wartime judgment," Titus wrote in an 81-page opinion.

The dismissal -- the second by Titus in the case -- deals a major blow to the more than 700 veterans, family members and former KBR employees who brought the suit.

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'Burn pits' still in use in Iraq, Afghanistan

'Burn pits' still in use in Iraq, Afghanistan

Published: Oct. 15, 2010 at 4:39 PM
By ZAK KOESKE, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The number of troops suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, which makes it difficult to breathe and is normally found in lifelong smokers, has more than doubled, Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center data indicate.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. government report released Friday finds that waste disposal methods at military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to expose troops to potentially harmful emissions, despite recent legislation aimed at curbing hazardous disposal practices.

The Government Accountability Office investigated four bases in Iraq in the past year and found none were entirely in compliance with regulations.

The regulations, passed in 2009, prohibit the disposal of hazardous and bio-medical waste in open-air burn pits, except in circumstances where the U.S. secretary of Defense deems that no feasible alternative exists.

In spite of these regulations, the GAO found that all four bases routinely burned plastic, which releases dioxins, the family of chemicals found in the Vietnam War herbicide known as Agent Orange.
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'Burn pits' still in use in Iraq, Afghanistan
UPI.com

Ailing vets sue over burn pits

Ailing vets sue over smoke from trash fires in Iraq, Afghanistan
'You'd cough up black stuff, and you couldn't seem to catch your breath'
msnbc.com
updated 8/6/2010 5:22:20 AM ET

Some 241 military personnel and contractors who became ill after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are suing a Houston-based firm, claiming they were poisoned by smoke from trash fires, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The claimants, who are from 42 states, are suffering from a range of conditions including cancer and severe breathing problems, which they blame on the thick, black smoke. The symptoms were reportedly nicknamed "Iraqi crud" by troops.

They are taking legal action against Kellogg Brown & Root, which operated more than two dozen burn-pits in the two countries, the Post reported. It used to be a subsidiary of Halliburton, which is a also a defendant in the case.

These were used to get rid of garbage including plastic water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, mangled bits of metal, paint, solvent, medical waste and dead animals by dousing it in fuel and setting fire to it, the newspaper said.
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Ailing vets sue over smoke from trash fires
linked from
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx

Call Congress Today - Our Veterans Need Treatment

You've read the reports on burn pits on this blog since they were first reported. You know how serious this is. You've read about Gulf War veterans suffering and waiting for help. If you didn't care about these issues, didn't care about our veterans, you wouldn't be reading this blog. Since you care so much, please do what you can to help by making the calls to help our veterans.

Call Congress Today - Our Veterans Need Treatment !

Issue: Call Congress and voice your support for full funding for the Gulf War illness research program of the Department of Defense. The military program is called the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, or CDMRP. Veterans for Common Sense urges funding at the full $25 million level.

Background: Earlier this year, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recognized the chronic multisymptom illness suffered by 250,000 Gulf War veterans due are to toxic exposures during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illness (RAC) reached the same scientific conclusion in 2008. The IOM and RAC support research programs to develop treatments and hopefully preventions for both our veterans and our troops deployed overseas now.

Why is this important? Many of these toxic exposures exist today. By calling both the Washington and local offices of the senior Democratic and Republican members of the Appropriations Subcommittee deciding CPMR funding, you let them know that this illness is a huge problem suffered by real people who served our country.

You've heard of the Iraq War Burn Pits? We can't let another generation of veterans wait a decade for medical care. Tell Congress to do the right thing for our veterans so we can have medical treatments for toxic exposures.

Who do I call? Please call two important Congressmen who will decide if Gulf War, Afghanistan War, and Iraq War veterans get the research and treatment they urgently need.

1. Chairman Norm Dicks, Washington, DC 202-225-5916; Tacoma, WA 253-593-6536.

2. Congressman Bill Young, ranking member, Washington 202-225-5961; St. Petersburg, FL 727-893-3191.

Thank you for calling today !

Veterans For Common Sense

American Lung Association deeply concerned over Burn Pits

Shut down burn pits, lung association urges

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 23, 2010 17:05:42 EDT

The American Lung Association called for the military to ban open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The association “is deeply concerned by reports of the use of burn pits and negative effects on lung health on soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” H. James Gooden, chairman of the association’s board of directors, said during a Senate defense appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday.
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Shut down burn pits, lung association urges

Burn pits could cause long-term damage to troops

We should be asking if the burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan could replace Agent Orange for Vietnam Vets, still being linked to more illnesses and Gulf War Syndrome for the Gulf War vets still leaving many without answers. It's bad enough they risk their lives with the "usual dangers" of war when bullets try to hit them and bombs try to blow them up. When you factor in things that were not delivered by enemy hands, but instead from the military itself, there are no excuses to not take care of what results from it.

Military: Burn pits could cause long-term damage to troops
By Adam Levine, CNN Pentagon Producer
December 18, 2009
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Pentagon health officials had said troops faced no long-term effects from burn pits
Military now says some troops exposed could be susceptible to long-term effects
Service members have complained of chronic bronchitis, asthma, sleep apnea
DoD and VA expanding investigations into the pits
Washington (CNN) -- The military is backing off its previous position and acknowledging that some troops exposed to the burning of refuse on military bases could be susceptible to long-term health effects.

Since the issue first arose two years ago, Pentagon health officials have insisted that, based on its analysis, troops who were near burn pits at Joint Base Balad in Iraq -- the largest base in that country -- faced no long-term health hazards. That covered most of the troops who passed through the base.

The Department of Defense found that the burn pits, which are used instead of incinerators on some bases and outposts in Iraq and Afghanistan, could cause effects in the short term -- including irritated eyes and upper respiratory system problems -- that can lead to persistent coughing. But the department said "it is less clear what other longer-term health effects [there] may be."

But one of the top military health officials, Dr. Craig Postlewaite, signaled in a recent interview with the Salt Lake Tribune that certain troops, who have other medical conditions, may be at risk for long-term effects.
read more here
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/18/military.burn.pits/

Bill addresses war-zone environmental hazards

Bill addresses war-zone environmental hazards

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Oct 15, 2009 17:05:48 EDT

Legislation has been introduced that would offer long-term care to any veterans exposed to environmental hazards in the line of duty, even if there is no textbook evidence to link the exposure to an illness.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., would amend Title 38 of the U.S. Code, which deals with veterans benefits, by adding a passage stating that a veteran exposed in the line of duty to “an occupational and environmental health chemical hazard of particular concern” is eligible for hospital care, medical services and nursing home care for any disability, even if there is “insufficient medical evidence to conclude that such disability may be associated with exposure.”

The bill comes in the wake of a series of hearings about troops being exposed to carcinogenic material at Qarmat Ali water treatment plant in Iraq; a sulfur fire in Mosul, Iraq; and burn-pit smoke throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_burnpits_longtermcare_101509w/

Army report warned of burn-pit effects

Army report warned of burn-pit effects

Cited long-term damage at odds with DoD posture
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 30, 2009 12:03:53 EDT

Seven months before Defense Department officials said there were no known long-term health effects due to exposure to open-air burn-pit smoke, Army researchers sent out a report on the health effects associated with particulate matter exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan that paints a slightly different picture.

“Particulate matter air pollution is hypothesized to affect health on two time scales,” states the report by the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. “Long-term exposure, on the scale of months to years, may influence the incidence of chronic disease and susceptibility; and short-term exposure, on the scale of days, may precipitate acute health events. Health effects of particulate matter on both scales may range in severity from subclinical to deadly.”

The report, “Potential Health Implications Associated with Particulate Matter Exposure in Deployed Settings in Southwest Asia,” was submitted for publication to Inhalation Toxicology Journal in December and published in March.

It included data from a second report, “Characterizing Mineral Dusts and other Aerosols from the Middle East,” that showed particulate matter levels at each of 15 sites — including Joint Base Balad, Iraq, where an open burn pit once devoured as much as 240 tons of trash a day — was above World Health Organization, as well as military, standards for fine particulate matter.
read more here
Army report warned of burn-pit effects

Lawmakers call for action on burn pits

Lawmakers call for action on burn pits
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 4, 2009 10:43:53 EST

Seven members of Congress have added their names to a growing list of legislators concerned about service members who say burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan have made them sick.

“It has come to our attention that a growing number of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming sick and dying from what appears to be overexposure to dangerous toxins produced by burn pits used to destroy waste,” reads a letter from Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., to Eric Shinseki, the new secretary of veterans affairs. “Further conversations with other veterans have revealed that the armed forces have not investigated this threat adequately.”

Bishop’s office sent the letter Monday. It was also signed by Reps. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; Bill Delahunt, D-Mass.; Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.; Keith Ellison, D-Minn.; Sander Levin, D-Mich.; and Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa.


Congress first heard about the issue, the letter states, after a series of stories came out in Military Times showing that service members were exposed to everything from burning petroleum products to plastics to batteries in burn pits used to dispose of waste at every base in Iraq and Afghanistan.