[CPEO-MEF] LEAD: "Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases as hazards go ignored"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Children poisoned by lead on U.S. Army bases as hazards go ignored

Privatizing U.S. military housing was supposed to protect service members’ families. Instead, some of their children are being poisoned by lead. A Reuters investigation unearths dangers in base homes, lapses in military oversight, and a code of silence keeping families at risk.

By JOSHUA SCHNEYER and ANDREA JANUTA
Reuters
August 16, 2018

FORT BENNING, Ga. – Army Colonel J. Cale Brown put his life on the line in two tours of duty in Afghanistan, earning a pair of Bronze Stars for his service. In between those deployments, Brown received orders to report to Fort Benning, the sprawling Georgia base that proudly describes itself as the century-old home of the U.S. infantry.

EARLIER: The thousands of U.S. locales where lead poisoning is worse than inHe was pleased. His wife, Darlena, was pregnant with their second child, and the Browns owned a home in the area. Their 10-month-old son, John Cale Jr, was a precocious baby, babbling a dozen words and exploring solid foods.

Cale’s duties as a battalion commander required him to live on base. So instead of moving into their own house, in 2011 the Browns rented a place inside Fort Benning. The 80-year-old white stucco home had hosted generations of officers.

Like most family housing on U.S. bases today, the home wasn’t owned and operated by the military. It was managed by Villages of Benning, a partnership between two private companies and the U.S. Army, whose website beckons families to “enjoy the luxuries of on-post living.”

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-military-housing/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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