Witnesses at this hearing, which will be the twenty-first in a series of hearings held by the Democratic Policy Committee on contracting abuses and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan, will discuss the health risks associated with the continued use of open-air burn pits by the U.S. military and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although military guidelines allow the use of burn pits to dispose of waste only in emergency situations, most large U.S. military installations have continued to use burn pits for years, despite growing evidence that exposure to burn pit smoke may be causing an increased incidence of chronic lung diseases, respiratory ailments, neurological disorders and cancer. Hearing witnesses will testify that plastics, paint, solvents, petroleum products, rubber, and medical waste, including human body parts, have been burned in the pits. Former private contractors will testify that even at established bases in the Green Zone, companies continued to use burn pits instead of clean-burning incinerators to reduce costs and increase profits.
Hopefully we will be able to watch this on C-SPAN
The times are Eastern Standard Time
How many of you former KBR drivers (outside-the-wire) remember having to stop just outside the wire at T.Q. at night during air target practice and having to smell the burn pit smoke and nothing you could do would stop the smell? Remember how putrid the smell was? How many times did we endure this toxic smoldering black lung coating, cancer causing, life ending plume that was as black as coal taken from the coal mines (black lung disease) in miners?
I remember while at Balad in the Bag-farm – I would never see the incinerators belching out smoke – the whole time I was there – it was only the Open Burn Pits up next to the fence-line – past the car-wash area. It only shows me just how little our lives meant to KBR over the $$$$$.
How many times have any of us heard (JUST ONE) former KBR Executive say – “We made many mistakes in Iraq/Afghanistan regarding the safety and welfare of our employees and military personnel”?
I personally believe that before they take their lofty positions – they have their beating hearts removed!!!