OEF OIF Veterans Burning For You

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 21, 2014

Burn Pits have been making troops sick and Congress was fixing it in 2008. If you think any of what is going on with our troops and veterans is new, it isn't. It has been one long nightmare for all of them.

This is another reminder of what Congress did not take care of. Aside from the troubles with the VA, there are so many other things Congress could have fixed but they played politics with the troops the same as they played politics with our veterans. It is like a game to them but the men and women serving this country had to pay for it.

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.”

That piece of news didn't come out last year or the year before. It came out in 2009.

What did Congress do? They wrote a bill.

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.

The veterans felt they had no other choice but to sue KBR in 2010.

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.

Veterans Returning Home From Iraq, Afghanistan Point To Open Air Burn Pits As New ‘Agent Orange’
CBS News
Ken Bastida
May 20, 2014

They’ve filed class action lawsuits, alleging the operator of the pits KBR and its former parent company Halliburton acted negligently. KBR denies that, and argues as a military contractor it shares the same immunity as the government from lawsuits over war related injuries.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Hundreds of veterans coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are falling ill and many are dying of what’s being called the new “Agent Orange”: open air burn pits.

There’s no proven cause but vets and their families say they know why.

Lieutenant Colonel Gwen Chiaramonte is proud to have served her country. At Balad Air Force Base in Iraq she was a combat stress therapist, familiar with exposure to danger off base. “You worry but you think you just have to live,” she said.

Now she believes there was danger from within too: An open air pit where the base’s garbage was burned. “They they just threw everything in. Vehicles, tires, plastic bottles, trash, medical waste, dead animals. Then they would pour jet fuel on it and just light it,” she said.

Chiaramonte says the burn pit spewed columns of ashy smoke that often blew right into her nearby housing unit. “It would smell like it would be on fire,” she said.

She started getting constant nose bleeds. Then when she got home, the really bad news: A rare form of aggressive ovarian cancer.
read more here

This makes all of this seem even worse since this is what came out in 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008

Senator Akaka wants answers on burn pit toxins

Akaka wants DoD, VA to review war-zone toxins

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Dec 1, 2008 19:08:25 EST

Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has asked that the co-chairs of the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Oversight Committee begin a review of environmental toxins — including those coming from burn pits — at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Reports of possible exposure to smoke from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to the committee’s attention,” Akaka wrote in a letter dated Dec. 1. “Concerns about such exposure would appear to be an ideal opportunity for focused efforts to track the location of service members in relation to the possible exposure sites.”

The letter was addressed to Gordon England, deputy defense secretary, and Gordon Mansfield, deputy VA secretary.

Troops At Risk Because DOD Didn't Follow Regulations

IG thrashes DoD in final burn pit report
Military Times
By Patricia Kime
Staff writer
February 12, 2015

The VA established a burn pit registry in October to track the health of individuals who believe they were exposed to pollutants from burn pits or other airborne hazards in Iraq and Afghanistan, such as dust and sand.

As of January 26, 30,711 people have enrolled in the registry, according to VA.

U.S. Marines dispose of trash in a burn pit in

Khan Neshing District, Afghanistan, in 2012.

(Photo: Cpl. Alfred V. Lopez/Marine Corps)

The Defense Department's failure to follow regulations on solid waste disposal, along with its practice of burning prohibited items in burn pits in Afghanistan put U.S. troops' health at risk, says the chief watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction.

In his final report on the use of burn pits and incinerators in Afghanistan, John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, accused the Pentagon of being unprepared for waste disposal at the start of Operation Enduring Freedom and said continued use of burn pits put troops at unnecessary risk from potentially harmful emissions.

According to Sopko, DoD "had been aware for years" of the health risks posed by burn pits and called their use — even after policies were adopted to restrict it — "disturbing."

"It is indefensible that U.S. military personnel, who are already at risk of serious injury and death when fighting the enemy, were put at further risk from the potentially harmful emissions from the use of open air burn pits," Sopko wrote in the "Final Assessment: What We Have Learned from Our Inspections of Incinerators and Use of Burn Pits in Afghanistan," released Thursday.

The Office of the SIGAR was established to ferret out waste and fraudulent use of U.S. taxpayer money in rebuilding Afghanistan.

The U.S. has spent more than $104 billion for reconstruction, with Sopko's office recovering more than $570 million from criminal fines, restitution, forfeitures, civil settlements and cost-savings, according to SIGAR reports.
read more here

Jennifer Kepner served as an Air Force Medic in Iraq in 2006, killed by cancer caused by burn pits

President Trump signs Rep. Ruiz’s burn pits, law enforcement mental health bill into law

News Channel 3
By Jesus Reyes
December 20, 2019

Kepner lost her battle to cancer on October 16, 2017. She was 39 years old and left behind a husband and two young children. After her passing, her husband continued her fight to end burn pits.

President Donald Trump signed three of local Congressman Raul Ruiz's bills into law, including legislation to stop burn pits and improve mental health services for local law enforcement.

On Friday, Trump signed the bipartisan, $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act into law. The NDAA included two pieces of Ruiz's legislation aiming to end the use of toxic military burn pits.

Burn pits were used as the main way to get rid of waste and garbage on American military bases during the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, hundreds of tons of waste were burned each day including plastics, Styrofoam, petroleum products, human waste, and other items.

Many service members and veterans exposed to burn pits ended up suffering from pulmonary issues, insomnia, cancer, and rare illnesses.

An independent registry by Burn Pits 360, a veteran organization whose goal it is to end burn pits, reveals that over 6,000 veterans have been exposed to toxic airborne chemicals and fumes generated by open air burn pits.

Ruiz's legislation calls on the Department of Defense to produce and implement a plan to phase out the use of burn pits and provide a comprehensive list of all locations where the toxic burn pits have been used.

One local veteran affected by burn pits was at the forefront of highlighting the dangers of the practice years ago.

Cathedral City resident Jennifer Kepner served as an Air Force Medic in Iraq in 2006. She told News Channel 3's John White in Sept. 2017, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2016. read it here

Iraq Veterans Sue KBR For Burn Pit Toxic Exposures

Five Casper veterans sue company over toxic burn pits in Iraq
Casper Star Tribune
Lillian Schrock
October 9, 2015

Five Casper military veterans filed a federal lawsuit Friday alleging they were exposed to toxic fumes when a Houston-based corporation improperly burned waste during the war in Iraq.

Ochs Law Firm filed the suit against KBR Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming. The suit is believed to be the first toxic burn pit case filed in Wyoming, according to the Casper-based law office.

The suit states KBR was hired to handle waste disposal for American operations in Iraq.

KBR failed to take necessary safety precautions and incinerated unsorted waste, including chemicals, in burn pits, exposing the soldiers to health-damaging toxins, the suit claims.
read more here

ALSO

Vets Can Finally Sue Contractors for Cancer Caused by War
After the Supreme Court found that KBR could be sued over the burn pits it operated on bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, I received a memo from an Air Force bioenvironmental flight commander, Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, saying that the troops at Air Base Balad were being exposed to “an acute health hazard.”

At that point, no one had reported on the burn pits, which were used by the military and its contractors to dispose of trash at almost every base in Iraq and Afghanistan.

New Mexico

Ailing vets sue, say toxic burn pits cost them their health

KBR, Halliburton Found Not Immune in Burn-Pit Suits
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- KBR Inc. and Halliburton Co. aren’t automatically immune from lawsuits by military service members over illnesses caused by exposure to contractor burn pits, a U.S. appeals court said, reversing a lower court ruling. KBR is only entitled to immunity if it adhered to the terms of its contract with the government, something the district court failed to explore adequately, U.S. Circuit Judge Henry Floyd wrote in sending the case back for further proceedings.

There are a lot more like this one from 2010

Houston National Guard troops file suit over Camp Taji burn pits
Ill wind blows, some in Houston Guard unit believe
Baghdad burn pit operated by KBR said to cause migraines, breathing problems and rashes
By LINDSAY WISE and LISE OLSEN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 1, 2010

CAMP TAJI, Iraq — One night in mid-January, a shift in the wind sent a sudden flurry of white flakes into a detainee internment facility guarded by soldiers from Houston’s 72nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team.

The Texas Army National Guard troops weren’t witnessing a rare Baghdad snowfall. The flakes drifting from the pitch-dark sky were ash and bits of charred trash belched from an open-air burn pit about 100 yards from the outer walls of the internment facility.

Operated by Houston-based contractor KBR, the pit consumes 120 tons of garbage a day here at Camp Taji, a U.S. military base north of Baghdad. On calm days, noxious smoke billows upward and dissipates into a smog-like haze. When the wind blows, the acrid-smelling fumes pour into towers and yards where about 800 Texas troops from the 72nd keep watch.

“It hovers over like a blanket,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kevin Ethier, 36, of Montgomery. “After it rains, you’ll get puddles of stuff. It’s like a yellowish, brackish color. It looks metallic. It’s just disgusting.”

Soldiers say a fine layer of soot settles on their uniforms and black goop comes out when they blow their noses. They complain of migraines, breathing problems, coughs, sore throats, irritated eyes and skin rashes.

The Texas Guard troops aren’t the first to report problems from exposure to burn pits at U.S. military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan.

National Guardsman Dying After Burn Pit

Iraq War Vet Lived to See Birth of 'Burn Pit' Registry for Ill Troops
NBC News
BY BILL BRIGGS
July 8, 2014

A new federal registry of U.S. troops and veterans possibly sickened by toxic smoke in Iraq and Afghanistan has gathered nearly 11,000 eligible names -– including the ill airman who inspired the site but expected to die before it launched.

“What I really feel is relief. It's been a battle,” said Master Sgt. Jessey Baca, 54, a member of the New Mexico Air National Guard. He and his wife, Maria, began pushing for the registry in 2010. “When I started, I figured I might not be alive to see it.”

Baca, who maintained fighter jets during two Iraq tours, has constrictive bronchiolitis. The airway-plugging malady is, “in certain situations, a progressive, terminal disease,” said Dr. Robert Miller, a Nashville-based pulmonologist who performed lung biopsies to diagnose the ailment in Baca plus about 65 other troops and veterans.

A former half-marathoner who once jogged along the irrigation canals near his Albuquerque home, Baca no longer has the energy to wash his truck or tend his garden. He’s created a bucket list. His days, he said, “are numbered.”

But five times weekly, Baca dons his Air Force uniform and drives to Kirtland Air Force Base. That duty preserves his cherished link to national service. The diagnosis has forced him into light duty -– computer work. And that change, he admits, is “hard to accept” for a man who once lived “at 100 miles per hour.” Some mornings, he must will himself out of bed.
read more here

Afghanistan Burn Pits

Burn Pits

Iraq Burn Pits

UPDATE
ADD THIS STORY TO THE ABOVE

Soldier's family blames death on burn pits
By St. John Barned-Smith
July 3, 2014


Elizabeth Thomas says her husband, David, "was my soulmate." He died June 27 of lung cancer at age 47.

The cough started during David Thomas' last deployment with the U.S. Army.

"We thought maybe he had a cold," said his wife, Elizabeth Thomas.

After months battling what he thought was a chronic dry cough, he saw a doctor, who told him he had stage IV lung cancer, which already had metastasized to his brain. Thomas came to believe he'd contracted the cancer after being exposed to toxins from burn pits while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Friday, Thomas will bury her husband at the Houston National Cemetery, less than two weeks after a federal online registry opened for veterans to document adverse health effects they believe they suffered due to exposure to smoke from the burn pits. The registry, Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry, is a database experts hope will provide more information about how veterans' service in the Middle East affected their health.
read more here

Federal Court May Finally Help OEF OIF Veterans After Burn Pits

Federal court to weigh lawsuit alleging lung diseases from Iraq, Afghanistan burn pits
Stars and Stripes
By Tara Copp
Published: December 31, 2015

KBR, under the military’s logistical support contract, operated the pits.

WASHINGTON — A federal district court on Jan. 21 will consider the scope of a lawsuit alleging soldiers’ exposure to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan led to serious respiratory illnesses and deaths and whether government contractor KBR, Inc. is responsible for the way the pits were operated.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, the military relied heavily on the large, open-air pits to burn trash and waste daily, exposing the personnel working the pits and others living nearby to toxic smoke.

In 2010, the Government Accountability Office found the Department of Defense was not following its own regulations for safe burn-pit operations, and that pits were regularly used to dispose of prohibited plastics, paints, batteries, aerosols, aluminum and other items that could produce harmful emissions when burned.

Nine locations in Afghanistan are also potentially within the lawsuit’s scope, as are another eight bases supporting Iraq and Afghanistan operations, such as Camp Arijian in Kuwait.
read more here

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.
read more here

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/

In Eustis, wife seeks answers about Iraq veteran's deadly tumor

In Eustis, wife seeks answers about Iraq veteran's deadly tumor
Amy C. Rippel Special to the Sentinel
December 12, 2008
EUSTIS - When Kevin Wilkins died suddenly in April from a brain tumor, there was nothing his wife, Jill, could do.

Within days of being diagnosed, he was dead. There was no time to react. No time to help. No time to say goodbye.

But now Jill Wilkins is questioning whether his tumor might have been because of exposure to chemical clouds when he served in Iraq, and she has taken matters into her own hands. Time is on her side now. And she wants answers.

She has launched a one-woman campaign to find out if her husband's contact with the smoke from burn pits was the reason for his brain tumor. In Iraq, where Kevin Wilkins served two tours, trash is burned in pits. Everything from chemicals to plastics is burned, releasing toxins into the air, according to one report.



The U.S. Air Force recently said that the burn pits pose no long-term health risks. However, an earlier Air Force report said the pits were a "health concern."

The Eustis woman said if her husband's death is related to his military service, she and her children -- a 17-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter -- don't stand to gain a lot financially. Mostly, she's pursuing it this she could possibly help other families, she said.
click above for more

Down the bottom of this blog there is a video on the burn pits.

I also just found this on Army Times.

Petraeus: Military studying burn pit fumes
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 12, 2008 17:10:38 EST

In response to a question about the burn pit at Joint Air Base Balad, Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, said the need for burn pits will continue, but the military is trying to minimize exposure to possible toxins.

“Much effort has gone into locating/relocating pits in remote areas of the operating bases to minimize exposure, training personnel on proper operation, developing/circulating operating procedures and assessing burn pit operations to include corrective action,” Petraeus wrote.

After Military Times investigated possible chemicals and dioxins troops may have been exposed to in Afghanistan and Iraq from giant open-air pits that were burning everything from plastic bottles to used petroleum products, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., wrote a letter to Petraeus asking if the burn pits were being investigated.

Petraeus said thousands of air, water and soil samples have been tested. However, Military Times has learned that the Balad is the only base where the burn pit specifically has been checked.

A military report found toxin levels in the plume at acceptable levels; however, data on testing for particulate matter in that plume has not yet been released.

More than 100 service members have contacted Military Times saying they became sick with asthma, sleep apnea, heart palpitations, bronchitis, and lymphoma or leukemia while at Balad. click link in this section for more

Lawmakers to hold news briefing on burn pits

Lawmakers to hold news briefing on burn pits
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 10, 2009 17:11:21 EDT

Sponsors of a bill aimed at more tightly regulating the use of open-air burn pits for waste disposal in Iraq and Afghanistan will hold a news conference Thursday to highlight the effects on troops of possible exposure to toxins from burn-pit smoke.

“There is mounting evidence that veterans may be ill — and some may have actually died — as a result of exposure to dangerous toxins produced by the pits,” Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., said in a statement. Bishop co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H.

The news conference will feature veterans who say they were sickened by the plumes, as well as an epidemiologist who specializes in the health risks associated with exposure to burn pits, which are used at bases throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.


The legislation, HR 2419, prohibits building burn pits on new bases that military officials know will exist for more than six months, and it calls for tracking all troops exposed to the black plumes that come from the pits.
go here for more and video
Lawmakers to hold news briefing on burn pits

Lung disease of soldier linked to burn pits

Lung disease of soldier linked to burn pits

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 30, 2009 17:09:31 EDT

Even as military health officials continue to say there are “no known long-term health effects” caused by open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, a team of Army doctors says a soldier’s cystic lung disease is “related to the burn pits in Iraq.”

A second set of doctors, trying to determine why 56 soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division came back from Iraq short of breath, found each had bronchiolitis that could be diagnosed only with a biopsy.

That disease normally comes with organ transplantation, infection, rheumatoid arthritis or toxic fume inhalation. Because there was no scarring on the soldiers’ lungs, doctors decided it must have been toxic inhalation and added a fifth cause of bronchiolitis to their list: “Iraq.”

Since Military Times began reporting in October about burn pits in the war zones, 400 troops have contacted Disabled American Veterans to say they have breathing problems or cancers they believe came after exposure to the burn pits.

Many say they have been diagnosed with “asthma-like” or “allergy-like” symptoms when they’ve complained of shortness of breath, but their doctors can’t come up with an exact diagnosis.
go here for more
Lung disease of soldier linked to burn pits

The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan Killing Soldiers

Toxic Trash: The Burn Pits of Iraq and Afghanistan
Published on August 24 2011

Billy McKenna and Kevin Wilkins survived Iraq—and died at home. The Oxford American sent filmmaker Dave Anderson and journalist J. Malcolm Garcia to Florida to investigate this deadly threat to American soldiers.

"Smoke Signals," by J. Malcolm Garcia

Published in the Fall 2011 Issue of The Oxford American.

Strange to think about it, the black smoke.

As it turns out, the eventual killer of Billy McKenna was lurking in the photographs he snapped in Iraq. Billy wrote captions beneath some of his photographs: typical day on patrol reads one. The photo is partially obscured by the blurred image of a soldier’s upraised hand. Brown desert unfurls away from a vehicle toward an empty horizon, and a wavering sky scorched white hovers above. Off to one side: Balad Air Base and the spreading umbrella of rising dank smoke from a burn pit.

Billy told his wife, Dina, in e-mails from Iraq that the stench was killing him. The air so dirty it rained mud. He didn’t call them burn pits. She can’t recall what he called them. He didn’t mean killing him literally. Just that the overwhelming odor was god-awful and tearing up his sinuses. He didn’t wear a mask. It would not have been practical. In heat that soared above a hundred degrees, what soldier would wear one?

Dina doesn’t know when she first heard the words “burn pit.” A Veterans Affairs doctor may have said it. The doctors were telling her a lot of things when Billy was on a ventilator. All she could think was, How can he have cancer? He’s indestructible. He’s been to hell and back. He can build houses, race cars, fish, camp. He was an Eagle Scout as a kid. He doesn’t smoke cigarettes.

But Billy had been exposed to something much more harmful than cigarettes. Since 2003, defense contractors have used burn pits at a majority of U.S. military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan as a method of destroying military waste. The pits incinerate discarded human body parts, plastics, hazardous medical material, lithium batteries, tires, hydraulic fluids, and vehicles. Jet fuel keeps pits burning twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
read more here

CNN False Outrage Is Not The Change We Need

by
Chaplain Kathie


$165 million in bonuses? Is this just something to jump on so that CNN and the rest of the media can fill time with instead of reporting on things that we really need investigated? While I do not want to just focus on CNN because all news stations are guilty of false outrage, CNN attracts viewers across political lines.

There are bigger issues dealing with a lot more tax payer funds and American lives that should have been reported on at least as much as the AIG story, but they were not. They were dropped soon after they were reported on and there were no resolutions, no public outrage, no justice and no accountability. This is just one case;

Thursday, March 06, 2008

KBR making money off taxpayers but not paying their's
Top Iraq contractorskirts US taxes offshore
Kellogg Brown & Root, the nation's top Iraq war contractor and until last year a subsidiary of Halliburton Corp., has avoided paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Social Security taxes by hiring workers through shell companies based in this tropical tax haven. (By Farah Stockman, Boston Globe)

When hundreds of billions of tax payer funds were missing in Iraq, how much reporting was done on it? Did we ever get an answer on who was responsible or held accountable? Did anyone repay the money or go to jail? What about Hallibuton and KBR? Did anyone get to the bottom of how much they ripped off the tax payers? Even more important was anyone ever charged with the damage they caused the troops in Iraq? Think about this;

Friday, October 12, 2007

Did Your Soldier Come Home Sick From Iraq?
Halliburton provided contaminated water to Soldiers

Al Asad Airbase is the focus of the video I just added to this blog. It wasn't such a big secret considering it has been played across the country to the "liberals" who cared enough to see it. Ben Carter, worked for KBR/Halliburton as a water purification specialist.In the video, he talks about the fact the water at Al-Asad was contaminated. Chlorine was not found in the water supply that was supposed to be added to it. We've heard horrible stories about cholera outbreaks in Iraq, along with super bugs, as water is not fit to drink or bathe in. Yet our government contracted with companies and then provided no oversight to make sure the troops were provided with everything they were paying for.

You can find more about KBR reports here.
KBR search on Screaming In An Empty Room

And then we have the burn pits in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. Where are the reports on this? Does CNN or any of the other stations have any time to spend reporting on this? How many are sick because of this or died because of this? Any reporting on the troops that we are supposed to care about?

Friday, December 12, 2008

In Eustis, wife seeks answers about Iraq veteran's deadly tumor

Amy C. Rippel Special to the Sentinel
December 12, 2008
EUSTIS - When Kevin Wilkins died suddenly in April from a brain tumor, there was nothing his wife, Jill, could do.Within days of being diagnosed, he was dead. There was no time to react. No time to help. No time to say goodbye.But now Jill Wilkins is questioning whether his tumor might have been because of exposure to chemical clouds when he served in Iraq, and she has taken matters into her own hands. Time is on her side now. And she wants answers.She has launched a one-woman campaign to find out if her husband's contact with the smoke from burn pits was the reason for his brain tumor. In Iraq, where Kevin Wilkins served two tours, trash is burned in pits. Everything from chemicals to plastics is burned, releasing toxins into the air, according to one report.The U.S. Air Force recently said that the burn pits pose no long-term health risks. However, an earlier Air Force report said the pits were a "health concern."The Eustis woman said if her husband's death is related to his military service, she and her children -- a 17-year-old son and a 16-year-old daughter -- don't stand to gain a lot financially. Mostly, she's pursuing it this she could possibly help other families, she said.click above for more

I also just found this on Army Times.
Petraeus: Military studying burn pit fumesBy Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Dec 12, 2008 17:10:38 EST
In response to a question about the burn pit at Joint Air Base Balad, Gen. David Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, said the need for burn pits will continue, but the military is trying to minimize exposure to possible toxins.“Much effort has gone into locating/relocating pits in remote areas of the operating bases to minimize exposure, training personnel on proper operation, developing/circulating operating procedures and assessing burn pit operations to include corrective action,” Petraeus wrote.After Military Times investigated possible chemicals and dioxins troops may have been exposed to in Afghanistan and Iraq from giant open-air pits that were burning everything from plastic bottles to used petroleum products, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., wrote a letter to Petraeus asking if the burn pits were being investigated.Petraeus said thousands of air, water and soil samples have been tested. However, Military Times has learned that the Balad is the only base where the burn pit specifically has been checked.A military report found toxin levels in the plume at acceptable levels; however, data on testing for particulate matter in that plume has not yet been released.More than 100 service members have contacted Military Times saying they became sick with asthma, sleep apnea, heart palpitations, bronchitis, and lymphoma or leukemia while at Balad. click link in this section for more

What about PTSD and the attempted suicides as well as the successful suicides? How about the steps the military was supposed to be taking to address them when the numbers were going up every year proving once again the military just produced a "better than nothing" program to address the suffering of thousands of our troops. The rate of suicides in the military has gone up every year. There are over 10,000 attempted suicides every year. Where are the stories on them or what happened to their families after?

What about the backlog of claims in the VA and what fighting the VA does to a veteran wounded in service to the nation, forced to fight to have their claim honored and what kind of suffering they go thru waiting? Have any idea how many families fell apart because of this? Do you have any idea how many children ended up blaming themselves for the way their parent acted because they had no clue what PTSD was?

What about the troops dishonorably discharged with a false diagnosis of "personality disorder" instead of being treated for PTSD and compensated for this wound? How many loved the military and would have stayed in, serving with dedication if they were treated honorably? What ever happened to them? What happened to their families? Was anyone ever held accountable for doing this to them?

The we have stories of veterans taking their own suffering and turning that understanding into advocacy for other veterans. Where are their stories? It's not as the media would have to search very hard for their stories or any of the others because they are reported on across the nation by the local media. Wouldn't it be great to put some focus on them for a change?

A dear friend of mine, Capt. Agnes "Irish" Bresnahan, a Vietnam Era veteran suffered with Agent Orange illnesses and PTSD for years. On March 9, 2009, she had another hearing on her VA claim in Washington DC. That is where she passed away because a bleeding ulcer made her lose pints of blood and her heart could take no more. She fought the VA for herself, but was a tireless advocate for her brothers and sisters also suffering for serving. Do you think that CNN could value a human interest story like that? Do you think any of the national news stations think any of these stories are worthy of the kind of attention AIG bonus money has received?


Feeding the outrage over AIG, while it is an important story and we do deserve answers, does not excuse the lack of reporting on stories involving a lot more tax payer funds and a lot more lives. We can say we support the troops all we want but if the media does not spend any time on them or what they are going thru, they are empty words. We know the public has their hearts tugged by the troops and our veterans. When the reports came out on Walter Reed the response from the American people was fantastic and proved how much they do care about those serving this nation. Isn't it time that CNN and the rest of the national media stations realized this? This is the kind of change the troops and our veterans need. This is the kind of change tax payers need. This is the kind of reporting we need if we are ever going to get any of this right for their sake.

web site
http://www.namguardianangel.com/
blog
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

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.
read more here

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.

Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators

Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Feb 10, 2011 16:51:02 EST
Under pressure from Congress, the Defense Department is moving toward short-term and long-term protections against the risks posed by open-air burn pits that have been used to dispose of garbage in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Protective equipment such as respirators and gas masks are expected to be made available to deployed troops near the burn pits, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen pledged in a letter to two U.S. senators dated Monday. He said a policy on how to promote the use of protective equipment should be ready within 60 days.

For the long term, the U.S. Central Command is buying and installing about 200 solid-waste incinerators that will be used in Afghanistan, Mullen said in the letter to Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

The pits have been used to burn a wide variety of potentially toxic products, including industrial and medical waste, paint thinner and other solvents, batteries and plastic. Schumer and Nelson wrote to the Defense Department in early January after the death of Army Sgt. William McKenna, who had a rare form of lymphoma that the Veterans Affairs Department determined was connected to his exposure to burn pit fumes in Iraq.
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Troops near burn pits to get masks, respirators

Rep. Todd Akin "Military’s Burn Pits Screwed Our Soldiers"

Burn Pits are the Agent Orange of this generation. With the Gulf War, they are still not sure what caused so many health problems. Why is it that after combat veterans end up discovering they have more to worry about after it than during it?

Congressman: The Military’s Burn Pits Screwed Our Soldiers
By Katie Drummond
November 3, 2011
A few months after he came home from Iraq, the Sergeant started having trouble breathing, and noticed numbness in his feet and hands. The military doctors he saw blamed his smoking habit: At 27-years-old, he’d been indulging in half a pack a day for five years. The Pentagon swore that the noxious smoke emanating from the military’s open-air burn pits — massive heaps of household trash, computer parts and even human waste that were used at bases in Iraq until last year, and are still being used in Afghanistan — weren’t at all responsible.

“We all knew that huge plumes of smoke going into the air, all the time, can’t exactly be good for you,” says the Sergeant, who requested anonymity because he fears reprisal from his commanding officers.

Now, one congressman wants the Pentagon to start paying attention to the accumulation of ailments. Rep. Todd Akin today announced a new bill that’d create a database of military personnel afflicted with health conditions they blame on burn pits.

“I have worked with a number of my constituents who were exposed to burn pits while serving in the military,” Rep. Akin, a Republican from Missouri, said in a statement. “The health consequences have been severe.”
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Military’s stance on burn pits assailed

Military’s stance on burn pits assailed

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 6, 2009 13:01:40 EST

The Air Force bioenvironmental officer who was among the first to warn about the potential effects of open-air burn pits on U.S. troops deployed in the war zones said Friday that he does not believe the findings of a 2008 Army report that discounted the possibility of long-range health risks from exposure to the smoke, fumes and ash.

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Darrin Curtis, a biomedical sciences officer who was deployed to Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007, told a Senate panel looking into military contracting issues that he believes the Army lacked the necessary data to conclude, as it did in a report from its Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, that long-term health effects from breaking smoke from burn pits is unlikely.

A new joint study by the Defense Department and Veterans Affairs Department is underway that focuses on comparing the health of 30,000 combat veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and 30,000 veterans who never deployed to see whether there are signs of ill effects from exposure to burn pits. This is similar to post-Vietnam and post-Gulf War studies that took years to complete.

“Although I have no hard data, I believe that the burn pits may be responsible for long-term health problems in many individuals,” Curtis said. “I think we are going to look at a lot of sick people.”
read more here
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/11/military_burnpits_curtis_110609w/

'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

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.
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Congress turns up heat on burn pits