A senior airman tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit on Joint Base Balad in Iraq. Burns pits are areas on military sites overseas that are used to incinerate waste, hazardous material and chemical compounds. During the wars Afghanistan and Iraq, it is thought that as many as 200 bases used open air burn pits to dispose of the vast amount of waste accumulated by the US armed forces
* US soldiers have reported that burn pits were used to incinerate all types of trash, including plastics, batteries, appliances, medicines, munitions, animal corpses and even human waste
* During the wars Afghanistan and Iraq, it is thought that more than 200 bases used open air burn pits, and they could burn for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
* One servicewoman described the constant dark black smoke and the lingering smell of burning that seemed to follow you wherever you went on base as 'there was literally no escaping it'
* Thousands of veterans believe that toxins generated the burn pits have caused debilitating illnesses that include rare cancers, thyroid disorders, toxic brain injury, pulmonary disease and lymphoma
* The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does not yet acknowledge a link between the burn pits and long-term health risks and is currently denying the vast majority of benefits claims submitted by veterans
* Senator Kirsten Gillibrand told DailyMail.com veterans are going bankrupt trying to pay their healthcare bills and said that the burden should not fall on them to prove their illnesses are connected to the burn pits
* Although he has not drawn any concrete links, President Joe Biden has acknowledged that the burn pits could have been a 'significant' factor that drove his son Beau to an early death from terminal brain cancer in 2015
* Advocates hope that President Joe Biden's personal connection means that the new administration will act on the issue and force the VA to provide benefits and compensation
Air Force veteran and mom-of-three Amie Muller was just 36 years old when she was diagnosed with the pancreatic cancer that would take her life nine months later.
Her husband Brian describes that moment as not only devastating for the family but also shocking. Amie was young, otherwise healthy and had no family history of cancer.
'When you start Googling pancreatic cancer there's really nothing good on the internet about it,' he said. 'Being how young she was we just knew that this just didn't add up. The average age for pancreatic cancer is well into the 60s.'
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WNU editor: A friend of mine who served in Afghanistan with the French military passed away from lung cancer 5 years ago. He was a non-smoker, and he blamed the burn pit that he was responsible for at his base. He was 35 years old.
5 comments:
Unlike COVID, WNU is 200% right in this case.
Wnu sorry about your friend ..may he rest in peace
And yeah, those burn pits are ecological and health nightmares
Look at that lady in the pic... with a n95 mask at best. Every day you do this. .every day you get exposure. .for months or longer. It's terrible and should be done by robots not humans
Burn Pit Detail
State of the art for expeditionary forces is a 4-hole burner.
You need 4 55 gallon drums and some plywood. In a sheet of plywood you cut 4 equidistant holes. Place the plywood over the drums, which have had their tops cut off. Cut some more plywood up to provide dividers between the 4 holes for privacy. Build a ramp to get up to the 4 headed throne. Believable? Check the Class 4 material orders.
Daily drag the 55 gallon drums out and add fuel.
Light the fuel and stand upwind. Hope it does not shift or enjoy the aroma.
This is state of the art for OEF and OIF.
Of course the US military contracted for porta-potties and latrine trailers. Still due to the isolated, dangerous, or expeditionary nature of operations, there was still a lot burning. And it smelled like victory?
The military had plans to bring in proper EPA approved incinerators. They also had plans for 160,000 square foot AFEES, but that obviously never happened. Although it does make you wonder how long they planned to stay.
"The latrine is burned out daily by adding
sufficient fuel to incinerate the fecal matter.
A mixture of 1 quart (1 liter) of gasoline to 4 quarts
(4 liters) of diesel oil is effective, but must be
used with caution. If possible, have two sets of
drums, one set for use while the other set is being
burned clean. If the contents are not rendered dry
and odorless by one burning, they should be burned
again. Any remaining ash should be buried.
DANGER Highly volatile fuel
such as JP4 (jet propulsion fuel, grade 4) should
not be used because of its explosive nature."
https://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/field_sanitation/field-facilities-for-huma.shtml
Thanks for sharing
You can see an old school burn pit in the movie "Platoon" with Charlie sheen and William dafoe, Tom Berrenger etc... the steps you describe above are shown in the movie Haha 50 years ago or so... because the director, Oliver stone, actually served in Vietnam and knows a thing or two about keeping toilets / faecal matter burned up with gasoline
military burn pits have been around for eternity
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