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.

read more here

Marine's wife grieves after burn pit in Iraq killed husband in Colorado

'Our plan was to grow old together': Heartbroken widow of decorated Marine, 33, who succumbed to cancer blames his early death on controversial burn pits in Iraq
Daily Mail UK
By SNEJANA FARBEROV
23 April 2014

The family of a retired 33-year-old U.S. Marine who succumbed to cancer over the weekend believe that his untimely death was the direct result of his exposure to open-air burn pits in Iraq.

Sean Terry, a married father of three from Littleton, Colorado, passed away Saturday after a seven-month battle with terminal esophageal cancer.

‘We had plans. Our plans were to grow old together and raise our kids together. We can't do that now,’ his wife Robyn Terry told 9News just days before his death.

Mrs Terry and the veteran's friends insist that the Marine who earned a Purple Heart while serving in Iraq in 2005-2006 was sickened by toxins from burns pits, which for years had been used in Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of waste.

According to information available on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs site, at this time, research does not show evidence of long-term health problems associated with exposure to burn pits.

However, the agency's site concedes that 'toxins in burns pits may affect the skin, eyes, respiratory respiratory and cardiovascular systems, gastrointestinal tract and internal organs.’

The portal goes on to say that most of the irritation is temporary and resolves once the exposure is gone. ‘This includes eye irritation and burning, coughing and throat irritation, breathing difficulties, and skin itching and rashes,’ the statement reads.

The VA's page also cites a 2011 Institute of Medicine study, which found that high levels of fine dust and pollution in Iraq and Afghanistan 'may pose a greater danger to respiratory illnesses than exposure to burn pits.'
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Chief Warrant Officer's worst enemy turned out to be burning garbage

Burn pit exposure cuts Poquoson soldier's career short
January 13, 2013
By Hugh Lessig
POQUOSON

Before he got sick, before the tremors, memory lapses and surgeries, Chief Warrant Officer Jeff Lamprecht guarded his buddies from an Apache attack helicopter, with Hellfire missiles at his fingertips.

The 40-year-old Poquoson native completed four combat deployments from 2003 to 2010: three to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.

He'd go back tomorrow if he could.

The narrow front seat of the lethal gunship was his second home, surrounded by laser range finders and target designators, a video monitor near his lap, a side-mounted helmet camera that offered a view similar to a two-way mirror.

That kind of multitasking and razor-sharp communication would be impossible today. Lamprecht can't feel much below his knees, and the simple act of standing up can make him dizzy.

"Sometimes my feet don't do what I want them to," he said. "I'll stammer my tongue. I know what I want to say, but my tongue just vapor-locks and I won't make the word."

He can't blame the Taliban or al-Qaida, and it wasn't battle stress or nerves.

His worst enemy turned out to be burning garbage.
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Iraq burn pits killed soldiers

Disease caught in Iraq fatal to vet
BY BOB KALINOWSKI (STAFF WRITER)
Published: May 16, 2012
FORTY FORT - Loved ones of U.S. Army Spc. Dominick J. Liguori say he was fighter, but the 31-year-old could not overcome the lung disease they say he developed while serving in Iraq.

Family and friends gathered Tuesday night to say farewell to the Swoyersville man, who died Friday after a three-year battle with a lung disease called sarcoidosis.

Family members say Spc. Liguori developed the disease from exposure to open-air burn pits while serving in Iraq, and the ailment slowly scarred and destroyed his lungs.

"For whatever reason he go it, he got it," Spc. Liguori's mother, Andrea Kovalik, 50, said outside a viewing and funeral service for her son at the Hugh B. Hughes Funeral Home. "As it heals, it kills you. So his lungs were all tight and scarred."

Respiratory issues affecting military veterans exposed to open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan have been the subject of several recent national news stories.

The Department of Defense maintains that research on the link between lung disease and the burn pits remains inconclusive but nonetheless has shut down all burn pits in Iraq and says it has plans to do so in Afghanistan by the end of the year, according to news reports.

Concerns about a possible link have led to a proposed law in the U.S. House of Representatives called the Open Burn Pit Registry Act. The law would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to create a registry of veterans who have health problems they believe are related to exposure to open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. Subcommittee hearings were held on the topic in April.
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More data needed on burn pits, report says

More data needed on burn pits, report says
By Patricia Kime - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Oct 31, 2011 13:43:32 EDT
A group of the nation’s top researchers has concluded there are insufficient data to determine whether open-air burn pits, used extensively by the U.S. military during the wars Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of trash and other waste, cause long-term health effects.

Furthermore, the Institute of Medicine committee, which investigated the possible long-term health effects of burn pits at the request of the Veterans Affairs Department, said the biggest pollution concern at one of the most controversial sites, Joint Base Balad, Iraq, is likely particulate matter resulting from local and regional sources, not the military burn pits, which operated there from 2003 to 2008.

The report released by the Institute of Medicine said there are “insufficient data” to determine whether pollution from the pits is associated with cancer, respiratory disease and other illnesses.

In trying to determine whether there was a link between burn pits and adverse health conditions, the panel examined data provided by the Defense Department on pollutants found in raw air, information on health effects from various studies, and the health outcomes in populations that experience similar exposures, such as firefighters, waste incinerator employees and people who live near such facilities.
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Senator Doran says "Pentagon dropped the ball on chemical exposure of US Troops in Iraq"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Friday CONTACT: Barry E. Piatt

October 22, 2010 PHONE: 202-224-0577



Follow up report is delayed:



DORGAN: DOD IG REPORT CONFIRMS PENTAGON DROPPED THE BALL ON CHEMICAL EXPOSURE OF U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ



(WASHINGTON, D.C.) --- U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said Friday a preliminary report of an investigation by the Department of Defense Inspector General confirms that the Pentagon dropped the ball in responding to the exposure of hundreds of U.S. troops to a deadly chemical in Iraq. Those failures left some exposed soldiers unaware that they had been exposed to the deadly chemical and without follow up health monitoring and treatment. Monitoring tests performed on other soldiers who were informed of their exposure were so inadequate that the agency that performed them now admits they have a “low level of confidence” in those tests.



A second and more detailed Inspector General’s report, originally scheduled to be released this month, has now been moved back to the end of the year, a development Dorgan said he finds “disappointing.”



The Senate Armed Services Committee and Dorgan requested IG investigations after he chaired hearings by the Senate Democratic Policy Committee (DPC), in June 2008 and August 2009. The hearings revealed that troops from Indiana, Oregon, South Carolina, and West Virginia were exposed to sodium dichromate, a known and highly potent carcinogen at the Qarmat Ali water treatment facility in Iraq. The DPC hearings revealed multiple failures by the contractor, KBR, and the Army’s failure to adequately monitor, test, and notify soldiers who may have been exposed of the health risks they may now face.



The IG is releasing two reports on its investigation, The first report was released in September. The second, expected to be a more detailed response to specific DPC concerns, was originally slated for release by late October. But the Department of Defense Inspector General now states a draft of that report won’t be available until the end of the year.



The first report provides no indication -- seven years after the exposure – that the Army ever notified seven soldiers from the Army’s Third Infantry Division who secured the Qarmat Ali facility during hostilities that they had been exposed. It also confirms that the Army’s assessment of the health risks associated with exposure to sodium dichromate for soldiers at Qarmat Ali are not very reliable. In fact, the organization that performed these assessments, the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine (CHPPM), now says it has a “low level of confidence” in its test results for the overwhelming majority of those exposed.



Equally troubling, Dorgan said, is the report’s finding that the Department of Defense is refusing to provide information to Congress about the incident, because of a lawsuit to which it is not a party.



“I am very concerned about the findings we now have, and I am disappointed in the delayed release of Part II of this report. The IG’s investigation and its findings are very important to the lives of U.S. soldiers and workers who were at the site. Details and definitive findings will help us ensure accountability for this exposure and flawed follow up, but even more importantly, they will help ensure that all exposed soldiers receive appropriate notice and medical attention,” Dorgan said.

Iraq veteran fights VA over exposure to burn pits

Iraq veteran fights VA over exposure to burn pits
Iraq veteran Tim Wymore spends most of what he believes are his last days worried about what will become of his family. He has three lesions on his brain, another on his eye. He can stand only with the aid of a cane. He is 44 years old.
Related: Respiratory illnesses higher near Balad burn pit
Related: Pentagon promised study on burn pits

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.
read more here
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.
read more here
Shut down burn pits, lung association urges

Marine Veteran Dies of Lung Cancer Caused by Iraq Burn Pit

Marine Veteran Dies of Lung Cancer Caused by Iraq Burn Pit
02 Mar

Posted by Julia as Blogs


A United States Marine Corps veteran, Sgt. Klayton Thomas died from lung cancer that he, his family, and his doctors all believe was the result of his exposure to “burn pits” during his overseas deployment to Iraq in 2007. Sgt. Thomas was a 25-year-old resident of Columbus, Nebraska, who rarely drank, never smoked, and came from a home where neither parent smoked cigarettes. In September 2009 Klayton began to suffer from back aches and pains. He didn’t know at the time that he was suffering from the spread of lung cancer throughout his body and specifically in his spinal cord. The aggressive cancer spread throughout his entire body, including his hips, shoulder blades, and eventually his brain. Three months after his diagnosis, Klayton Thomas passed away in hospice care.

The term “burn pit” pertains to any designated area on a base, that a US-contracted firm/company disposes of all trash and undesired materials by means of burning. These “burn pits” exist all over American bases and defensive positions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. They are enormous landfills where all materials, supplies, and trash are burned by civilian employees and military members. The resulting effects are huge plumes of black toxic smoke rising over American bases overseas that turn the sky black, and pollutes the air our service-men and women breathe in everyday while serving in these battle zones. Burn pits just like the one described here existed where Sgt. Thomas was stationed, at al-Taqaddum Air Base (UMSC), Iraq in 2007. He remembered that at times the sky would get so black and thick with smoke that he would choke, and gasp for air.
read more here
Marine Veteran Dies of Lung Cancer Caused by Iraq Burn Pit

Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away

Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 16:10:11 EST

As Wendy McBreairty hiked up a 20-foot bluff in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyo., her thigh muscles felt heavy, as if she had been climbing for hours.

She breathed deeply, trying to fill her lungs but, as usual, she felt as if she could not get enough of the clear, cold air. Fatigue overwhelmed her, just as it does every other day of her life.

The 32-year-old Air National Guard staff sergeant sat on a rock, leaned toward the setting sun, and pondered her future.
read more here
Balad burn pit harmed troops living 1 mile away

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

Congress turns up heat on burn pits

Congress turns up heat on burn pits

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 15, 2009 13:33:14 EDT

Two lawmakers have called upon the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to determine if open-air burn pits for waste disposal in Iraq and Afghanistan are exposing troops to harm, as well as if there are any alternatives.

“Preliminary reports have indicated that fumes from these burn pits produce a considerable amount of contaminants that may cause short- and long-term harm to our service members serving in proximity to these operations,” wrote Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., in a letter dated July 9.

And on Tuesday, Feingold and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., proposed an amendment to the 2010 defense authorization bill that would “prohibit the disposal of covered waste in an open-air burn pit during a contingency operation lasting longer than one year” and would direct the secretary of defense to submit a report about what is burned in the pits and a plan for alternative options. The House has already passed a similar amendment in its version of the defense policy bill.
read more here
Congress turns up heat on burn pits

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.

Burn Pits problem known and addressed in 2004

Balad
Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns
Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writerPosted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 16:31:18 EDT

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.
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_burnpit_102708w/

Djibouti
I was deployed to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, for six months. During that time, our living units were about 50 yards from a burn pit. On the days after the nights when it was really bad, I couldn’t even taste the food I was eating, and I could still smell it —it was on my clothes and eventually saturated the walls and bed in my living quarters.
The report I was given when I left says there are no ill effects of exposure. It does outline what was burned, which was anything with the exception of ammunition and batteries.
A lot of us were waving the red flag while we were there, and nobody really seemed to care, nor do they now when I bring it up. I simply get the question, “Do you feel sick now?” Last I checked, long-term effects don’t appear a month after you get back.
Senior Airman Thomas McCaulla
Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

This is a problem not only at Balad but also at Camp Al Taqaddum. During my tour there last year, I was a maintenance chief, and my Marines worked outside 24 hours a day. Most nights there would be soot or ash falling, and we would breathe this stuff in all night. I also recall many nights waking up in my little 6-by-8 plywood hooch thinking it was filled with smoke because the taste and the smell was so thick.
During the day, you could see usually two separate burns going at the same time with plumes of smoke so black we thought that an oil line was set ablaze. Many of us had the “crud” (hacking coughs, a lot of mucus) for most of the deployment, and like most, we had to suck it up and chalk it up to the environment we were in.
Marine Corps staff sergeant, name withheld
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

While I was deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007, I recall sitting in a tower or doing simple roving patrols around my compound and having to wear a mask to help with breathing. There would be a nasty haze floating over the camp; sometimes there were even reduced visibility warnings.
Senior Airman Veronica Nieto
Minot Air Force Base
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/army_burnpit_letters_111708w/

As you can see, the problems with burn pits is not just in Balad but other parts of Iraq and this practice is also being used in Afghanistan.
There are also reports that the jail Saddam was held in was built on a trash dumb. Every time something was done there, the smell was sickening.
This leads me to this warning. Make sure you keep track of everyone you were with and how to get a hold of them years from now. Don't let it turn into what Vietnam veterans faced after Agent Orange came into their lives years after they were in Vietnam.

The most perplexing part of all of this is what was done in Afghanistan in 2004. The following report was written in 2004 when the military was addressing the problems there. The question is, why is it still a problem in Iraq and why aren't the troops taken care of exposed to these dangers?

"One-stop" waste disposal—enhancing force protection in Afghanistan

Engineer: The Professional Bulletin for Army Engineers, Oct-Dec, 2004
By Lieutenant Colonel Garth Anderson and Lieutenant Colonel Whitney Wolf
Sound environmental practices in the theater of operations, principally hazardous and solid waste management, are truly an area of force protection. How much waste can a contingency base camp generate? Seemingly more than it can handle. By Spring 2002, units at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, were faced with a growing human health and environmental threat caused by huge amounts of waste that required collection, management, and disposal. This waste, not just from US forces, included vast amounts of destroyed equipment, trash, and hazardous waste left behind by Taliban forces that were routed away from the airfield.

Uncontrolled Waste Disposal


During the initial stages of base camp development, there were no easy disposal solutions. Most of the land in and around the airfield was potentially laden with mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO), which meant waste collection, consolidation, and disposal activities were limited to cleared locations close to soldier living and work areas within the camp. Off-site disposal was not an option since the local population was still unfriendly, and local disposal facilities did not exist. The first disposal area at the airfield consisted of a shallow trash burn pit surrounded by a large junkyard of old Soviet equipment, barrels of hazardous waste, discarded US materiel, trash, and small-caliber ammunition. This disposal site was uncontrolled, and many items--regardless of their potential hazard or reuse value--were thrown into or around the burn pit. The uncontrolled nature of the disposal area created a number of unacceptable conditions:
click link for more about what they did to address the problem.
COPYRIGHT 2004 U.S. Army Maneuver Support Center

While the Indiana National Guard has been reporting problems with their health, it appears this is a much larger problem that will have to be faced. Does the military plan on just waiting for the problems to be problems or will they finally address what they expose the troops to?