Military News, News From Iraq & Afghanistan - Military Times

‘A dark fog’

In the Nov. 3 issue, Army Times reported on the massive open-air waste burn pits on U.S. installations in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones that some service members worry may pose health risks.

We asked readers to tell us about their experiences. Here’s some of what they’ve told us so far.

To share your stories — and your photos — visit www.armytimes.com/burnpit

I was stationed at Joint Base Balad in Iraq last year for about a month on my last deployment with the 202nd Red Horse Squadron. I remember seeing the ashes fall from the burn pit on the job. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma this past February and finished treatments a few weeks ago. I received a discharge because of the cancer this past July with 10 years of service. My family has no history of this type of cancer. I really believe that this came from my last deployment overseas in Balad. From what I know, I am one of four people in my unit to be diagnosed with cancer in the past two years, with less than 200 people in the squadron.

I was stationed at Balad from December 2005 through May 2006. I am a firefighter and was tasked countless times to extinguish the blaze at the pit when smoke impaired the towers’ view of the airfield.

We inhaled that disgusting stuff while performing our duty. It was bad enough just living on the base breathing the poor-quality air, but driving around in the pit was horrendous.

While I understand that air sanitation was not at the forefront of anyone’s mind going into Iraq, let us not pretend that the smoke is not a health hazard.

I was based at Balad from March 2004 to February 2005. Even though I was located on the opposite side of the base from the burn pit, at times, the smoke from the burn pit would bank down so low that it was like driving through a forest fire.

My story is about Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, a Marine Corps air station similar to Balad. The company I was with in Iraq experienced many headaches, migraines and shortness of breath. While some of us were fortunate to sleep in the center of the base, away from the smoke pits, there were also Marines sleeping next to the smoke pits. The Marines who happened to be exposed were constantly going to medical with headaches and migraines. Medical told them to suck it up and shut up. One Marine did some research and concluded that the smoke from the garbage pit was causing the problems. He showed the information to medical, who finally contacted our commanding officer, and he had them moved immediately. All this took place five or six months into the deployment.

I was deployed [to Balad] with the 332nd Joint Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron from January to May 2005. The burn pit was a huge source of anger for just about everyone I knew there. The smoke would routinely hover over parts of the airfield during the late-night and early-morning hours because of temperature inversions keeping the plume on the surface or just above. This delayed many flights and was a hazard for medevac missions.

Upon outprocessing, we were told that testing concluded that the smoke was nontoxic and not harmful to anyone in the vicinity. We were even told to sign a form — I think it was one of those waiver-of-liability type of things. Every one of us looked at each other like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” There’s no way that stuff was not harmful.

I served at Balad from November 2003 until February 2004. The stench of that burn pit with the heavy particulates hung over our tent city every day, and it was particularly bad at night — like a dark fog. I got my first upper respiratory infection after being there a month and nearly had bronchitis. I had never been so sick in my life. I went to sick call, and the doctor said lots of people were reporting the same symptoms.

I recently retired from the Air Force Reserve. A review of my medical records shows no mention of my sickness while in Balad — all records of my time there were purged. Twice a year since my return, I have developed the same sickness, almost like clockwork. A trip to the doctor and a week of antibiotics, and I am fine.

I was deployed to Balad from September 2007 through mid-January 2008. All day, every day, all you saw was that plume of smoke rising out of the burn pit. It was worse at night, the smoke would settle on the ground like a thick fog. It would get so bad that it literally choked you. There was no relief from it; it would seep into our living quarters, making it difficult to sleep or even relax. You would blow your nose and get nothing but black nasty mucus, plus the wheezing, sinus problems, headaches and eye irritation.

It amazes me that officials say it’s not hazardous, yet somehow you mysteriously develop these problems after you get there. The officials need to do what they tell us: Suck it up — and take care of the troops who have been exposed.

I was stationed at Balad from January to June 2006. The burn pit was constantly burning — day and night. When we drove by it, everything imaginable was in there. Destroyed vehicles from IEDs to old Iraqi vehicles abandoned during the takeover. I worked 100 yards from the burn pit, and on any given night, if the wind blew the right way, we would step outside and walk into a fog of smoke and stench.

I never had migraines before deploying to Iraq, but I was in such pain there that one night I had to go to the hospital and get IVs for morphine and another medication so I would stop throwing up. Since then, I’ve had a few of the same type of headache, but not as bad. I received a copy of the memo for my medical records stating that the burn pit could cause adverse effects.

I was deployed to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti, for six months. During that time, our living units were about 50 yards from a burn pit. On the days after the nights when it was really bad, I couldn’t even taste the food I was eating, and I could still smell it —it was on my clothes and eventually saturated the walls and bed in my living quarters.

The report I was given when I left says there are no ill effects of exposure. It does outline what was burned, which was anything with the exception of ammunition and batteries.

A lot of us were waving the red flag while we were there, and nobody really seemed to care, nor do they now when I bring it up. I simply get the question, “Do you feel sick now?” Last I checked, long-term effects don’t appear a month after you get back.

This is a problem not only at Balad but also at Camp Al Taqaddum. During my tour there last year, I was a maintenance chief, and my Marines worked outside 24 hours a day. Most nights there would be soot or ash falling, and we would breathe this stuff in all night. I also recall many nights waking up in my little 6-by-8 plywood hooch thinking it was filled with smoke because the taste and the smell was so thick.

During the day, you could see usually two separate burns going at the same time with plumes of smoke so black we thought that an oil line was set ablaze. Many of us had the “crud” (hacking coughs, a lot of mucus) for most of the deployment, and like most, we had to suck it up and chalk it up to the environment we were in.

While deployed in Djibouti from September 2006 to March 2007, I was also exposed to smoke from an incinerator on a daily basis. The black, acrid smoke cloud would engulf the base almost every night. In March 2007, I suffered a collapsed lung just as my tour ended. Coincidence? I don’t know, but I made sure to include a reference to the smoke issue in my service record.

I was at Balad in 2007 and 2008, and the burn pit is the nastiest thing you can imagine. Constant black smoke billows out, and if there is no wind, it settles on the base like a thick fog in which you can’t breathe. I noticed headaches and sinus issues during my deployments there. Also, you can forget doing any sort of PT with the nasty air. Your lungs would burn if you tried to work out in that.

The constant smell and toxins it produces into the air must have some serious long-term effects on personnel. It’s a shame that the military says it’s not harmful.

While I was deployed to Camp Bucca, Iraq, in 2006 and 2007, I recall sitting in a tower or doing simple roving patrols around my compound and having to wear a mask to help with breathing. There would be a nasty haze floating over the camp; sometimes there were even reduced visibility warnings.

When I was deployed to Iraq last year, we had a burn pit about a mile from our forward operating base. That burn pit was no joke. The locals would throw in anything and everything imaginable. They also used dangerous chemicals, such as diesel fuel, to [burn] it. We had to don gas masks several times because the fumes were absolutely noxious and painful to your lungs. It constantly smelled like nail polish remover and ammonia.

My duties in air transportation placed me downwind from a burn pit. The smoke would often choke out our cargo grid yard for days at a time. I spent 12-plus hours a day, four to six days a week, for six months breathing black smoke that often made myself and others gag.

We could see in the burn pit not only plastics on the flames, but also old scrap metal such as tin and razor wire. Sometimes you could taste the metal in the smoke.

I’m experiencing problems with my lungs since about halfway through my deployment. The clinic told me I had a respiratory infection. However, my breathing problems are ongoing and the inhalers I have been prescribed provide only minimal relief. My run time for the 1½-mile run went from about 10½ minutes to 13:59 in six months.

Judging by the lack of improvement in my lungs, I am looking at a debilitating condition. My concern is my responsibility to maintain the Air Force standard for physical fitness and mission readiness. I cannot fill the requirements in my current condition and the doctors, while concerned, don’t have the background knowledge on what I was exposed to.

It’s a disgrace that the Air Force will not fully acknowledge the burn pits’ effects towards all the people who have served at Balad.

Where is the inspector general or investigation services? Is the Air Force planning on force shaping our own Bio/Health services so there will be less complaints brought up the chain?