Now that CNN has picked up on the story about the burn pit in Iraq, I expect other news outlets to follow suit (dammit!).  Simply put, this issue is important enough to pay attention to NOW instead of in 10 years when the after effects have taken its toll on the soldiers and civilians subjected to its poisonous fumes.  Bloggers have been talking about how toxic the U.S. military bases’ burn pit fumes for months.  Now we finally have major news outlet support:

For four years, the burn pit was a festering dump, spewing acrid smoke over the base, including housing and the hospital.

Until three incinerators were installed, the smelly pit was the only place to dispose of trash, including plastics, food and medical waste.

“At the peak, before they went to use the real industrial incinerators, it was about 500,000 pounds a day of stuff,” according to a transcript of an April 2008 presentation by Dr. Bill Halperin, who heads the Occupational and Environmental Health Subcommittee at the Defense Health Board. “The way it was burned was by putting jet fuel on it.”

A lawsuit filed against the burn pit operators, KBR, by a contractor alleges the burn pit also contained body parts.

A special thanks to CNN producer Adam Levine who took the time to speak with myself and others who were exposed to the burn pit during deployments and civilian job assignments.

The video below aired a few days ago on CNN with the follow up report posted just moments ago online. While I feel the video is sorely lacking in reporting the most common symptoms reported by soldiers (skin lesions, blisters, heart arrhythmias, breathing problems, etc), I think Adam Levine put it well when he wrote to me that he, “thought it presented the situation, the concerns of troops and the military’s response in a way to explain it to a general audience that knew nothing of the issue.”

[video]

Perhaps it is a good “introduction” video for the general population to what I hope doesn’t turn into the next “Gulf War Syndrome”.  We’re gonna keep riding this one until the bitter end.

ADDITION:

I also wanted to add I’ve experienced headaches and chest pains since returning home from Balad, Iraq in 2006 but have largely ignored as a simply stress associated with my deployment. I made an appointment with my local VA medical clinic to have it looked into in a few weeks (the first available appointment). I’ll post results as my symptoms may or may not be associated with exposure to the Balad burn pit.

The first lawsuit has surfaced in connection with the health risks associated with the Balad, Iraq burn pit.

If you recall, I blogged previously about this issue here and here.   I am focusing on this topic because not only is it a legitimate concern of the military and civilian personnel deployed into it’s vacinity, but also because I WAS one of the many soldiers stationed next to the burn pit for 12 months.

Two years after a memo was published about the dangers of the Balad burn pit by environmental engineer Darrin Curtis, who served with the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group at Balad from September 2006 to January 2007, we have our first lawsuit against KBR and Halliburton:

A Georgia man has filed a class-action lawsuit against KBR and Halliburton, saying the contractors exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.

Joshua Eller, who worked as a civilian computer-aided drafting technician with the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing, said military personnel, contractors and third-country nationals may have been sickened by contamination at the largest U.S. installation in Iraq, home to more than 30,000 service members, Defense Department civilians and contractor personnel.

[...]

Eller filed his claim after he deployed in February 2006 for 10 months. The lawsuit claims he developed skin lesions that subsequently spread, filled with fluid and burst. He said they went away, then reappeared, followed by blisters on his feet that made it painful for him to walk. He said they healed, but continue to return every three to four months.

Then, Eller said he experienced vomiting, cramping and diarrhea, and continues to suffer severe abdominal pain.

“Plaintiff witnessed the open air burn pit in operation at Balad Air Force Base,” the lawsuit states. “On one occasion, he witnessed a wild dog running around base with a human arm in its mouth. The human arm had been dumped on the open air burn pit by KBR.”

And from my other website, American Babble, where I documented by deployment and travels around the world, here are comments from other soldiers who were stationed in Balad too:

Jacob Kern

I was stationed at ANACONDA in 2006 as a civilian and had first hand incounters with this “Burn Pit”. I remember specificlly, the amount of plastics and small arms amunition that I saw in this pit, even burning paint and paint cans. I was exposed to the Burn Pit for about an hour and a half and recall getting rather sick that same evening to the point I went to the clinic there on post. Another place that has a serious problem with this is CAMP CUERO in Rahmadi, Iraq. I am not 100% sure that is the correct city but when they burn the pit on the south end of the camp it is horrible.

Jesse Marcel

I spent 13 months in Balad from 2004 to 2005. The fumes from that pit cannot be described. In the summer of 2005 I noted a weakness in my legs resulting in a foot drop which now requires leg supports to walk Neuroligical exam feels the cause is unknown, I have to feel the cause is from toxic agents exposed to from the burn pit.
Did anyone else note neurological problems associtated with being at Balad or other ares where uncontrolled burn pits were in operation. Jess Marcel

This is just the tip of the iceburg. Other sites reporting on the hazardous environment of Balad are reporting similar comments from soldiers and civilians who were stationed there in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

And the military’s response to the accusations? It’s classified.

By the way, I really suggest reading the whole story to see what else KBR/Haliburton is being sued for.  The list also includes “serving spoiled, expired, and rotten food to troops… filling the swimming pool with unsafe water…. delivering ice in mortuary trucks that still had traces of body fluid and putrified remains”.

UPDATE:

For a minute I disregarded this 2nd article as the same one as above until I realized the lawsuits are from two different states:

INDIANAPOLIS — Sixteen Indiana National Guard soldiers sued defense contractor KBR Inc. on Wednesday, saying its employees knowingly allowed them to be exposed to a toxic chemical in Iraq five years ago.

[...]

Some of the soldiers who served at the site now have respiratory system tumors associated with hexavalent chromium exposure, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit seeks reimbursement for medical costs, monitoring for cancer and other health problems and unspecified monetary damages.

Pres. Bush won’t be around to protect you forever, Haliburton. Here comes the fallout.

Another UPDATE:

From CNN:

Mark McManaway, a father and grandfather, was an Indiana National Guard sergeant at the water plant from May through September 2003, when the worst exposures are believed to have occurred. He is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“The worst part is that the military has only just recently advised us that the stuff we were exposed to was much worse than they thought while we were out there,” said McManaway. “It’s in our bodies, but we don’t know how bad it is. Maybe within the next five years cancers could start showing up. You’ve got a ticking time bomb in you — and when’s it going to go off?”

The U.S. military is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

(Clarification: The above lawsuit filed against KBR/Haliburton is in reference to soldiers exposed to chemicals at the Qarmat Ali water pumping plant in southern Iraq and not the Balad burn pit. This additional article was posted to show a pattern of neglegence by KBR/Haliburton.)

Start writing another chapter in grass roots organization, bloggers are the new wave of citizen advocacy! And what better cause than protecting our soldiers.

I wrote previously (with pictures!) about public concern over the burn pits in the Iraq theater (mostly in Balad, Iraq where myself and Skitz M. Jones were stationed for 12 months) and the health risk it causes the soldiers and contractors who breathe its fumes 24/7.

Bloggers have picked up on the story.  A shit-storm is sure to follow:   (Ms. Sparky, American Babble, LewRockwell, Vets for Common Sense, The Missing Man)

In response, the military is tight lipped about the problem just like all other controversial health hazards from the past:

….veterans’ advocates are calling for full transparency about the health risks faced by service members who have been stationed at the largest U.S. air base in Iraq, where one inspector called an open-air burn pit “the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited.”

But for the moment, that quote — found in a memo from a military environmental engineer from Utah — is all that is publicly known from a 2006 Environmental Health Site Assessment on the situation at Balad Air Base. That’s because the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine is refusing to make the document public, saying that the information it contains “would damage our national security.”

How could a health assessment damage national security? For veteran Paul Rieckhoff, the situation smells as bad as Iraq’s foul air.

“It’s troubling,” said Rieckhoff, an Iraq combat veteran and director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which lobbies on behalf of vets who have served in the nation’s ongoing conflicts. “Just saying ‘everything is fine’ is not going to fly.”

The U.S. Army has classified the memo written in 2006 by Darrin Curtis, (an environmental engineer) and the soldiers and civilians who were forced to breathe in its fumes are left in the cold.

Some comments from the lastest article on the Balad, Iraq burn pit from Military.com:

zephyr911

It’s no wonder there are so many paranoid wackjobs out there spouting conspiracy theories. Folks, it’s because, every now and then, people in power do in fact endanger us unnecessarily, and then lie about it.

I just drove past this burn pit a couple days ago during a visit to Balad. It is as foul as ever. I thought back to 2004 when my two buddies called me a p*$$y for not wanting to run through the drifting smoke. It makes me sick.

joshua_sergeant

that was probably the worst air I have ever breathed. Smelled like chordite and burning electrical wires all the time. Dec 05-Apr 06 Balad, May 06 – Dec 06 Baghdad, Aug 07-May 08 Ramadi

sitmogo

There was a similar burn pit in Al Asad, Iraq. When I filled out my medical health assessment before leaving Iraq I wrote down that I had been exposed to smoke and fumes on a continual basis. When I handed it to the flight surgeon he handed it back and told that I had to change it. I said no, I would not change it and was then thoroughly questioned about what I thought I was exposed to. I said “the smoke from that huge pile of junk that burns all the time”. I was then told that was nothing to worry about and to change my assessment to reflect this, I refused.

I’ll continue to follow up on this as more information becomes available.

An article listed in Military.com today called “Balad Burn Pit May Pose Health Risk” sparked my interest mostly because I spent a year long deployment stationed in Balad, Iraq myself. Along with the thousands of other troops that have been stationed in Balad (or, LSA Anaconda), one thing stands out in all of our memories:  the burn pit.

The burn pit is a massive pile of garbage that burns 24/7 which leaves a long trail of smoke lifting into the sky and, depending on how the wind shifts, into the lungs of the soldiers and civilians stationed there.  The plume is so large that “software engineers writing a program to help fighter pilots navigate their way onto the base made it a central part of the digitally simulated skyline”

During my post-deployment health assessment, I made sure to document my concern for breathing in the burn pit air for 12 months even though the military denied it causing any adverse affects.

But there’s a new memo being circulated that was written by environmental engineer Darrin Curtis, who served with the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group at Balad from September 2006 to January 2007 (I left Balad in October, 2006).

Here’s what he says:

He expressed his dismay with the burning of toxic chemicals, plastics and other toxic waste — including, according to some reports, amputated limbs from the base hospital — and the lack of any apparent concern for the health of those breathing in the smoke.

Curtis wrote that health risks associated with smoke inhalation and respiratory exposure to toxic fumes produced by the burn could result in chronic ailments for service members at a base already ripe with other wartime hazards, including frequent rounds of indirect fire that earned the facility the nickname “Mortaritaville.”

“It is amazing that the burn pit has been able to operate without restrictions over the past few years without significant engineering controls put in place”.

Below are my personal pictures of the burn put from my deployment in 2005-2006. They show the actual pit and also the visual effect it has on the 25 square kilometer base:

Balad Air Base is quickly becoming to “Ramstein” of Iraq. I’m willing to wager that it will be the next permanent duty station for American troops…. just as we have in South Korea and Germany. American troops have been stationed in Balad for 5 years now. I’m glad to see the truth of its health hazards are coming to light.