Memorandum on the burnpit

I just happened to be walking by this billboard in the AMU the other day and a memo caught my eye. About a little over a year ago this colonel in the Air Force in Aeromedical Sevices visited Balad and assessed the dangers of inhaling smoke from the burnpit. What he wrote on Dec. 20, 2006 is shocking:

SUBJECT: Burn Pit Health Hazards

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

So they burn all this shit because there is a lack of funds for incinerators? WTF? They spend all this money to get all these people over here, but they can't spend enough to keep us from inhaling toxic shit in the air? You see, it's BS like this that makes me question the people in charge.