Senior Airman Frances Gavalis tosses unserviceable uniform items into a burn pit at Balad Air Base, Iraq. (U.S. Air Force photo)
What is wrong with this photo!!! I can’t find anything right about it and looking at it makes me cringe. This burn pit is at Balad Air Base in Iraq. Up wind from a hospital and located where 100’s of thousands of US Troops and Civilians have been exposed to it.
I know this post is a little long, but this is so important to the safety of our Soldiers and Civilians. Below are several different news articles about this. Interesting….we don’t hear about this kind of stuff on the news!! This is unacceptable!!! These burn pits are not unique in Iraq. KBR had one in the Green Zone that dumped smoke and ash on our camp all the time. The Marines finally had it shut down.
Burn pit at Balad raises health concerns
Troops say chemicals and medical waste burned at base are making them sick, but officials deny risk
By Kelly Kennedy- Staff writer
Army Times
Posted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 16:31:18 EDT
An open-air “burn pit” at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste, documentation gathered by Military Times shows.
The billowing black plume from the burn pit at 15-square-mile Joint Base Balad, the central logistics hub for U.S. forces in Iraq, wafts continually over living quarters and the base combat support hospital, sources say. (To read more click HERE)
AFB officer worries that Iraqi burn pit threatens troops’ health
Air Force says process is safe
By Matthew D. LaPlante
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Launched: 10/29/2008 12:02:55 AM MDT
The great plume of black smoke that rises above the burn pit at Balad Air Base in northern Iraq is such an invariable part of the horizon that software engineers writing a program to help fighter pilots navigate their way onto the base made it a central part of the digitally simulated skyline.
Now the burn pit has become the central part of a conversation about what obligations the military has to keep its members healthy during war.
A memo being circulated at military bases across the country, written by an officer from Hill Air Force Base, calls the pit an “acute health hazard” - one that may have increased the risk of chronic problems for hundreds of thousands of service members and contractors who have done tours of duty at the largest base in Iraq. (To read more click HERE)
This is the memo that was written and distributed in Iraq. This is eerily reminiscent of the electrical shock hazard memo that was distributed by the Army in 2004. Another serious hazard identified and again, nothing is done. Clearly negligent.
SUBJECT: Burn Pit Health Hazards
(From the blog of Aaron Rognstad)
Darrin L. Curtis, Lt Col, USAF, BSC
Dec. 20, 2006
1. The burn pit at Balad AB (Logistics Support Area Anaconda) has been identified as a health concern for several years in numerous action reports, in addition to other Bioenvironmental Enginnering continuity documentation. During the Environmental Health Site Assessments conducted January - April 2006 by the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine, open burning of solid waste was identified as the number two most common environmental health finding. Balad’s burn pit was quoted as being “the worst environmental site I have ever personally visited, and that includes 10 years working RCRA/CERCLA clean-up for the Army and DLA,” by one of the assessment team members.
2. The Air Force documents exposure to the burn pit for those stationed at Balad AB as an environmental health hazard by placing detailed information in each Airman’s medical record during their post-deployment medical record during their outprocessing. It is amazing that the burn pit has been able to operate without restrictions over the past few years without significant engineering controls put in place. I would hope in the future that issues such as burn pits are identified early on and engineering controls such as incinerators would be used to mitigate these hazards. It seems that money has been the issue of why enginnering controls are not currently in place.
3. The smoke hazards are associated with burning plastics, Styrofoam, paper, wood, rubber, POL (petroleum, oil, lubricant) products, non-medical waste, some metals, some chemicals (paints, solvents, etc.), and incomplete combustion by-products. A list of possible contaminants includes: acetaldehyde, acrolein, arsenic, benzene, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, dichloroflouromethane, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen flouride, various metals, nitrogen dioxide, phosgene, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide, toluene, trichloroethene, trochlopropane, and xylene. Many of these chemical compounds have been found during past air sampling. Burn pits may have been an acceptable practice in the past, however today’s solid waste contain materials that were not present in the past that can create hazardous compounds such as those listed above. Open burning may only be practical when it is the only available option and should be only used in the interim until other ways of disposal can be found. This interim fix should not be years, but more in the order of months.
4. In my professional opinion, there is an acute health hazard for individuals. There is also the possibility for chronic health hazards associated with the smoke; thus the information is being made a permanent part of each Airman’s medical record. I base this assessment on the data that I have reviewed and on-site smoke plume assessments (boots on the ground). My background includes a Doctor of Philosophy in Enginnering (Environmenmtal), registered and licensed as a Professional Enginner in Arkansas and Utah respectively and seventeen years of conducting health risk assessments.
I am writing this memo to translate what I see is an operartional healthy risk to those that have been, are now and will be deployed to Balad AB (LSAA). It is my recommendation that enginnering controls, such as the anticipated incinerators, should be expedited to solve this problem.
Darrin L. Curtis, Lt Col, USAF, BSC
Made A Difference For That One: A Surgeon’s Letters Home From Iraq - This American military surgeon deployed to Iraq blogs about his experience with the Balad Burn Pit.
Blog Flack; The fog of war, By Aaron Rognstad A member of the Air National Guard that has been to Iraq three times, blogs about his experience with the Balad Burn Pit.
Marshall Thompson Blog - The Smell Of Burning Flesh In The Morning Awesome Pics (this link added 11/05/08)
Health risk for soldiers in Balad, Iraq: The Burn Pit - Awesome Pics (this link added 11/05/08)
I was always under the impression the Military took care of the sons and daughters we sent them. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Someone please email me when and if this issue is ever resolved.
Ms Sparky
The comments posted on this site are the sole opinion of the comment poster and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this site owner.
10 comments
Ms. Sparky,
Thanks for visiting my blog. M. and I were horrified when we read about the tragic electrocutions of troops taking a shower in housing facilities in Iraq. What a terrible and preventable thing to happen. I was always very skeptical of the safety of suspicious wiring that ran through puddles or across streets. I would definintely like to learn more. Thanks for calling attention to this to try and protect troops.
Chris
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Chris-Thanks for serving!! Feel free to ask any questions about electrical safety or the Soldier electrocutions. If I don’t know the answer, I will get it.
I am disgusted and sickened by this. Our troops are being abused and mistreated. I am angered to tears. No one would be allowed to treat people this way in the US. I AM ANGRY ABOUT THIS!
Ms Sparky’s Response:I
I am very angry about this myself. This is inexcusable.
A great article about the Burn Pits just came out in the Stars & Stripes in Iraq…
It states “only 17 of 41 incinerators the military purchased four years ago to combat the problem are in operation.”
I want to know why?? And where are the others?
Come on DCMA…let’s get on the ball.
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58672
I currently in Iraq at Victory and am going to Balad Monday nov 17th. Thanks for the info.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Be safe. When you get there send me pics of the burn pits if you can get them. Also, let me know if there are any steps made towards resolving this issue, such as getting the other incinerators in service.
I was at Balad AB for 2 tours and Tallil AB (Ali) for 1. I have had all kinds of sinus problems. I get sores in my nose and constant headaches. I hope I dont have to go back.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Get that reported and get it on record. I hope you don’t have to go back either!
Just finsihed my tour in Balad, running waste management as Balad’s “Garbage Officer” from MAR to OCT ‘08. The burn pit was mine.
Shut down the open pits last summer and replaced with trenches and “air burners.” An air burner is a massive leaf burner with a V-8 engine. Stokes the fires up to incinerator temps, so we get a hotter, cleaner burn.
Plastic water bottles get recycled-pound for pound equal to aluminum, just more bulky.
Heavy plastics and metals given to local nationals and sold outside the wire. [shipments inspected for military equipment and prohibitted items]
Plastic-metal mix [DVD players, TVs, etc] are restricted.
Third country National contrators don’t burn with jet fuel–no access to it.
No body parts burned.
The 5 story piles of scrap metal south of the burn pit are all gone.
Put a plan together to recycle scrap wood and waste vegitable oil. Handed this off to our replacements.
The beautiful end of the story here is that ALL the recycling gets done at no cost, saving roughly $4 MILLION to the American taxpayer, but no one wants to cover that.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
I appreciate any positive changes made to the burn pits. But why the conflicting information? Why are the news (Army Times) media and eye witness reports making different claims? When did this recycling program begin? I was told there was another incinerator being built. Is that not true? And….I have to add….what about the past exposures? Any positive changes are great but does not excuse past exposures.
Forgot to mention:
Tires, paints and patroleum turned over to our HAZMAT yard.
Matresses also recycled through the local nationals.
I’d like to know as well!!!! Kelly Kennedy’s first story quoted all the current stats explaining how much we burned per month that summer. [Her numbers were dead on, matching the data I got from wieght studies and daily logs] BUT the anecdotes and interviews were all from 2006 and 2007. The story impies nothing changed between then and now!!
In Kennedy’s defense, she was in the US when she wrote the article. Her primary sources were people from the ‘06 and ‘07 rotations. She didn’t know what we were doing or that we even existed. I was pretty aggrevated when I responded to that first story but she was very patient and understanding, did a follow up in the very next issue.
As for past exposures, I think the picture of the armored bulldozer pushing trash is self-explainitory: why would they use an ARMORED bulldozer? Probably because they were sniped, mortared and rocketted on a daily basis. Just another day in Mortar-ritaville, as the T-shirts say. How effective can any operation be under constant fire? Would you take your garbage cans to the curb if your neighbors were shooting at each other? The attacks slacked way off while I was there so we got to expand and do alot more.
FYI for your other questions:
The Recycling Center opened up last July.
Incinerator #3 started up last June. Funding for #4 got approved just before I left, it should get built and started up this fiscal year. Don’t know the exact time table as I’m back inthe States and not privy to that information.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Positive progress is good. But it can’t just erase past wrongs. If a serial criminal all of a sudden gets a conscience, feels remorse and stops his crime spree, does that absolve him of responsibility for his past crimes? No!! Our soldiers and civilians are not disposable. We owe it to them to do the very best for them every day. If you’re a soldier that included you too! Who takes care of our soldiers?
I too served at Joint Base Balad on November 23, 2008 my tour was over. My comment comes in two parts. The first one is yes I too saw the black plumes of smoke rising in the air. I worked in a Maintenance shop and I could see the black smoke from our work area on a daily basis. Of course we could smell the foul air too.
I had to go several times during each night to the SSA to get parts for our mechanics, and I would have to drive right past the burn pits to get to SSA. So not only could I smell it from my work area, I had to drive straight through the black smoke at night to get to SSA.
It did not matter what time of day or night the burn pits were in operation. (Some may argue and say they stopped burning at a certain time), I will give benefit of the doubt, so if burning did cease by a certain time, let me say the smoldering would go on way into the morning. My last run would be around 2:00am and I was still driving through black smoke. I did not experience headaches but I’ve been home from Iraq now 2 1/2 months and I have a cough I cannot get rid of. I keep taking cough medicine but it is not helping. I plan to go to the VA clinic over this issue and I am just researching the information about the burn pits and I do feel it is what has caused my respiratory problems I current have. So naturally I was wondering if there are any others out there who is experiencing a very bad cough as well?
I think we have forgotten one important issue here. We had trash barrels at our company area which happened to be right next to our maintenance shop. So the company would bring down their items to be burned and we had cardboard, papers, wood, plastic, etc.. to burn as well. People would bring down their uniforms that were worn out and burn them too. So different items would go into these trash barrels to be burned. Since most maintenance shops lined up in a row it was not uncommon to smell the burning of another companies trash. I’ve even seen cinders floating around in the air from my CHU. And often wondered where the trash was being burned to get cinders in our living area. I lived in H-5 housing and I am still baffled by this.
As far as recycling goes by the local nationals. I wonder if they are actually separating all the items in various catagories. From the trash amount in one day it would take too long to do such a job of sorting, if this is free labor and saving the tax payers money. I can see where they might sort for certain items for recycling. To benefit their cause. Trash in dumpsters adds up to a mass amount alone, and where would it be cost effective to go through each and every bag to sort in various categories?
One day on a run to the HAZMAT compound we were passing the dump. I saw a TCN standing on a large hill at the dump he whipped his pants down right there in front of god and all others and proceded to take his dump at the dump. I was totally shocked to see this behavoir. Civilized people don’t do this. Has anyone saw this behavoir going on while at JBB? We are exposed to more than we think. HAZMAT is a big yard and there is massive amounts of barrels both metal and plastic. Where does these items go? What do they do with used batteries, paint cans, solvents, used motor oil, and fuel? It has to go somewhere.
In closing I just wanted to make sure to mention that the burn pits are not the only exposure we had. Trash barrels to burn in as well, so burning went on all around post and not just at the burn pits. I cannot burn trash where I live and it baffles me how the military lets this go on. As I said I just left Camp Anaconda, aka Joint Base Balad in November and it still hasn’t changed much from the complaints others are stating about the large black plumes of smoke rising in the air. It is not burning that clean I can assure you. Burning is burning and smoke is smoke.
Thanks for listening
Deb
Ms Sparky’s Response:
Wow. Thanks for this personal accounting. I know there are several things that are being done to stop these open burn pits. You can click on the “Iraq Burn Pits” Category on the upper left to keep track. Also Keep track of “Jill’s” comments. She is in the forefront of fighting this.
i was at balad, during 05-07, i broke out with welts all over my back and was put on steriod dosage throughout the deployment, when i returned home i seemed to be fine, i am now stationed at mosul, on diamondback, and since i am back in iraq, i am starting to get welts all over my body breaking out again, they say it is because of the burn pit and something in the iraq air is triggering it to come back. my HQ on balad was right across from the burnpit.i am not taking steriod shots again and have to carry around an epipen at all times.
Ms Sparky’s Response:
I recommend you get in touch with the following:
Burn Pits Action Center
https://sites.google.com/site/burnpits/Home
Burke O’Neil LLC (Attorney for Burn Pit vicitims)
http://www.burkeoneil.com/
Good luck to you.
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