[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL: "Okinawa: the junk heap of the Pacific"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Okinawa: the junk heap of the Pacific
Decades of Pentagon pollution poison service members, residents and  
future plans for the island

by Jon Mitchell
Japan Times
November 11, 2013

In June, construction workers unearthed more than 20 rusty barrels  
from beneath a soccer pitch in Okinawa City. The land had once been  
part of Kadena Air Base - the Pentagon’s largest installation in the  
Pacific region - but was returned to civilian usage in 1987. Tests  
revealed that the barrels contained two ingredients of military  
defoliants used in the Vietnam War: the herbicide 2,4,5-T and  
2,3,7,8,-TCDD dioxin. Levels of the highly toxic TCDD in nearby water  
measured 280 times the safe limit.

The Pentagon has repeatedly denied storing of defoliants - including  
Agent Orange - on Okinawa. Following the discovery, it distanced  
itself from the barrels; a spokesperson said the Defense Department  
was investigating whether they had been buried after the land’s  
return in 1987, and a U.S. government-sponsored scientist suggested  
they may merely have contained kitchen or medical waste. However, the  
conclusions of the Japanese and international scientific community  
were unequivocal: Not only did the barrels disprove Pentagon denials  
of the presence of military defoliants in Japan, but the polluted  
land also posed a threat to the health of local residents and  
required immediate remediation.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2013/11/11/issues/okinawa-the- 
junk-heap-of-the-pacific/

--

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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