[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL: U.S. military pollution in Philippines

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Decades later, U.S. military pollution in Philippines linked to deaths

By Travis J. Tritten
Stars and Stripes Pacific edition
February 2, 2010


CLARK AIR BASE, Philippines - The U. S. military is long gone from bases 
in the Philippines, but its legacy remains buried here.

Toxic waste was spilled on the ground, pumped into waterways and buried 
in landfills for decades at two sprawling Cold War-era bases.

Today, ice cream shops, Western-style horse ranches, hotels and public 
parks have sprung up on land once used by the Air Force and the Navy - a 
benign facade built on land the Philippine government said is still 
polluted with asbestos, heavy metals and fuel.

Records of about 500 families who sought refuge on the deserted bases 
after a 1991 volcanic eruption indicate 76 people died and 68 others 
were sickened by pollutants on the bases. A study in 2000 for the 
Philippine Senate also linked the toxins to "unusually high occurrence 
of skin disease, miscarriages, still births, birth defects, cancers, 
heart ailments and leukemia."


...

For the entire article, see
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=67676

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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