[CPEO-MEF] DISPOSAL: Leaked Afghan burn pit memo

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Leaked Memo: Afghan 'Burn Pit' Could Wreck Troops' Hearts, Lungs

By Spencer Ackerman
Wired
May 22, 2012

For years, U.S. government agencies have told the public, veterans  
and Congress that they couldn’t draw any connections between the so- 
called "burn pits" disposing of trash at the military’s biggest bases  
and veterans’ respiratory or cardiopulmonary problems. But a 2011  
Army memo obtained by Danger Room flat-out stated that the burn pit  
at one of Afghanistan's largest bases poses "long-term adverse health  
conditions" to troops breathing the air there.

The unclassified memo, dated April 15, 2011, stated that high  
concentrations of dust and burned waste present at Bagram Airfield  
for most of the war are likely to impact veterans' health for the  
rest of their lives. "The long term health risk" from breathing in  
Bagram's particulate-rich air include "reduced lung function or  
exacerbated chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease  
(COPD), asthma, atherosclerosis, or other cardiopulmonary diseases."  
Service members may not necessarily "acquire adverse long term  
pulmonary or heart conditions," but "the risk for such is increased."

The cause of the health hazards are given the anodyne names  
Particulate Matter 10 and Particulate Matter 2.5, a reference to the  
size in micrometers of the particles’ diameter. Service personnel  
deployed to Bagram know them by more colloquial names: dust, trash  
and even feces - all of which are incinerated in "a burn pit" on the  
base, the memo says, as has been standard practice in Iraq and  
Afghanistan for a decade.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/05/bagram-health-risk

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, 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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