Needed to catch my breath before I posted this:
"Health answers sought about burned-off war garbage" by Kevin Freking | Associated Press, January 27, 2013
WASHINGTON — J.D. Williams didn’t think much about the smoke cloud that often shrouded his air base in Iraq. Not when it covered everything he owned with black soot or when his wheezing and coughing made it difficult to sleep.
Support the troops.
‘‘We just went about our business because there was a war going on,’’ said Williams, a retired chief warrant officer who was responsible for maintaining some 250 aircraft for the US Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
He returned home from that second stint in Iraq in 2006 and subsequently was diagnosed with an irreversible lung disease that his doctor suspects could be related to smoke from one of the hundreds of burn pits that dotted Iraq and Afghanistan during the course of the two wars.
Can you imagine what that (and the depleted uranium) did to Iraqis and Afghans?
The pits were used to burn the garbage that accumulates at military bases, everything from Styrofoam and metal to paints, solvents, human waste, and medical waste.
Another LEGACY of our OCCUPYING FOOTPRINTS!!
A new Department of Veterans Affairs registry, mandated by Congress, will be used to try to determine if there is a link between the burn pits and long-term health problems....
Translation: the Pentagon will drag its heels "investigating" for decades hoping many die before compensation is paid. We've seen this movie before.
Sixty-three burn pits were still being used in Afghanistan as of Dec. 26; those in Iraq were closed by December 2010. Camps with fewer than 100 people are not required to report the use of a burn pit.
So who really knows how bad the problem is as it continues?
Proponents say the burn pits were so widespread that the majority of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan could participate in the registry.
So where do the Iraqis and Afghans sign up?
In 2009, the military updated its policies on burn pits to prohibit the burning of hazardous materials such as certain medical waste, batteries, and tires, and whenever possible, to situate them where the smoke would not blow over work and living quarters.
Oh, yeah, I'm sure everything is fine now.
The creation of the burn pit registry has been several years in the making.
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Darrin Curtis said in a memo disclosed by the Army Times in 2008 that he believed a burn pit at Joint Base Balad was an acute health hazard.
Ya' think?
Congressional hearings followed that featured sick veterans and contractors.
The Pentagon said that none of the monitoring conducted at Balad identified an increased risk for long-term health problems. It has maintained that position over the years but also acknowledges that some personnel have persistent symptoms.
Just like I said above.
--more--"
Related: Poisonous War Profiteers
And it has all faded away like smoke into the air.
Also see: Burning My Boston Globes
Maybe I'll just recycle them instead.
