[CPEO-MEF] MUNITIONS, NATIONAL GUARD: Armories have lead dust

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

THE NATIONAL GUARD KNOWS ITS ARMORIES HAVE DANGEROUS LEAD CONTAMINATION, PUTTING KIDS AND SOLDIERS AT RISK 
An Intercept investigation reveals that the Army National Guard has known about poisonous lead dust at armories open to the public for years, but is doing little to respond. 

By Nick Turse
The Intercept
September 18, 2024

THE MATCHES CAME in rapid-fire succession on four pitches squeezed next to each other beneath a cavernous roof. Five boys per team, four matches at once, each 18 minutes, with only 90 seconds between them. Twelve hours later, the boys were gone, but the games went on. Eight teams, four fields, a sea of bouncing ponytails.

...

The Soccer Coliseum bills itself as the “leading youth soccer arena in America, attracting more teams … than any other indoor facility.” Since 1996, this fútbol mecca — which rents space inside New Jersey’s Teaneck Armory — has offered youth soccer programs, including tournaments, classes, and camps, for kids as young as 3, introducing a generation of children to the beautiful game.

Under the 35,000 square feet of red, artificial turf and the site-mandated rubber-soled shoes, however, lurked a hidden danger. The basement had housed an Army National Guard indoor firing range, or IFR, for decades. Each time a citizen-soldier fired a rifle or pistol, it emitted an extremely dangerous form of lead: toxic dust that research shows is frequently tracked around armories on soldiers’ clothing and dispersed through ventilation systems.

…

For the entire article, see
https://theintercept.com/2024/09/18/national-guard-armory-firing-range-kids-lead-exposure/

—

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
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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