[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: "Keesler [AFB, MS] workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Dangers in the Air - Part 1: Documents show Keesler workers were exposed to dangerous chemicals

By John Fitzhugh 
WLOX TV News (Southern Mississippi)
August 19, 2019 

BILOXI, Miss.  - Some maintenance workers at the 403rd Air Wing at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi said they have become seriously ill from exposure to hazardous materials because of poor safety practices. The workers, and documents from Keesler, indicate base management was aware of the problems as far back as 2009, and either ignored them or was hampered by military bureaucracy to solve them quickly.

Larry McDonald of Gulfport, like many of the maintenance workers at the 403rd, is both a full-time civilian employee and a member of the unit as a reservist. McDonald, 40, has been stationed at Keesler since 2010, working as a sheet metal mechanic in a cluster of buildings that documents show have been plagued with safety hazards in violation of Occupational Safety and Health Administration(OSHA), Department of Defense and Air Force rules. Those violations are detailed in a series of base Work Request forms filed since 2009, and reports filed by the base’s Bioenvironmental and Occupational Health departments and the 81st Medical Group.

The documents show workers in these buildings are exposed to hexavalent chromium, lead, strontium chromate, and methalyene chloride, all dangerous substances. Some are known carcinogens.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.wlox.com/2019/08/19/dangers-air-part-documents-show-keesler-workers-were-exposed-dangerous-chemicals/

--

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





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